At times like this the tendency may be to say: concentrate on looking after yourself. But we all know, were we to do this, we’d be storing up trouble in future. It is natural to worry about ourselves, our families, our jobs, our mortgages, but we can’t afford to be purely introspective.

Within the mortgage and housing markets, that’s just not possible. We rely on other professions and, crucially, we rely on other people being able to continue to do their job, otherwise we can’t do ours.

This interconnectivity is a positive quality of the market in normal times but, if one part of the chain collapses, it’s very difficult to work cases through the system. The big challenge right now is to ensure that doesn’t happen, and I’ve been very impressed by the contingency plans put in place by most firms.

Of course, we benefit from our ability to work on by utilising the technology available to us and, as I’ve heard said recently, if these events don’t show the true benefits of the digital approach to mortgages, conveyancing, surveying and the like, nothing will. From our perspective, we’ve been able to look after our staff’s needs while ensuring that, should we need to close our office, they are all able to work from home and/or remotely.

I know many advisers already do this or have begun to do it, and again this ability to tap in to the technology, and move to phone and email communication rather than face to face, should ensure business keeps flowing.

The type of business is up for debate. Purchase instructions continue to come in so the notion that no purchase activity can be completed in the months ahead is patently nonsense.

Although remortgage and product transfers may remain the mainstay of our market for some time, the ability to offer, fund and complete on purchases is still there, and advisers with these cases should be confident in their ability to process them on behalf of clients.

This is clearly not a normal situation but we will work as if it is, and come out the other end in as strong a position as possible.

Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing