Property Update
TIMES ARE CHANGING Robert Bijker, managing director of Yellow Homes - Land & Houses Algarve, discusses the recent events surrounding Covid-19 and their effects on the property market
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he Covid-19 pandemic not only caused a severe economic downturn with record unemployment but has also changed the way we are living and working. This with potentially lasting changes in consumer preferences about what an individual and/or family expects from their residential property, the place that we call home. The meaning of a home can differ from person to person but in general it is the place where one lives, secure and enjoyable, where you can laugh or cry, be yourself, learn, love and be loved, be respected and cared for as well as a place to share memories and to make new ones. The lockdown has now added another requirement; it needs to have space or an extra room to work from while being away from the office. It is also important to have a good sized private outdoor space and in case of apartments one should be able to get to the property using the staircase (in order to avoid being in a small enclosed environment; the elevator). If an apartment is in a high rise building the use of a staircase may not be an option for everyone. The increase in video conferencing amongst businesses had already increased pre- Covid-19 due to the various worldwide conferences about global warming and reduction of greenhouse gases. However, the lockdown accelerated and broadened this
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trend as employees who could work from home were now asked to stay at home. In addition parents with children had to use video conferencing for their children to do their schoolwork due to the closure of the schools. The demand for video conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx and especially Zoom went through the roof (the latter has a good chance of becoming the word of the year, I will Zoom you!). It may well lead to a more permanent change in how we live and work given the option of not going to the office to work (or only a few times per month) we may also change our preference of where we want to live. Coming out of lockdown most people are re-evaluating what freedom means to them and may prefer to live in a low population density area outside of their town or maybe even in a different country providing there are good internet and travel connections. In the past people could not make this decision as there were technological hurdles to overcome (no or slow internet, no video conferencing solutions) as well as the social acceptance by colleagues and businesses to work from home. It will be interesting to see how the pandemic has changed all of this which may lead to new trends in demand for residential property. Early signs are that the desirability of a property with a large terrace or private garden with or without swimming pool has gone up.
July 2020
