"We think it will take several months or more for the market to find its feet in this new unsteady world."
Pre-lockdown sales agreed in the year to 23rd March were 11% up on the same period last year, but Rightmove says statistics after this date on the number of properties coming to market, new asking prices,and new sales agreed are "not meaningful".
Visits to Rightmove fell by around 40% at the time of the lockdown announcement, but has now started to recover slowly across the last week as homeowners research their plans for the future.
Additionally, existing sellers are staying on the market, with the total available stock for sale down just 2.6% since the lockdown measures were introduced.
Rightmove says most sellers already on the market, and those with a sale already agreed, appear to be continuing with their plans to move once it has been deemed safe enough to do so.
In its Index, released today, Rightmove said: "You do not have a functioning market when buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell, and so the focus needs to be on what is required to help the market recover once the lockdown can safely be eased."
To 'kick-start the market again', Rightmove says a continuation of mortgage lending will need to continue on the same terms as before the lockdown, aided by government incentives such as a stamp duty holiday and an extension of Help to Buy to encourage moving.
Rightmove says lenders need to keep offering low deposit mortgages, show forbearance to those in arrears, and "do not rush to repossess, leading to forced sales".
After the end of the full lockdown, Rightmove says the market needs a plan to overcome potential buyers’ and sellers’ new-found caution, and to cope with the need to maintain social distancing during visits for marketing, viewing, valuing and surveying.
Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, commented: “Agents report that there is good co-operation, with both buyers and sellers keen to hold deals together. While some buyers may express concern over the possibility of short-term dips in house prices, many are taking the longer-term view and living up to their commitments to proceed. This is being helped by mortgage lenders extending the life of existing mortgage offers by three months, and new legal rules on flexible completion dates.
“Owners need to be encouraged to move by reducing the costs of moving, and prospective buyers encouraged to buy by reducing the costs of funding their purchase. Given the government’s interventionist strategy to date that might include encouragement for lenders to resume business as usual with their full range of products when it’s safe to do so. We need to avoid a repeat of the post-credit-crunch mortgage famine which took from 2008 until the 2013 launch of Help to Buy to bring the mass market back into play with low-deposit mortgages.
“We think it will take several months or more for the market to find its feet in this new unsteady world. Once the lockdown ends, agents will have to follow safe viewing precautions to give sellers the confidence to again allow viewers into their own homes, and buyers the confidence that they can safely visit homes that are for sale. During this slow-motion period we do not expect significant price falls, as home sellers will not be prepared to cut their prices while it is still not clear how the general public, businesses, financial markets, and the government are going to handle the transition to whatever turns out to be the new normal.”
