How often have you thought, “I wish I lived on an island”? Go on, you know you have and you’re not alone. With the hideous Covid-19 stealing its way throughout the world, more of us dream of living in glorious peace that isn’t thousands of miles away.
In an interview with Shetland News, estate agent Neil Risk said he believed that folk might now be encouraged to “look at alternatives” and consider living in areas with less “constraints”.
Searches for Shetland properties on Rightmove had increased by 131 per cent compared to last year.
“One thing we might see is people wanting to move to places like Shetland, because suddenly they realise that maybe the weather isn’t brilliant but being able to live your life and not be constrained to the extent that people are constrained elsewhere,” Risk said. “I think the market may be fairly positive from that point of view.”
Market on hold
The local property market is effectively at a standstill with estate agents and prospective buyers in Scotland unable to view houses due to social distancing restrictions, but there are still one or two transactions ongoing with private deals and where the finance is in place, said Risk, but lenders have suspended processing loan applications.
Neil said some local sellers have been holding their own virtual viewings to allow people a closer look at their property. “Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of technology could do that, so that’s certainly beneficial.”
Jobs lost
“The last half of last year was reasonably quiet on the property front, I think Shetland has seen a bit of a downturn in the economy generally, and concerns about jobs in the oil and construction sectors to an extent,” Risk said. “I think there will be a number of properties that will be coming up for sale, because this is traditionally the busy time of the year that we’re coming into.
“Some of it may be sales on the part of folk who were planning to sell anyway, but were prevented from doing so. And some may be folk who out of necessity have to sell, which would be very sad. We don’t know yet, and we don’t know how long it will be before the lockdown is lifted.”
Risk’s Lerwick-based firm has furloughed five members of staff, with others working from home during the pandemic. “I think it will certainly pick up to a point where it was before the lockdown hopefully reasonably quickly.”
The post Wishful thinking? Agent hopes pandemic pushes buyers towards an island life appeared first on The Negotiator.