I won't lie. Times are not normal. I would not normally spend so much time at home with my wife and children, nor would they choose to spend as much time with me. I rely on the housing market for my living and it is currently, shall we say, not as buoyant as I have seen it previously.
However, home ownership to me is like marriage. You need to be in it for the long term. Yes, we all have relationships before marriage but during marriage you learn to live with the petty things your other half may do (breaking wind, not clearing up after themselves and generally being lazy - sorry Sarah, I promise to try harder to improve!) Working at it and thinking long term makes it all worthwhile.
Same applies to housing. Yes, we are about to see a drop in transactions until lockdown is over. Think of it like Christmas come early. Nothing happens then and people concentrate on other things. People need to focus on other things now and you know what, the housing market will come back stronger. It always does. When Savills are still not changing their mind that there will be 15% growth in the next five years, I don't doubt it.
Stay safe, stay at home and protect the NHS.
However, it is now inevitable that activity in the market will slow for a period, with those deals that are well progressed involving delayed completions. The extent of the disruption to market activity largely depends on the success of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In turn, this will determine the impact on the economy and personal wealth, which will be key to prospects for further price growth as market activity rebuilds. Notably, most economists are forecasting a v-shaped downturn in the economy, which currently indicates that activity will return more quickly than it has done historically, as buyers’ concerns over job security and earnings ease.
