A SCOTTISH real estate consultant has reported the highest number of viewing requests in a single day so far this year.
The increased activity at ESPC came the day after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that restrictions on house moves would be relaxed in Scotland from June 29.
From then, activities such as in-person property viewings and house moves may go ahead subject to the necessary health and safety precautions. The industry is awaiting further guidelines from the Scottish Government.
Last Friday, the volume of home report and schedule downloads at ESPC were at the highest level they’ve been since mid-March, prior to lockdown.
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Last week was also the first week since mid-March that ESPC has seen a year-on-year increase in web traffic sessions. The volume of viewing and valuation requests generated last week also significantly exceeded the same week of last year.
Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, said: “The notable increases in viewing and valuation requests, home report and schedule downloads, and web traffic highlights the growing demand for property in Scotland. The spike we noticed on Friday suggests that the announcement on Thursday about the restrictions being relaxed on June 29 also had an impact and boosted buyer interest.
“We believe there is a healthy supply of buyers and sellers ready to come to market in the next few weeks once the restrictions are relaxed.
“While there are still uncertain times ahead of us with regards to the Scottish property market and economy, we are hopeful that the strong demand for property evident in the first two months of 2020 and the rising demand noted in the past several weeks will help to foster a stable recovery.”
At the start of the year before lockdown, web traffic had been significantly up year-on-year for EPSC, as had valuation requests, viewing requests and home report downloads. Due to lockdown restrictions put in place towards the end of March, these fell to volumes much lower than usual for this time of year.
However, viewing and valuation requests, home report and schedule downloads, and web traffic have been growing for a number of weeks now.
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