It has been 3 weeks since the housing market was re-opened after seven weeks in lockdown and there are already positive signs of growth. Property Portal Rightmove reported its busiest day on record on Wednesday 27th May, with more than six million visitors, which was an 18% increase compared to the same Wednesday a year ago.
Yianni Aresti, Founder and Lettings Director at David Astburys Estate Agency in Crouch End said, “We have experienced a surge in enquiries since the housing market was given the green light to reopen. Restrictions on movement throughout April meant that most tenants decided to stay put and placed their moves on hold, they are now ready to get going.”
With the changes to the Governments advice announced around moving home, activity in the rental market has rebounded quickly. Estate Agencies like David Astburys reported having registered 12% more applicants so far this month compared with the same period last year.
According to Rightmove the number of full property details being viewed on the portal recovered from its 35% drop during full lockdown and is now 2% up on the same period last year.
There has undoubtably been an economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis and the first signs of that were revealed last week. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of people claiming Universal Credit or jobseeker’s allowance in April went up by 856,500 to 2.1 million, a 69% month-on-month increase.
But it isn’t just those newly unemployed people who have been affected. The total number of hours the average person works each week fell to the lowest level in over a decade.
According to the Resolution Foundation, young people are most likely to have lost work or seen their income drop because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than one in three 18 to 24-year-olds is earning less than they were before the outbreak, many of whom would be renters or first-time buyers saving up to purchase a home.
But despite this, data shows that first-time buyers are leading the increase in demand. In April, first-time buyers made up 44% of those searching for a property to buy, up from 24% in the same month last year.

Community

David Astburys Estate Agency in Crouch End made it a focus to help their Greek and Cypriot clients and Landlords during the lockdown by ensuring that their properties were occupied and fully managed whilst following the Government Safety Guidelines.
Yianni Aresti, Founder and Lettings Director said, “We have helped many Greek and Cypriot Landlords find tenants during this very difficult time of uncertainty and lockdown. We made it our focus in this very challenging time to show our commitment to our clients and the community and that’s one of the reasons why we believe we are the best in business.”
The founders of the agency were all born and raised in North London and are personally embedded in the community.
George Sifonios, Managing Director at David Astburys Estate Agency said, “It has been personally very hard to see how many Greek and Cypriot lives have been lost during this pandemic and as a result of COVID-19. We have lost friend and family members and we feel the pain of our community and feel it is part of our civic duty to try and help in any way we can.”