Coronavirus will kick spring house selling spree into touch

David Alexander urges landlords to be as accommodating as possible with struggling tenants

However, for historians, particularly of the military variety, a more fascinating destination is the nearby town of Ypres. Its name has become synonymous with the First World War; over four years it was the scene of three major battles and countless skirmishes that devastated the town and claimed countless British, German and Belgian lives.

I am not big on military history but I do have a friend who is and I am finding resonance in a story he told me after visiting the battlefields of Belgium and northern France. Such was the speed at which the conflict developed, he explained, that just one week before the German invasion of Belgium, the lead story in the local newspaper serving Ypres concerned a spat between the organisers of the annual dog show.

This friend has now found another chilling similarity between the spread of the coronavirus and the war. On 28 June 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo. The story was big news but the general feeling in Britain was that political assassinations were common in the Balkans and any repercussions would remain confined to that region.

Yet as a direct result of the killing, five weeks later this country had entered a war that would result in the deaths of 750,000 of our young men and saddle the Treasury with debt it would not pay off for a century.

Weathering the storm

So let me revise last week’s prediction that the current crisis might delay the house-sale surge usually associated with this time of year. Sales nearing completion are likely to go through but – just as with football and rugby – it looks like the “spring selling season” will be abandoned and that the best my sector can hope for is some kind of kick-start in the summer.

Equally, my predictions for the lettings market are less sanguine than last week when I said it would carry on “pretty much as normal”. Now it looks as if normality will be put on hold: career moves delayed or halted altogether; spouses on the verge of splitting up staying together for the time being; and younger singles, who would normally strike out on their own, playing safe and remaining at home with mum and dad. These are factors which drive new lettings and are much less likely to happen for the foreseeable future.

This clearly has implications for lettings-related businesses and how agents, landlords and tenant clients try to weather the storm. Some banks and building societies have offered mortgage repayment holidays should clients lose income as a result of being off work, although presumably any extra accrued interest will still have to be paid off eventually.

A system like this is more difficult to operate in the rental market, where so many landlords are private individuals. I would urge them to be as accommodating – forgive the pun – as possible if tenants find themselves struggling to meet their rental commitments because of self-isolation and its consequential effect on income, or who remain healthy but lose their jobs or find their employment temporarily suspended.

The final decision will rest with each landlord but it seems sensible that they – or their agents – try to work out an acceptable payment plan that enables tenants to remain in situ while the current uncertainty continues. It may be, of course, that some landlords have to accept a fall in income which, though hopefully temporary, they cannot make up later on.

Unfortunately that’s just the way things are – after all, thousands of people have taken a financial hit by cancelling flights and even entire holidays, despite knowing there is little chance of them securing recompense through their travel insurance policies.

I’ll finish as I started, with a First World War analogy. We have no alternative but to hunker down in our trench until the bombardment comes to an end, as it eventually will.

– David Alexander is MD of DJ Alexander

Coronavirus will kick spring house selling spree into touch - David Alexander