Actualité
“POST-COVID-19 HOUSING”
Since Monday 11 May, real estate agencies are once again allowed to visit properties available on the market. But will the Covid-19 crisis have any impact on housing demand?
It is now time to lift lockdown in several sectors. This is the case for real estate too, since agents can, from this Monday 11 May, resume the "physical" visits of properties available on the market, while respecting the barrier gestures and certain safety measures.
"During the lockdown, demand fell sharply", explains Kathia Robert, Director of the Residential sector at CBRE Luxembourg. "This allowed us to fully answer the requests that came in and to be active on the projects under development. The work remained very productive with the developers," she explains. "Transactions initiated before the crisis were completed and some new VEFA transactions were finalised.
Notarised deeds have taken place, and even though many procedures have been greatly slowed down, some activity has been maintained. Rather than a panic effect, I would say that actions were carried out with caution. Individuals who have a purchase project and an adequate budget are not having secon thoughts.
Towards a price fluctuation?
But could the Covid-19 crisis lead to a fluctuation or even a fall in house prices?
"If buyer-occupiers remain proactive, we feel that investors are taking a step back. They are not necessarily questioning their investments, but need to feel the market. However, it seems that money is still available among large investors, and Luxembourg remains an attractive country that interests them more and more. They are still interested in large residential developments, confidence remains, and housing is still a primary need to be satisfied. This is one of the reasons why the residential sector is not expected to collapse," reassures Kathia Robert.
Rather than a fall in prices, the head of the Residential department sees a stabilisation effect. "I don't think that prices will fall, because demand is still stronger than supply. In addition, we may also have to expect that people who want to sell their existing property will hold on to it for a few more months before putting it on the market. This will create an even greater scarcity effect. Residential remains a stable, if not growing, sector and probably the safest investment in this pandemic period compared to its retail or office neighbours. That's why I don't think prices will necessarily fall. At worst, they will stabilise for a few months to give buyers time to regain confidence, rather than following the growth curve we have seen in recent years."
What about design changes?
After experiencing this intense and forced use of housing, one might expect future buyers to have new demands on their future homes.
"Indeed, for projects under development, developers are already asking questions about the changing needs of future buyers," Kathia Robert points out. "And changes are already underway. The sector has been very responsive. I wouldn't be surprised if the Covid-19 crisis accelerated certain phenomena. The need for outdoor space will perhaps result in the development of green roofs. However, I don't think that the desire to have a home office will necessarily translate into the creation of an additional room. The financial effort is too great given the price per square metre in Luxembourg.
I think that more flexible solutions will be preferred, such as an office corner installed in a bedroom, the creation of a revolving piece of furniture that would make it possible to create a new partition, and therefore a new space without mobilising a whole room. The solutions provided will be more flexible, more modular. Furthermore, I would not be surprised if coworking spaces started to appear in the new residences. These spaces could benefit from a very good connection, scanners, printers that would be shared between the residents of the building. The use of this equipment could be charged directly to the users, for example.
These are new strategies that are yet to be defined. We could even imagine that these costs would be covered directly by the employer. With what we have just gone through, everything happened at once, and we had to manage these changes in a hurry. We did not have the time to find new sustainable mechanisms, but there will certainly be some in the future," concludes Kathia Robert.
source :https://paperjam.lu/article/logement-apres-covid-19