ARLA: first Friday out of lockdown is going to be big

The first Friday out of lockdown is likely to be one of the biggest moving days in the lettings industry’s history, ARLA’s David Cox has predicted.

Speaking at a Goodlord webinar this morning, Cox (pictured) told 1,000 professionals tuning in that the enforced nature of the market slowdown would, unlike the situation in 2008, lead to a massive release of pent up demand once restrictions were lifted.

William Reeve, chief executive of Goodlord, said: “There’s clearly a massive amount of pent-up demand in the market.

“Our message is just put everything on pause – don’t cancel it. The first Friday out of lockdown is probably going to be one of the biggest moving days in the lettings industry’s history.”

He recommended for agents to invest time in planning their post-lockdown strategies.

Cox suggested that agents focus on how they will handle the “first seven days back”, when the market is predicting a surge in new tenancy applications.

He advised assessing the capacity requirements and logistical changes needed to respond to that demand.

He cautioned against forgetting wider legislative changes scheduled for 2020, citing the need to be prepared for the abolition of Section 21, Electrical Safety Regulations on new tenancies – which he noted would still be coming into effect on 1 July – and the Regulation of Property Agents (RoPA

Cox added: “[Post-crisis] I think they’re going to be looking at more regulation of landlords. I think we will go into a much tougher regime on property standards.

“We are trying to get out ahead of that with the concept of a property MOT; if we can try and shape what comes next, it’s going to be much easier for the industry to accept than to have a whole collection of laws thrown at us like we have over the past 10 years. Let’s get out in front of it, so we’re on the front foot.”