Cross-industry survey reveals digital and remote working welcomed by property professionals

A survey of over 600 property professionals has revealed that more acceptance of digital and remote working has been welcomed by the industry and recognised as an outstanding positive of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is just one of many revelations featured in the new ‘Thriving in a pandemic’ report published today by tmgroup and mio, which also reflects on the challenges that have stretched the industry to its limits.

Carried out across December 2020 and January 2021, survey participants – including residential conveyancers, real estate professionals, estate agents, developers, surveyors, and more – shared their thoughts on the lessons that reshaped the property market, and how they expect them to continue to change the face of property transactions in 2021 and beyond.

The research also gathered key insight into the individual impact of these industry changes, which further reiterate the positive feeling towards the wider adoption of digital and remote working, including:

• “It’s been very challenging, but amazing how much can be done remotely.” (Residential conveyancer)

• “Working from home and the use of technology have been positive factors for me. Hopefully the technological advances will continue to leap forward in 2021.” (Real estate professional)

• “We’ve saved a lot of time and money – especially on travel costs – thanks to the collective shift to using technology instead of face-to-face meetings.” (Estate agent)

• “2020 has been a great opportunity to embrace change, not just within our firm but also the industry. For example, we’ve gone from paper files to full electronic working.” (Residential conveyancer)

2020 was the year that nobody planned for

Capturing a snapshot in time at the end of a remarkable year, the ‘Thriving in a pandemic’ report explores remote working, digitisation, workflow tools, collaboration, and more; not only reflecting on what has been, but looking ahead at what’s to come, as Joe Pepper, CEO at tmgroup comments:

“2020 was the year that nobody planned for, and whilst the UK property transaction industry would eventually fare better than many other parts of the wider economy, it was still the nearest thing to a rollercoaster ride that many of us will ever face in our working lives. Most of the industry has had to react and change at a pace not experienced for decades, and many of the ways of working that businesses operated to in the first quarter of the year had disappeared by the time we got to the summer, and it seems likely that some of the old certainties have been shattered forever. The reassuring factor is that the industry was able to change, and what has shone through is how resilient and adaptable we truly are.”

Want to find out more? The ‘Thriving in a Pandemic’ report is available to download now.