By Louise Weale
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has reached every sector and industry, though not always with adverse effects. The property sector, as an example, is now flourishing and undergoing huge change in this new, post-lockdown world. But this current up didn’t arrive without an initial down.
When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit, the housing market all but ground to a halt. Buyers and sellers were understandably cautious in such uncertain circumstances, so viewings were restricted, surveys were stopped, and even pre-agreed sales fell through as parties cast a refocused eye over their available options.
Then, when restrictions began to ease, the market burst back into life. Demand exploded as selling hesitators became buying perpetrators, government incentivisation schemes encouraged faster exchanges, and new work-from-home buyers (those now unshackled from former location restrictions) emerged onto the scene.
The property industry was thriving. But this boom did more than restart a stalled market, it highlighted and exacerbated an issue of which commentators and participants were already well aware: transactions take too long.
It is a problem that has long plagued the industry, one which is frequently labelled the biggest problem facing real estate agents today, but how can you achieve quicker transactions?
Turning up the transaction tempo
To reduce the timings of transactions, fast-tracking lending decisions, and to give the property sector certainty that it is meeting the demands of the market, you need access to authoritative address data.
Accurate, reliable and complete address data delivers vital information of matters regarding individual properties, access, and purpose of use. Access to accurate data on the property’s location, and also its history, will help to assist faster approvals for new forms of use – for example with the development of older ‘brown field’ sites, which typically take several years to gain approval.
Organisations must also be ready for the introduction of updated safety regulations. Realtors and lenders in the property sector need to gain broader insights (and quickly) via integration with other datasets to gain unparalleled context around risk and fraud, as well as undertake rapid change analysis over time. For example, mitigating environmental risk (flood, subsidence, mine shafts, unexploded bombs (UXB), contamination, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)).
With these factors in mind, it is essential that organisations have access to much more detailed data and insights that give them increased certainty and that help them meet their needs.
Help solve the housing crisis
There are new rules that make it easier to convert office and retail space to residential. Read our insight, ‘Speeding up commercial-to-residential conversions’.