The buoyant housing market has shown no signs of abating in the post-Christmas period, despite rapidly rising coronavirus cases and a new lockdown.
Yomodel’s latest property sentiment tracker shows new enquiries to estate agents increased in the post-Christmas period (the week ending 3 January) with increased activity from vendors, buyers, landlords and tenants.
The research shows the number of vendors were up by 63 per cent in this period, when compared to the last full week before Christmas (the w/e 22 December).
The number of buyers rose by 73 per cent, while there was a 19 per cent increase in landlord enquiries and a 40 per cent increase from tenants. Yomodel says this shows “exceptional demand” in the market, despite the record activity in the second half of 2020.
However Yomodel says that these figures come with a “note of caution” given the worsening health crisis and the deadline of March 31 for homebuyers looking to benefit from the government’s stamp duty holiday.
It says that with people unwilling or unable to have face-to-face meetings with agents, the shift online shows every sign of accelerating further when it comes to property transactions.
The number of visitors to own-branded estate agent websites was 8 per cent up on the same week last year, while the number of people engaging in real-time live chat online was 14 per cent higher, and the number of leads being generated some 31 per cent higher.
Yomodel founder and CEO Andy Soloman says: “This is a tough market to call, but the strength of new enquiries between Christmas and New Year is incredible.
“In the week between Christmas and New Year, a time when many agents simply shut, we have seen people champing at the bit to get moving, and around 60 per cent of those enquiries also came outside of standard business hours.”
He adds that with tighter Covid restrictions a digital presence for estate agents is absolutely key for building relationships with prospective and existing customers.”
Yomdel provides 24/7 managed live chat services to 3,800 estate agent offices in the UK, handling more than a 1.5m chats per year.
