Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, reports that:

“In the couple of weeks since restrictions on house moves were relaxed, there has been a significant rise in buyer and seller activity, well exceeding levels pre-COVID-19 in some cases.“

Homes coming to market and valuation requests

Lockdown restrictions meant surveyors couldn’t visit properties in order to produce Home Reports, meaning that many sellers were waiting until restrictions were relaxed in order to bring their homes to market.

When restrictions were relaxed on 29^th June, guidance allowed for surveyors to visit properties and from 29^th June to 14^th July 2020 (inclusive), there has been a 39% year-on-year increase in the number of homes coming to market.

During the same time period, valuation requests were up 120% compared to last year.

Web traffic, viewing requests and Home Report downloads

Web traffic on espc.com has grown to exceed pre-COVID-19 levels.

From 29^th June to 14^th July, there were over 1.3 million web traffic sessions, up 75% compared to last year.

During the same period, ESPC has received over 12,000 viewing requests, up 240% compared to last year.

Home Report downloads and schedule views were also up 71% and 51% respectively.

Offers, notes of interests and closing dates

The increasing number of notes of interests has resulted in more closing dates being set, highlighting the strong demand to purchase property.

From 29^th June to 14^th July, there was a 36% increase in the number of closing dates for ESPC properties compared to last year.

Looking to the future

Paul Hilton said:

“The high amount of property market activity we’ve seen in recent weeks is encouraging.

“The raising of the nil threshold for LBTT [land and buildings transaction tax] to £250,000 may also encourage more activity as home movers look to take advantage of the opportunity to save some money on property tax by moving before 31^st March.

“However, we are still in the early stages of emerging from the lockdown restrictions.

“As time progresses, we will have a clearer idea of the medium term impact on the Scottish property market.”