Diary of an agent: Louise Glanville and Christopher Burton

With Knight Frank forecasting that the number of home sales in 2020 will decline by 526,000, a fall of 38% on 2019 transaction levels, the agents set out their expectations for the rest of the year.

How are you finding home working?

Christopher Burton (CB) – Well, I’m 'mostly' in the dining room with a monitor from work, headset etc. My wife Elizabeth works for Knight Frank too as a Residential Operations Manager. I say 'mostly' in the dining room as it turns out that we’re both rather loud on the phone, so we move about the house so as not to drive each other crazy.

Louise Glanville (LG)  – I’m very lucky as I have an apartment overlooking Exmouth Marina. We have team meetings twice a day, which helps maintain the social contact. However, I’ll admit that I do miss meeting people face to face, which is an attraction of the role.

Despite the restrictions there’s still activity underway, isn’t there?

CB – The team here did a number of smartphone videos ahead of lockdown, which we’ve then edited. That’s given us something to work with and we’ve had a 5-bedroom house go under offer as a consequence, as well as a 3-bedroom apartment, since the restrictions came in. Interestingly both at guide price.

LG – We’re still progressing sales, I’ve got a couple through during this time. It’s boiled down to the solicitors involved. Some have been happy to make things happen and others have decided not to budge an inch and the process has paused.

What’s the change in the nature of work during this period been like?

CB – We’ve had the opportunity to support our local community. One of our negotiators Catherine Stage, who lives in Dulwich, has been doing a weekly shop for residents at The Dulwich Almshouses. Last weekend I collected a contract for two clients that both work for the NHS and have had very little spare time. They’re selling through us and had been due to exchange for a couple of weeks. However, they’ve been so overrun they’ve not been able to send the contract back or get it witnessed. I collected it (witnessing if for them) and delivered it to their solicitor. 

LG – I’ve been doing quite a bit of spec. work with developers in regards future projects – we’re actually selling off-plan the first phase of a development of apartments at my former grade one and two-listed school St Margaret’s – so it’s an interesting area to have the opportunity to be involved with outside the mainstay of my day to day role.

How do you see the residential property market performing in the remainder of the year?

CB – We had the best start in six years before the lockdown. Prices had corrected and bottomed out in the middle of 2019. After the general election result in December there was an explosion of activity in the first few months, as families looked to put plans into action and secure somewhere. While we’re not bringing property to the market at present, buyers are keen to start looking, we have around eight homes ready to go and sellers that were already looking to sell have kept their property on the market. The key drivers of people wanting to get their children into schools, or downsize as their house is too big, remain and I’m expecting a busy few months ahead.

LG – As of last Monday we’ve seen an uptick in activity. The world is waking up and while it would be foolish to say the lockdown hasn’t had an impact, the realisation that working from home is viable – I’ve been talking with the owner of a central London PR firm considering relocating - and the desire to make a change and leave London, suggest it’ll be a busy end to the year. Those looking to move before the restrictions still plan to do so.