We opened our business ten years ago in August 2010, in what we thought would be the worst property year ever,
writes Austin Egan of Appleton Property. Things could only get better from there. We were wrong, 2011 was even worse.
We survived. We traded through the ups and downs of the recovery and got stronger year on year. When the mortgage credit directive came in it was said that it would sink the market again. It didn’t. The Brexit referendum surprised us all in 2016. Brexit was said to be the biggest threat to our economy since WWII. We all survived three years of wall to wall media negativity. If Brexit is a problem we haven’t felt it yet. I was talking to an older wiser auctioneering friend of mine at Xmas complaining about Brexit. He said to me ‘Austin, don’t be worrying about Brexit. As soon as it is over there will be another Brexit along, it will just have a different name.’ A man whose career began in the late 70s and has seen many a crisis.
Even he could not have foreseen this Covid situation. Every time we step out to buy anything, anywhere, it is only possible because someone, somewhere, took a risk, begged borrowed or saved the money and opened the shop, started the business, took the risk. To be told to close your business is a genuine shock to the system. People in business are constantly looking at opportunities and threats to their business. This was a threat no one could have prepared for and certainly no one had made allowance for in their financial or business planning.
Unfortunately some of these businesses will not re open. We wish the owners, their families and their staff all the best in their own personal journey. For the most part, the same drive that put them in business in the first place will see them through the challenges ahead. For the rest of us I think of a line from the very well-known Kipling poem ‘If’, a poem about strength and looking adversity in the face.
‘Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools'. We can see the people who own the businesses that are integral to our town doing just that, striving to re open with admirable innovation, courage and determination.
There have been some awful outcomes for some from this pandemic thus far. We offer our sincerest sympathies to all those who have had to endure the outcomes the lockdown is designed to minimise. I won't list those outcomes here but would, of course, offer our sincerest condolences to the families of those who passed away. As we all do, I look forward to attending a suitable memorial in honour of those people when all this comes to an end.
Meanwhile, we are focussing on getting back to full services. We have continued to work remotely throughout the lockdown, managing our rental property portfolio, providing remote valuation services, and providing essential services for HSE purposes, and to the banking and legal sectors. More recently we have changed the layout of our office, purchased screens, personal protective equipment, face screens, masks, gloves, sanitiser, signage and a new door access system to regulate the number of people in our office at any one time. We have updated our client management system, our general IT infrastructure and renegotiated our cost base to ensure business continuity.
We are members of the Institute or Professional Auctioneers and Valuers in Ireland. We have had regular webinars updating us on what to expect and best practice in the new normal ahead. We have had weekly one to one virtual coffee mornings with agents all over the country discussing activity in their area in each market segment, exchanging ideas and experiences to improve each other’s businesses and meet the challenges ahead.
If you are considering selling your property or buying a property in the near future the only fact about the market is that no one knows what the future holds. This is not just true of the property market. The ESRI don’t know, The Irish Independent and Irish Times don’t know. The economists, the politicians, the various contributors to talk radio and current affairs TV programmes don’t know. What we do know are the facts available to us and here are the facts as they relate to our business in Kilcullen.
We have had a steady stream of enquiries on all properties we have for sale at present. In the midst of a lockdown the volume of enquiries and the level of pent up demand is surprising but encouraging. The banks are still lending. We provide mortgage valuation services for banks and we have returned to some of these services aligned to construction since Stage 1, May 18th and we have been very busy. Buyers are active. Most approved mortgages are proceeding. Lending criteria have not changed. This is a real indicator.
Solicitors did not stop working in the lockdown. All of the deals we had done that were pending have either had contracts signed or closed during lockdown. We had a very strong first quarter with residential sales ranging from €190,000 to €600,000. The purchasers have all been upbeat on closing and very happy with their purchases. This is a real indicator. We listed six properties for sale in the week that we closed the office. We had at that time many others listed also. There are people patiently waiting to view all of them. We have several properties that will be listed as soon as we are permitted to go in to take the photos. Many of these sellers are also intending purchasers, moving up or down. This is also a real indicator.
There may be an adjustment in certain sectors of the market, who knows? The reality is that we still have a housing crisis. We simply do not have enough houses to meet demand. In our town I count 14 new houses built in the last 14 years. That’s an average of one addition to the housing stock per year for 14 years. More and more people want to live in Kilcullen, more and more people want to stay here or move back. Options are limited in Kilcullen and this has not changed.
We intend to move forward with optimism. If you are considering selling we hope you would share our positivity and invite us to provide you with a professional valuation of your property. Property services resume in Stage 2, June 8th. Our professional body, IPAV, have agreed a protocol to provide our services safely which will be strictly observed. If you have a property to sell or let, or if you need a professional valuation for legal or financial purposes please contact us on 087 1311133 or info@appleton.ie anytime to arrange a valuation or to have a chat about your properties prospects.
Stay safe and well.
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