Yomdel Property Sentiment Tracker – Property market buzzing as exceptional demand sustains into August

4 AUGUST 2020. Exceptional levels of demand for estate agency services were maintained in the past week, although new enquiry levels cooled slightly from the July peaks that had sent agents scurrying in all directions to secure new business after months of coronavirus lockdown, the latest data from the Yomdel Property Sentiment Tracker (YPST) shows.

Highlights (versus previous week):

ALL STATS REMAIN NEAR RECORD HIGHS

New Vendor enquiries: DOWN 8.51% (last week DOWN 4.33%) –99% ABOVE AVERAGE
New buyer enquiries: DOWN 6.32% (last week UP 3.55%) – 82% ABOVE AVERAGE
New landlord enquiries: DOWN 2.35% (last week DOWN 1.16%)– 35% ABOVE AVERAGE
New tenant enquiries: DOWN 2.33% (last week DOWN 4.33%)– 39% ABOVE AVERAGE

New vendor and buyer demand remained at stellar levels of 96% and 84%, respectively, above the same week in 2019, while landlords were also 39% above a year earlier. Despite new regional and localised covid-19 restrictions being imposed in some areas in England, consumer sentiment remained strong.

For the week ending midnight 2 August, estate agency website traffic remained extremely high at 29% above the 62-week pre-covid-19 average, while the numbers of people using live chat on estate agent websites a were huge 80% above the pre-covid-19 average, and lead volumes overall were up 111% in the same period indicating a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour and how people wish to contact estate agents online in real time.

Yomdel provides 24/7 managed live chat services to 3,800 estate agent offices in the UK, handling more than a 1.5m chats per year. It has analysed the data and leads captured in live chat going back to January 2019, up until week ending 2 August 2020. The website visitor data is a sample across major estate agency groups in the UK and covers in excess of 35 million unique website visits back to January 2019.

YOMDEL PROPERTY SENTIMENT TRACKER (w/e 2 August 2020)

Andy Soloman, Yomdel founder and CEO, said:

“Everywhere you look estate agents are rushing to try and make up for lost time and secure their new business pipelines. And business is clearly being done with properties coming to market at an incredible rate.

“Customers are pushing hard to get listed ASAP as the clock is ticking on the government’s stamp duty holiday, and we’re seeing really strong demand from buyers seeking to move out of London and other major cities. Lockdown and the huge growth in remote working is making lifestyle choices seem both more attractive and achievable in ways never seen before.”

The YPST methodology establishes a base line average shown as 100% or 100, calculated according to average engagement values over the 62 weeks prior to the lockdown, and plots movements from there according to the volumes of people engaging in live chat, their stated needs, questions asked, and new business leads generated. Data is measured over full 24-hour periods.

New vendors fell for the second week but remain at record levels with valuation enquiries 8.51%, or 18.43 points, lower on the week, at 198.55, or 99% above the pre-covid-19 62-week average.

Buyers dropped 6.32%, or 12.25 points, to close at 181.55, some 82% above pre-covid-19 average.

Landlords dipped slightly, and were down 2.35%, or 3.25 points, down to end the week at 134.82, still 35% above the pre-covid-19 average.

Demand from tenants continued to cool, with new enquires now more than 2% lower than the same week in 2019. They ended the week 2.33% down, or 3.31 points, at 138.69, but still some 39% above the pre-covid-19 average.

Soloman said:

“It’s really busy out there and the cooling is only natural. Like an Olympic sprinter, everyone needs to pause for breath at some point. But make no mistake here the new business opportunities for estate agents are still off the scale and show no sign of dropping just yet.

“Online is ruling the roost as well, the volumes of people on estate agent websites remain at all-time highs, and the message is clear: people are seeking out their agents online and that is certainly not going to change back.”

The following graph looks at the relationship between website visitor volumes, live chat volumes and the volume of leads generated. The data samples 34 million visitors to estate agent websites from Jan 2019 – 2 August and shows how web traffic to estate agents’ websites (blue line) is an incredible 25% higher than the same week last year. The volume of people using live chat (red line) and the numbers of new business leads captured (purple line) have increased exponentially, with live chat adoption and leads generated 80% and 111% above the pre-covid-19 62-week average, respectively. Before coronavirus all three (visitors, live chat engagement, leads generated) tracked each other, but not anymore.

Kindly shared by Yomdel

Main article photo courtesy of Pixabay