Demand for property rises as Scotland prepares for the relaxation of restrictions on house moves
On Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the restrictions on house moves would be relaxed on 29th June. From this date, activities such as in person property viewings and house moves may go ahead subject to the necessary health and safety precautions.
We await further guidelines from the Scottish Government on this and will share this information in due course.
Rising demand for property following the announcement
The day after the announcement, ESPC noted the highest number of viewing requests seen in a single day so far in 2020. On Friday, the volume of Home Report and schedule downloads were also at the highest level they’ve been since mid- March, prior to lockdown.
Last week was also the first week since mid-March that ESPC has seen a year-on-year increase in web traffic sessions. The volume of viewing and valuation requests generated last week also significantly exceeded the same week of last year.
Strong start to 2020 for the property market impacted by COVID-19
At the start of the year before lockdown, web traffic had been significantly up year-on-year, as had valuation requests, viewing requests and Home Report downloads. Due to lockdown restrictions put in place towards the end of March, these fell to volumes much lower than usual for this time of year.
However, viewing and valuation requests, Home Report and schedule downloads and web traffic have been growing for a number of weeks now, and it appears that the First Minister’s announcement has further boosted demand for property in Scotland.
Healthy supply of buyers and sellers ready to come to market
Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, said: “The notable increase in viewing and valuation requests, Home Report and schedule downloads highlights the growing demand for property in Scotland. The spike we noticed on Friday suggests that the announcement on Thursday about the restrictions being relaxed on 29th June also had an impact and boosted buyer interest.
“We believe there is a healthy supply of buyers and sellers ready to come to market in the next few weeks once the restrictions are relaxed.
“While there are still uncertain times ahead of us with regards to the Scottish property market and economy, we are hopeful that the strong demand for property evident in the first two months of 2020 and the rising demand noted in the past several weeks will help to foster a stable recovery.”
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