Can you put a house for sale during COVID-19 lockdown?

Can you put a house up for sale during COVID-19?

We get asked this question regularly as many people want to move, many already have their houses on the market and others have buy to let houses they would like to sell off.


The short answer is it will be very difficult to sell a house at the moment. From the start, photographers will not be able to photograph the house (if occupied) as it's not an essential job and they will not be able to observe social distancing. Secondly, even with all the virtual tours and online advertising, people like to visit houses and see them with their own eyes before offering on what is likely to be their biggest asset purchase. The regulations are clear that no face to face viewings are allowed to take place. Agents like us cannot physically show you the houses. Vendors themselves cannot and should not let you in to view their homes, no matter how desperate they are to sell.


Then consider even if you manage to get the offer and are "sold subject to contract"; are surveyors, valuers, bankers, solicitors for you, the other side and everyone else in the chain likely to be working smoothly to move your transaction along? There's a very slim chance that all the stakeholders will be working or working as efficiently as before.


Banks are not doing inhouse valuations, therefore doing lots of desktop valuations. Therefore they have restricted some loan products. Check with any mortgage broker about current lending criteria. Surveyors also cannot attend to do homebuyers surveys. Further, many solicitors firms are not progressing conveyancing that wasn't already at exchange stage when lockdown was announced. Also consider how you would move if by some miracle you manage to complete your house sale? It's not possible to observe social distancing whilst moving house. Also will that journey be considered an essential journey?


Our opinion from working throughout this lockdown period and observing what's been going on is that there is no point in trying to sell a family owned and occupied home at the moment. This is even more true if the value is such that a chain of family buyers would be involved. The transaction will not progress and all you will do is damage the marketing of your house. It would be a better strategy to get your virtual valuation done now, choose your agent, maybe even complete paperwork with them, and wait for lockdown to be over before putting your house on the market. You will sell your house quicker and actually be able to get the transaction to complete.


Right now, what's important is to protect the health and the safety of you, your family, us, the valuers, surveyors, solicitors, removals guys and all their families. The government has said that house-moving is not essential and estate agents are not key businesses that should be allowed to re-open soon.

However, if there is a vacant buy to let house involved, the chances improve for selling it during lockdown. It is possible that another buy to let investor will buy it purely off virtual tours and that they may pay cash, hence removing the need for valuers or surveyors. Also such buy to let investors have longstanding solicitor relationships which mean those solicitors are likely to not want to let the investor down. As no housemoving is involved, we are seeing many vacant buy to let houses actually sell and complete during COVID-19. Just be aware that this is obviously only a small segment of the housing market. Also, these types of transactions may only be taking place because of discounts on the house price being offered.


So let's all do our preparations online and wait for lockdown to be lifted to get the housing market moving again! If you have a vacant property to sell, there is more hope in getting something done now.

Give us a ring on 01782 478444 if you'd like to discuss the housing market trends or if you have any concerns about house values.

Ramona Hirschi
Managing Director