More than 1,000 readers responded to a Property Industry Eye poll yesterday which sought to find out what agencies are doing about opening back up for business and how people feel about the reopening of the housing market.
In a starkly damning result, almost 56% of the readers who took part believe that, in the context of Covid-19, it is unsafe for the government to have reopened the market.
27% said they do consider it safe to have reopened; and 17% ‘don’t know’.
The Government updated its home buying and selling guidance on Wednesday, asking agents to favour virtual viewings initially but stating that sales could be progressed.
Branches can reopen and physical viewings can take place as long as social distancing measures are followed.
65% of respondents said their branches will be open by the end of May.
35% said they will not be open by then.
There may be some correlation between the numbers considering the opening of the market to be unsafe and those who are choosing to wait a while before reopening their branches.
Judging by the comments to be seen in the pages of EYE this week, it is clear that a significant proportion of people are choosing to play it safe in their judgement and hold back from getting back to business.
In response to whether agents will be using physical viewings or virtual viewings, 54% will do physical and 46% virtual. Some of these agents will be using a combination of both.
Protecting staff and customers is a priority for the overwhelming majority of respondents.
91% of staff will be provided with personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and gel in the workplace and for use during appointments.
That does leave a 9% proportion who will not be making PPE provision.
The sentiment of the poll is clearly cautious and safety-conscious.
There is bound to be a certain nervousness about returns to work after 7 weeks of lockdown and continuing uncertainties about where the pandemic is heading.
We will run a similar poll in a couple of weeks or so to see whether readers are feeling more comfortable about going to back to work.
For now employers need to be sensitive to the fact that many of their staff and colleagues have concerns that the opening of the housing market has happened too soon.
Context would be knowing the percentage of respondants who are financially liable for the business Vs thee number who are employees on furlough.
After that, context would be knowing how many respondants have been touched by C19.
The list can go on, and on.
How about a Poll asking ‘on a scale of one to ten, how relieved are you that the market can re-open?’
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It’s only unsafe if people don’t use their heads and common sense.
Assess every situation before you attend, ask all the right questions and work out for yourself before going to that appointment wether you can carry it out or not?
We can slowly get back into the swings of things with correct procedures and safety.
I really don’t know why so many people are complaining about this when all I heard was people wanting to be back open!
The only person who is going to put your employees or you at risk is YOU.
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Did you expect people on 0% pay for doing nothing to vote for a return to work ?
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Did you mean 80 – 100%?
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I meant 80%
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I meant 80%
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Most owner directors will have made a profit over the last two months – money coming in and almost all costs covered by landlords deferrals, furlough payments, grant aid etc etc
When the unemployment figures bite after furlough across the whole economy the market will tank, agents will lose their jobs and income, they will leave RM (another story), and only those with the deepest pockets will survive until next Spring.
A recession is a recession is a recession – it’s coming, its actually really never gone away, but it will come back at some point………..
Good luck everyone – sincerely
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Businesses with lettings yes but only temporarily, I doubt these schemes would have greatly benefited sales focused businesses (revenue reliant on those sales that were deemed ‘non essential’). Your view (100% agree) is that unemployment will soar after furlough due to recession and Covid. What happens when people aren’t supported by ‘free money’? Their less likely to pay their rent which is why it’s only a temporary benefit to letting agents unless they have the foresight of what’s to come.
Good luck to you too!
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The new industry and consumer guidance issued a couple of days ago may reassure some people. If you don’t have a copy, and would like one: https://www.boldgroup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FINAL-Industry-Covid-19-guide-with-consumer-guide-logos-and-acknowledgement-13-05-2020-16-44.pdf
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Well the good news for the ones that feel it is unsafe is its hardly going to be busy.
Most offices will be quiet until there is confidence back in the market and that could be a good number of months, possibly even years.
Careful what you wish for.
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Turkeys voting for Christmas I wonder how the vote would have gone if people at home were on unpaid leave for 8 weeks?
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Let’s hope people actually voted in relation to the question then.. Pay or not if you know someone whose had this and really not been well then anyone would think seriously about it.
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Irresponsible headline for a property news blog.
I honestly despair if our own industry news pages are going to put out headlines like this that our staff and the general populace can see.
There were 24 new cases in London yesterday. 24. If we stay locked down much longer there won’t be a market to come back to, which means no estate agents and no Property Eye. I’d rethink about how you present such information in the future and as someone mentioned above, you’d have very different answers if the furlough scheme wasn’t in place / a distinction for business owners vs staff being paid to sit at home or even better now, sunbathe down the park!
Having made my office COVID compliant yesterday and conducted two valuations, I can say without doubt that I feel safer at work than I do going around Sainsbury’s.
350 or so people under 45 have died ‘with COVID’ since this began and half of them had underlying health issues. Lockdown the vulnerable and let the rest of us get back to work so we don’t have a major depression on our hands and actually have jobs and businesses to come back to.
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Purplepatchy … would that be a self emplyed LPE with PB left out in the cold with no furlough etc?
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Incorrect. I run a 3 branch agency in the Midlands.
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Totally agree with you.
I hate to say, but I really do think that staff have been enjoying their 80% paid holiday a little too much. I have been working throughout lockdown so doesn’t effect me, and actually we have been busy with virtual viewings and people have been offering! Of all my estate agency friends I contacted regarding coming off furlough, there was 0% who were happy about this 🙂 they properly took part in the survey conducted by Property Eye.
We have a job to do, we have to help the economy grow again, there is a lot of activity out there and it is easy to conduct business safely! The virus is NOT going away so hiding at home is not doing anyone any good and only damaging the economy further – so lets get on with it!
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It is truly (as already said) all about common sense.
How is the virus transferred? Touch and close proximity. If both of these are avoided, then it should be fine.
The risk, for me, is not with places reopening whilst maintaining social distancing, it is the getting to work, on possibly crowded trains and buses.
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The WHO’s chief scientist said the other day that it will be 4 or 5 years before Covid-19 is under control. She also questioned whether an effective vaccine could be developed as the virus might mutate.
What are you going to do? Sit in your garden for the next few years and or go work using your common sense? All my staff and their family members, have been provided with sanitisers, face masks and full face plastic shields, gloves, non contact infrared thermometers (and oximeters case they get ill to measure their oxygen levels). All above are now in much greater supply now if you go on the internet.
I agree that it is not sensible to go back to your shop but you can still work from your home and car and it is reasonably safe to do physical viewings and surveys providing you have the right equipment and following social distancing rules. Most of you are happy to go to supermarkets and B&Q and be served by their staff.
For those that want to sit in their garden, I hope you or your boss have substantial financial reserves. Furloughing won’t last forever.
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Yay. 100% Furlough relief, then freeze on all bills and yes, sit in the garden for 3 years… because to be quite honest…. my fecking pants don’t fit me and shorts n flip floops are not the look for the office I learnt yesterday
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What this period has really shown is how outdated most estate agents are. I mean, opening up High Street offices that nobody visits anyway? Errr hello ??? The whole notion of six negotiators sitting in a shop drinking coffee with happy buyers anxiously lapping up the drivel is like something from a 1990s sitcom. Estate agents need to face the fact that they could have most of their staff are working from home anyway, and the ones who do go out will need to take appropriate precautions – just as everyone in the ambulance service does every day – it’s called a mask, gloves and hand gel. I think the big problem most estate agency bosses will have with reopening is the fact that they don’t want to have to pay their staff again when they can just leave them on furlough. This whole thing just goes to show what a bad business model most estate agents are running in the first place if they can’t survive a few months whilst protecting the workers who paid for their big houses.
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And what your comment shows is how little you know about the estate agency business.
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if 35 years in the trade means knowing nothing then fine by me.
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What’s that old tongue-twister poem?
I am an agent knocker,
And an agent knocker’s son,
And I’ll keep on knocking agents
Till my knocking days are done.
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Hanging my head with hands over my face (after sanitising) – what an utter ridiculous comment itsgreatupnorth
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Is an estate agency boss, in their big house, not affected by lockdown? If so, would it not be in their interest to reopen their business? Before lockdown, their exchange was money for productivity with a result of revenue (for the sound business). Those that have chosen to furlough staff – zero exchange of money for productivity = no revenue. How do you think an estate agency boss pays for their big house?
I do agree that it’s always more prudent to have some sort of savings for a rainy day, but if you’re going to criticise estate agent bosses then you may as well go to town on the millions of people across the UK that haven’t saved for such an event either. Personally, I think it’s unfair to critique them all when the system (set by the government) rewards spending and debt and penalises those that save.
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so have you re opened and if not when are you planning on doing so ?
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I never said we closed 😉
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Troll.
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An LPE.
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Nobody that stupid in the North
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Been open for three days, partial staff on site with some working from home. All good – common sense with H&S.
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Any Poll is only a snapshot of those who choose to respond. We don’t know their background/circumstances or motivation.
In reality we have had approaching 2 months training of how to move forward.
Time to get back to work ….safely goes without saying.
If the NHS all sat at home …….just think of the outcome.
This will be with us for months, and some experts say several years ……so, we just need to accept that and move forward.
We all have to share responsibility to get society/business functioning.
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Yesterday we had an interesting discussion and I respect. Today I had a discussion with someone who raised this point … Democracey.
Boris lost 3 to 1 with home nations.
Is there now a concern that in Scotland that second referendum is more likely to be higher up the agenda and that if the other nations can afford, may follow? Boris has gone it alone regardless if he is right.
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Difficult one for me woodentop ……I’m Scottish to the core however I firmly believe in a United Kingdom. I have no requirement to paint a Saltire on my face and shout “Down with the English” …….never my thing, nor would it be.
Likewise religion, in my home town of Glasgow….. Rangers v Celtic and Protestant v Catholic …….just not my thing. When I was in the Police I was shunned by some for standing up for a Catholic Colleague, and I am Protestant …….I dealt with being shunned for months …….and the great thing was, I was/am Protestant, and entitled to stand-up for whoever I liked.
Democracy wears different faces, is interpreted differently. In this C19 mess …….for me, it’s the Government Guidance digested and then mixed in with Common Sense. I think pandemic wise Scotland is behind England and indeed less affected so we will follow in a few weeks.
More than ever …..for me ……we need a UNITED Kingdom, by all means some devolved powers and that applies through Regions in England I would have thought.
Whether one believes in Monarchy, The Queen etc ……I see that The Queen brings a “steady hand” when others seem adrift. I don’t know what follows The Queen’s departure.
Boris? ……he is Boris Brexit perhaps however he’s not Prime Minister material. Nicola Sturgeon? ……it’s like my Mother speaking to me, in a good way ……if she dropped Independence I would vote for her. Every day she has stood up in front of Scotland, Boris however …….where does he disappear to? If ever a Nation needed a “Shining Torch” it’s now …….Boris however seems part-time PM.
I yield to another’s musings……
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What’s all this about ‘Safe’? The Lockdown was never about Safe, it was to make sure the hospitals could cope with a rush in demand.was to ‘flatten the curve’.
The curve is now so flat you could put lemon and sugar on it and eat it.
The NHS was never actually under threat, at the busiest period 40% of critical care beds were empty. Now? Goodness knows – 75%? It’s behaving just like a Bad Flu. It-Is-Not-A-Plague.
167,000 die each year from cardiovascular disease. 170,000 from cancers. We have had up to 50,000 excess deaths from seasonal flus in the current generation. Please, let’s have a sense of perspective on this bat-flu.
Now, the WHO is perpetuating the fear by saying it will never go away. No s**t Sherlock, no virus ever ‘goes away’, and when they do come back they have mutated so as to make any vaccine redundant. But it is totally irresponsible to frighten the world like they are doing. Ignore them, they have vested financial interests in producing a vaccine.
Viruses are part of Life, there are 1,000s of them, some worse than others. I just wish someone had the cajones to stand up and shout this from the rooftops. Let’s just get back to work, please.
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Based on this poll, your views are of the minority (regardless of their validity) and the majority want to continue to oppress you.
Yay for democracy!
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Gets my vote, first world problem is that latex gloves are gash with phones…..
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WOW. Breathtaking level of indifference even though 50k are dead, and if this was not contained that would have spread to 1m within 12 months. But you are entitled to your views. You want to run your business. Well, don’t mean to whoosh on your parade but …. about 80% of the public don’t want to move right now, and that may not change for a couple of years or so. War chest needed. And a deep one, for us all.
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I wonder how many objectors to poll result are really self employed unable to get assistance?
The most prudent risk assessment is when we have full and regular testing (Quote Government scientist: A test is only valid for the day of test) with full track and trace. As proven by many other countries.
Boris wants tests at 200,000 a day at the and of this month!
Track and Trace is coming but England has made an unnecessary false start by not waiting and for a couple more weeks.
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…….I just imagine a Bar Code Tattooed to my forehead and being tracked/traced everywhere I go 🙂
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If only it was that simple, lol.
The news has just released that the R value had reduced to 0.4 in London but not the rest of the country and it would appear that Cities in the North West and North East are furious at London model is being used to open up all of England as they are still hovering around R1 (Gateshead say they are R1.1. and Liverpool R0.9). However they have also announced that Government Scientists are now saying R is rising back towards R1 for the UK. South Wales is just below R1 while North Wales is R1.1 according to one politician. Haven’t heard what Scotlands R is.
I still contest that lockdown was relaxed a couple of weeks too early, when the rest of the country was not ready. Everyone needs to be below R 0.5 and that probably answers your question yesterday, when the risk maybe acceptable.
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Cripes. Glad some of the people on here don’t work for the NHS.
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if they did they would have sold it years ago ! lol hahahahah
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