BREAKING NEWS – 5 top stories 21/12/2020

MENTAL WELL BEING

Following the cancelled Christmas, which has understandably shaken agents and their loved ones, a new report has focused on the need for real estate companies to ‘keep connected’ to their employees, especially as WFH has become for many a default proposition.

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE – TRENDS

Depending on where you sit and what you own, the commercial real estate scene in the UK is an interesting one. The pandemic has seen a rash of CVA’s where payment plans are agreed and put in place to hopefully allow the tenant and the landlord weather the storm, but as the Arcadia group has shown, this strategy can often flounder.

Conversely as retail is quickly going from instore to online, or DTS – deliver to store a hybrid model, there have been winners and losers too, with a great need for warehousing in strategically located positions, ideal for new supply lines.

The typical high street also may well see even more residential units taking over from the famous brands doomed by the new agile onliners.

MOVING HOME – KEEP SAFE

Whilst it is clear that agents if they follow healthcare/government guidelines can continue as before, those who are physically moving in or out of properties, end of tenancies, completion day moves etc, need to be mindful of the latest government directive issued two days ago, ‘ You can still move home. People outside your household or support bubble should not help with moving house unless absolutely necessary. Estate and letting agents and removals firms can continue to work.’

BORIS – GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OR JUST RHETORIC

Just a month ago – our Prime Minister set out his vision of the future – in a ten-point plan that would have deep consequences for the property industry, he touched upon offshore wind power, hydrogen, nuclear, electric vehicles, and ‘Making homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient, whilst creating 50,000 jobs by 2030, and a target to install 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028.’

Recent soundings are now questioning if we have the necessary skill sets in the varies categories under Boris’s scrutiny to deliver on these laudable targets.

ZOOPLA – VIEW OF 2021 HOUSING MARKET

Whilst Richard Donnell Director of Research & Insight for ZPG feels that come the end of 2021, there is likely to be around 1.1M completions – the typical level of completions on average for the past few years in the UK, he also states,

“The ‘once-in-a-lifetime re-assessment of housing’ kickstarted by the pandemic has further to run in our view and this will support demand into 2021… With a long Christmas weekend, and many households isolating in smaller groups, we expect interest in housing to be stronger than usual ahead of the traditional Boxing Day bounce, when interest in housing jumps.”

But and this may well be the kicker he also adds, ‘“Economic pressures are already impacting in parts of the market, reducing the volume and share of sales in less wealthy areas, for example.”

If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at [email protected] – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.