“Be kind to each other” – the buzzwords of 2020. Lockdown Parts 1 and 2 really has been a stressful time for the front line workers in the housing market too!
With house prices having risen at their fastest rate in almost six years, it is clear that the UK property market is one of only a few sectors not in desperate need of the proverbial economic shot in the arm that the roll out of a Covid vaccination is set to deliver.
In sharp contrast to retail, which has seen an array of major high street names become coronavirus casualties, business has remained brisk on the homebuying front throughout the lockdowns and fiscal torment of tiers.
Being busy, however, does not make those involved in facilitating property transactions immune to the stresses and strains of being in the pressure cooker of a pandemic. All members of society have felt the impact of the outbreak – be it professionally or personally.
Estate agents, for example, have not been exempt from worrying about at-risk loved ones; mortgage brokers were not spared the domestic battles for broadband that characterised the early months of remote working; and conveyancers were no better-equipped to cope with the realities of home-schooling children than any other adult without a formal teaching qualification.
Against such a backdrop, it is perhaps inevitable that previously minor sources of agitation between parties can become amplified. Unforeseen hitches which would in the past have been dismissed with nothing more than a disappointed sigh, can today seem like the world conspiring to derail a completion.
“Be kind to each other” – the buzzwords of 2020
“Be kind to each other” have become the buzzwords of 2020 and it is a phrase the team at PLS Solicitors have made their mantra when it comes to dealing with colleagues, customers and fellow property professionals.
The need for patience with each other and a tolerance of the trials coronavirus presents are paramount. While delays may frustrate, they are almost certainly not deliberate or down to someone in an estate agency, law firm, local authority or mortgage lender dragging their feet. Why would they be? Regardless of the role we play in the process, we are all working to achieve the same goal of enabling customers to turn the key in the door to their new home.
