The Conveyancing Association has called on the Welsh government to go “further and faster” with easing lockdown restrictions on the housing market.

Yesterday the First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford allowed a partial reopening of the housing market, but the trade body for conveyancers has urged Welsh policymakers to bring protocols in line with those introduced in England on May 13.

• In Wales all house moves can go ahead where the residential property has been vacant for at least 72 hours.  
• House moves can take place where a sale has been agreed but not yet completed
• The marketing and viewing of unoccupied residential property can take place.
• Valuations and inspections of occupied residential property are allowed but should be done so safely and in line with the Welsh government’s guidance on working in someone’s home.

However, the Welsh government has said that house moves where the residential property is occupied are still not able to go ahead. 

Estate agents can market these properties but are only allowed to carry out virtual viewings. 

These rules in Wales are set to be reviewed in three weeks.

The Conveyancing Association argues this will put the Welsh property market a full two months behind England and have a damaging impact on its members, estate agencies and other property businesses. 

Recent figures from property market analyst TwentyCi show new instructions and properties sold subject to contract are both well in advance of 2019 levels 

In the third week of June, both measures were up by 15 per cent on 2019 with 36,793 new property listings and 29,383 sold subject to contract cases. 

By contrast, the Welsh housing market is running at far below 2019 levels. In the first three weeks of June, new instructions were 40 per cent lower than the same period in 2019 at 2,387, while properties sold subject to contract were 51 per cent down at 1,337.

Conveyancing Association operations director Lloyd Davies says: “The English housing market has now benefited from having been open for over six weeks longer than its Welsh counterpart, and it seems clear that for every day the Welsh government takes its current piecemeal approach, the Welsh property market, all stakeholders, consumers and the entire Welsh economy will continue to suffer.

“We understand why the Welsh government is adopting a cautious approach to the Covid-19 pandemic but there are incredibly tight protocols in place for English properties which keep all parties as safe as possible, and there is a real danger by not adopting these, and going further and faster than its current approach, that the impact on Welsh housing market stakeholders will be even more devastating. 

“In an environment where people are able to shop freely – albeit with social distancing in place – it seems odd that the housing market cannot be opened up beyond an ability to view and sell unoccupied properties. 

“The recent guidance for consumers, property professionals and conveyancing firms, fully supported by the CA, was drafted to ensure that this doesn’t need to be the case and, as the English market’s experience shows us, the positive impact has been significant.

“At present, and even with this partial reopening, we are well behind the English market, and with any new transactions likely to take 16 weeks to complete, the impact on the Welsh economy to be able to restart effectively will be damaged severely. 

“Plus, the ability to complete Welsh transactions is going to be difficult because many Welsh conveyancing firms are still not functioning effectively because of lockdown.

“In this situation, a softly-softly approach is not sufficient and we would urge the Welsh government to learn the lessons of what is happening over the border, the benefits it can bring, and to implement a similar approach before the damage becomes even greater.”

A spokeswoman for the Welsh government says: “House moves can take place if the sale or tenancy has been agreed but not yet completed and if the property is unoccupied and has been empty for at least three days or has been deep cleaned. 

“Conveyancers, estate agents and removers are able to operate as long as social distancing measures are maintained, no one in the household is shielding or are displaying symptoms as per our guidance.

“The coronavirus regulations are in place in Wales to protect the health of people living and working in Wales and to reduce the spread of the virus. “They are reviewed every 21 days, in line with the law, and based on the latest scientific and medical evidence. 

“Changes will be made when it is safe to do so. 

“Our focus is on protecting people’s health and saving lives.”