How will COVID-19 change buyer behaviour?

So we have been in lockdown now since 23rd March and slowly adjusting to working from home, having Z...

So we have been in lockdown now since 23rd March and slowly adjusting to working from home, having Zoom meetings with colleagues and customers, on-line family quizzes, 1 hour daily exercise or walks and learning to be teach our children. The question is, how could all this affect the way we move home in the future?

There are traditionally a number of reasons why people move home including death, divorce, job transfer, moving to a larger home for a growing family or perhaps downsizing once the children have moved out.

I believe there is a new reason that will become much more normal over the coming months and years and that is a lifestyle change. Previously very few moved for this reason.

Will buyers move away from Cities?

This very much depends on who you are. For a young professional with high earnings, living and working in a city would be very attractive and for often a dream. However, for a young family, the opposite could be true and wanting to move further away, where crime rates are lower and property more affordable and this market has been very dominant locally for a number of years now.

So in reality, this has been happening for years and in my opinion, this will accelerate over the next 12 months or so. One aspect which has kept many homeowners firmly in London has been the ease of commute to work, with many not wishing to compromise on commute/leisure time. Now however this could change completely. Many will perhaps be working from home the majority of the week and perhaps only need to go into the office once or twice a week. Social distancing will almost certainly mean this is going to happen in a huge number of offices. A very good friend of mine is now looking to move to Dorset as he only needs to go into London once a week and is desperate for a lifestyle change for him and his family. Who can blame him! Homeworking certainly is here to stay and moving away from a city will be an exciting prospect for many.

Will we see more people up-sizing or downsizing after this?

If there is one thing for certain, lockdown has concentrated our minds. Last week I took a call from a buyer asking if I had anything coming onto the market for around £600,000. He is living in a flat in London with his wife and two children and this period has highlighted the fact he needs a house and garden for his children to play in, he knew this before but now his motivation has increased dramatically. He obviously falls into the up-sizing bracket.

There will be many also at home thinking that they have far too much space which constantly needs to be cleaned and maintained and they will be thinking about moving to something more manageable. However, this market is generally much slower to make a decision as they are often in no hurry to move and don’t know where they should move to and so the research phase takes much longer.

My feeling is that we will see an influx of buyers looking to find larger homes within a few weeks of restrictions being lifted. Those potential downsizers will certainly been thinking about it but perhaps not quite ready to make a move just yet, only time will tell.

What else could we see?

There are a few things that have crossed my mind and perhaps we may see a few new trends emerging.

The first one is that I wonder if people with elderly relatives living a long way away, will now be thinking they need to be closer on hand to help out. This has always been a reason to move for a few but perhaps we will see the numbers in this sector of the market increase dramatically over the next few months.

Also, for those young people perhaps living with parents or flat sharing this period may have highlighted the need to find their own space and moving further away to a cheaper area maybe a way of achieving this.

In conclusion it really is very difficult to know how this will change the behaviour of buyers. After all, we have short memories and this may all be forgotten about in a years time and life returns to exactly how it was. I suspect that this actually be unlikely and many of us will make changes and adjustments to the way we live.

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest blog and if you have any comments or would like any help or advice, then do get in touch via email hadley@parkandbailey.co.uk or give me a call on 020 8763 8060