There is no doubt that this year has brought unprecedented turmoil to businesses around the world. We have all had to learn and adapt ‘on the job’ to circumstances we could not have previously envisioned. And of course, the home buying and selling sector has experienced feast and famine like no other.

From the drought that the initial lockdown in the spring brought, to the flooding of the market in July post-lockdown, all aspects of the industry, estate agents, conveyancers and home movers have all had to demonstrate flexibility and innovation.

Since the start of lockdown, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has been regularly surveying our regulated community to see how the firms we regulate are managing and adapting through this period. It has also provided a snapshot of how the wider market has been performing.

We all know the effect that the chancellor’s stamp duty holiday has had, flooding the property market with sellers and buyers keen to complete before the March 31^st deadline. We’ve also heard much in the media about conveyancers being overwhelmed with work and having to turn it away, and while some of our firms report that, it’s certainly not the whole picture.

Our most recent survey ran in mid-October. In it, less than half the firms – 46% – have told us that have had to turn work away. Now in any ‘normal’ year the fact that nearly half of firms were turning work away would be staggering, but this figure does show that not all firms are riding high on this property wave. The benefit of the buoyant market is not spread evenly: only 20% of firms with a turnover of under £100,000 are having to turn work away, whereas 75% of those with a turnover of £500,000 are turning work away.

We also monitored the impact of the furlough scheme on conveyancing firms: All of the firms we spoke to with a turnover of £500,000 or more have at least some staff – up to 25% – on furlough.

Positively though, 88% of firms do not anticipate making redundancies when the furlough scheme ends, and the recent extension to the scheme will give firms with extra breathing space if required. This is particularly positive given the number who told us they were concerned about a steep drop off in work come the end of March (78%).

Most firms it seems, would welcome a phased exit from the SDLT holiday and this is something that we have raised with the government but again, no word from the Treasury as to what further steps, if any, they will take to keep the market and conveyancing services stable.

Looking at wider government support, to date, 42% of our regulated firms have used the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, with the highest proportion being those with a turnover of £1m-£3m and £3m-£5m where 67% and 75% respectively had utilised the financial aid. All these measures taken together meant that firms have reported to us that they are confident about their financial position

The pandemic has had some upsides, and with necessity being the mother of invention, many firms have sped up their digitisation plans in order to keep business going.

More than a third (34%) of firms have implemented digitisation tools since the start of the pandemic with the introduction of digital ID checking being the most popular tool (66%), and chatbots on websites, workflow software and apps for clients all being a popular second choice (16%). Within this a number of firms indicated that they had considered these tools prior to the pandemic, but that lockdown had sped up the process.

Broader access to digital ID checking and AML compliance tools has been invaluable to the industry in helping firms to keep both staff and clients safe through removing unnecessary face to face meetings.

The Land Registry’s policy statement, in July, of electronic signatures which removed the need to physically sign legal documents was also a big milestone. Although the service does still require a witness to be physically present, it does nonetheless, speed up the process of moving and makes it easier for all parties Hopefully, the plans for physical witnesses to be replaced by technology that digitally verifies the signature, will be something that we see early next year.

Work already done will no doubt improve the resilience of the sector, and we urge firms to continue to look at new ways they can make the business stable for the medium term and long term. To help, we are continuing our work to map out how home buying and selling is evolving.

I think that overall, the industry has much to be proud of in its handling of the crisis to date. However, we are not quite of the woods yet, and the next few months as we draw closer to the SDLT holiday deadline and begin to see the shape of the post-pandemic economy will be telling for many firms as they are likely to need to adapt once again to significant changes in workflows.

Stephen Ward is director of strategy & external relations at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.