Why Now is the Time to Sell if You Think Coronavirus Will Have a Negative Effect on the Market
For property sellers who are thinking of ‘waiting until this all blows over’, there are a couple of important things to consider.
Timescales
If you need to move or to get your property sold, we expect that the market will be affected for the whole of 2020 at least. The government is managing a ‘delay’ pattern for the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic at the time of writing, expecting a peak in summer 2020. Everything will not be tickety-boo immediately thereafter. If you are waiting for things to blow over, you might be waiting well into 2021.
It Might Get Considerably Worse – Lessons from 2008
We do know what market conditions look like right now. However, you never know what is around the corner.
Around April 2008, the property market in Edinburgh started to dip because of a lack of liquidity in the mortgage markets. Few people foresaw what would happen next. However, having seen it happen in the past, we would be foolish to ignore the lessons for the present.
People were trying to sell second-hand new build flats in early 2008 for £270,000 that they had bought for £250,000 in 2006. They were disappointed that they couldn’t achieve around £270,000. When it became apparent that this was a longer term trend, they took their properties off the market rather than sell for £240,000 or £250,000 to achieve a sale.
By 2010, those same flats were selling for £160,000 or £170,000. It took until 2017 for prices to be back to where they were in 2006.
You never know what is around the corner but you do know how things look right now. If you are not prepared to hang-onto your property for another 10 years, learn the lessons from 2008: now is always the best time to sell a property if you are not prepared to, or cannot afford to, hang onto it for several years to come.
Be Safe and Be Considerate
We have put in place a number of measures to protect the business, our staff and contractors, our clients and our customers during the coronavirus outbreak. For now, however, we are not advising anyone that the should not conduct or attend property viewings.
We do, however, recommend that everyone exercises the same common sense that they do in other aspects of their daily lives during the outbreak and that they make themselves fully aware of how to minimise risk not just to themselves but to everyone else.
For more information and guidance about how to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading Coronavirus, please check the following link to the NHS website.
If any of the following applies to you, please do not go ahead with a viewing, whether you are a viewer or a seller.
- You have been diagnosed with coronavirus;
- You have returned from any of the following Category 1 or Category 2 countries in the past 14 days;
- You are currently self-isolating;
- You are currently exhibiting any of the following symptoms: a high temperature or a new continuous cough.
We’re Here to Help
If you are thinking of buyer or selling your property, our expert team is here to talk you through the best approach to getting the best value in the current circumstances.
Call 0345 646 0208 (Option 1) today, email [email protected] or book a call back at a time that suits you by following this link
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