Dear all,

It has been quiet on the news front this week, so I thought I’d delve into some commentary and research that’s out there about the residential property market.

Figure 1 below shows that browsing of residential property hit its lowest point on 4 April and as at 10 May had increased by 31%. Demand for residential property hit its lowest point on 1 April and then substantially increased by 113% as at 10 May. Figure 2 shows that
in response to the UK Government announcement on 13 May about the housing market being able to resume activity, browsing increased 10% in one day. Scotland’s housing market will resume activity on 18 June, which is expected to add further fuel to browsing activity.

WORKING FROM HOME AND “WHAT’S NEXT FOR FLEX”

According to the UK Office for National Statistics around one in 20 workers did their jobs mainly from home in December 2019. Will Gosling from Deloitte believes the pandemic has brought about a ‘five year acceleration’ of a trend that was already underway: it has shown that working from home is feasible and has made it more acceptable.

Some interesting insights about the shift to flexible working spaces were gained from last weeks webinar by Colliers International. Serendipity Labs, a provider of flexible workspaces said 40% of their current enquiries were Covid-19 related. WeWork one of the larger providers, who currently have 350 million square feet in 828 locations globally shared a similar insight saying that they have seen the biggest change in demand for flex space due to Covid-19.

This upward trend of number of people working from home and greater amount of flexible workspaces (upon materialisation of more enquiries), no doubt gives form to a changing built environment. In the residential property space, there may be different considerations made at the design and planning level in order to meet working from home needs, such as providing at least one study room. There may be an increase in demand for properties further out from the city centre as people don’t need to worry as much about commuting to their city centre workplaces and can enjoy perhaps a larger house with a more spacious backyard in a newly development precinct.
PROPERTY POW WOW (Featuring our very own Colin Macmillan)
Every week Portolio, a company who sell tenanted property in Glasgow and Edinburgh, put on a ‘Pow Wow’ live Facebook event where they speak to professionals in the property industry. Colin Macmillan gave some interesting and knowledgeable insights. You can view the video here: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=portilio%20pow%20wow

CITYLETS QUARTERLEY REPORT (extract written by Colin Macmillan)
Featuring in CityLets latest quarterly report Colin notes, “The PRS has taken a comprehensive hit since lockdown kicked in, but we have adapted to new ways of carrying out business in these very difficult times. Where we previously relied on personal interaction with landlords and tenants alike, we are now living in a virtual world with video viewings, and video calls and meetings will no doubt become the norm going forward! Most landlords appreciate the position that their tenants are in and are very sympathetic but also ultimately realise that without them they have no revenue stream or business.”

Hope you all make the most of your weekend and take care!

Kindest Regards

Sarah Harris
Lettings Negotiator

Glasgow Property Letting Ltd
17 Elmbank Street
Glasgow
G2 4PB

0141 221 3990

Registration number LARN1903009
VAT : 174415411
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