Reopening of housing market ‘not so smooth but welcome’, says Wellington estate agent
The reopening of the property market is a ‘truly wonderfully cautious first important step in the right direction’, a Shropshire estate agent has said.
Dean Millington, business proprietor of Harwood The Estate Agents, Wellington, said the Government’s green light for agents to return to work had been akin to ‘dropping the bombshell onto the property world’.
“Nothing like a little advance notice whilst also forgetting to mention the finer details to the public and the agents,” said Mr Millington.
“They have since released the really important reality about viewing restrictions, guidelines and practices agents must implement and put into practice sharpish before being able to commence safely.
“The Government and the National Association of Estate Agents have now given strict guidelines on how things are to be handled and the safety measures that should be implemented.
“I have noticed that the media language is now a little less gunhoe and more subtle, such as ‘the property market has been released from some elements of the lockdown’.
“I believe it truly would have been all round a more common sense approach to have distributed the guidelines of the return to agents in advance, then made a more timely announcement of a forwarding date to enable agents to fully prepare correctly and safely.
“That all said, it truly is a wonderfully cautious first important step in the right direction, although the property world has been slightly thrown into a little turmoil.”
He added: “I have been in live webinars, client calls, emails, texts and a constantly non-stop avalanche of communications since the announcement explaining the finer details and I am pleased to say we are now ready.
“At the end of the day we truly wholeheartedly support the Government in their amazing efforts during these incredibly testing times and will continue to play our small part in ensuring the safety of our clients, staff and the public.
“We are so proud and in awe of all the key workers and our NHS and we pray, hope and plan for brighter days ahead.
“We must keep faith, things will always get better – and they will.”
