A surge in rental activity has encouraged a London-focussed agency to un-furlough some of its staff ahead of an expected relaxation in lockdown restrictions.
Over the past week Chestertons has seen a 28 per cent increase in requests to view its rental properties and has brought a number of lettings staff back to work – working from home - to cope with the high volume of new tenants registering and the demand for virtual viewings.
Its sales leads has also increased by around 17 per cent over the same period.
“There has been a steady flow of new tenants registering and doing virtual viewing with us in the weeks since lock-down, but over the past week there has definitely been a sharp uplift in the number of enquiries and the number of tenancies which we have been able to agree” explains Richard Davies, the agency’s head of lettings.
“We have also noticed an increased sense of urgency from the tenants, many of whom are keen to make offers and move as soon as possible, but mindful of following government guidance regarding home moves” he adds.
“It’s also clear that more landlords are now bringing their properties to the market, or at least preparing to do so, as we witnessed a 28 per cent increase in virtual market appraisals and a 24 per cent increase in lettings instructions in the third week of April, compared to the second week.”
Meanwhile the company’s managing director, Guys Gittins, says the first staff to return to work from furlough are lettings negotiators in areas of especially high demand, including Fulham, Islington and South Kensington.
“We hope to bring more back over the coming weeks in anticipation of a very busy summer for lettings” he says.
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Who are they moving in? No one is allowed to move unless a BENCHMARK is set. Homes unfit for human habitation, domestic abuse or essential workers. This is total BS and putting people at risk.
Not so, its very easy for people to move, I have my own inventory business and have been doing move ins and outs completely inline with government guidelines, tenants are only present to hand over or collect keys all of which is done at a distance, they are not present for the inventory itself. We have a duty to carry on working where we can, there won't be an economy to comeback to otherwise.
I understand why Chestertons would come out with this PR, makes sense to talk a market into activity, but these arent big numbers however you measure. A 28% increase in almost none, is a fraction more than almost none. I saw a national survey result last week showing that 60% of people will change very little about their behaviour when the lockdown ends. I dont think we will see a surge in much in the coming weeks whether lettings, of any other industry. With a rising mortality rate in the UK, now up to 15% from 13% last week, most of the people I speak to or read about are going to keep their heads down over the summer just to avoid getting contaminated, and I would have thought Londoners even more so, albeit I speculate there. If people do rush out in droves to get back to normality as they suggest, there will be a second much bigger wave, and many scientists say thats actually likely to happen in any case, as hoping we could snuff this out to 0 carriers whilst theoretically possible, would be like betting on horse in the Grand National with 3 legs, the odds are that long.
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