Ban on viewings and valuations closes down the housing market

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Donal O'Donovan Twitter Email

April 02 2020 02:30 AM

The Government lockdown means the housing market is effectively shutting down for buyers and sellers.

Physical house viewings are no longer permitted under the current guidelines and even where a sale is agreed the valuations banks require before releasing mortgage funds can no longer take place.

Bank of Ireland's head of retail banking Gavin Kelly said customers had been drawing down mortgages up to last week but said he now expects that to slow as the mechanics of the market make completing a sale harder as long as Covid-19 restrictions remain in place.

The UK government last week told buyers and sellers to delay transactions because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Banks there had raised concerns that the economic fallout of the outbreak had hit house prices, meaning they would be prepared to lend less against a home where the sale was agreed before the outbreak.

Here, Mr Kelly said price falls were not the concern, but that surveyors are simply unable to visit and inspect properties.

Surveys and valuations are important to buyers and lenders, he said.

Would-be buyers who have a mortgage approval in principal should stay in close contact with their bank even if they can't view homes or close sales, he said.

There were 54,000 homes sold last year in Ireland, so it is likely as many as 4,500 sales are going through the system in any given month.

Potentially tens of thousands of frustrated home buyers and sellers could be left in limbo for months if the current restrictions remain in place for more than four weeks.

A spokesperson for the Society of Chartered Surveys Ireland said there is limited valuation work that can be done, without visiting properties.

"At present, only desktop valuations - valuations which use online information/house databases etc - can be carried out as no inspections of property are permitted until April 12 at the earliest," they said.

Demand

In the meantime, banks themselves are increasingly turning their focus to existing customers affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mr Kelly said Bank of Ireland has redeployed staff from other areas and is developing online processes to deal with the huge surge in demand.

Mass lay-offs and business closures have driven a surge in requests to 1,000 a day for payment breaks from mortgage borrowers and small businesses. The typical time to process requests is three to four days for home loans, he said.

Meanwhile, to avoid visiting branches older customers can use a new 'cocooning support' scheme to nominate a relative or neighbour to make cash withdrawals and lodgements.

The bank has also launched dedicated supports for healthcare workers.