Second lockdown: Can I still move house?

The national lockdown, in effect from Thursday 5 November for at least four weeks, will impact vast areas of our lives. 

People are being asked to stay inside, work from home if they can, and greatly reduce social contact with friends and family members. 

Indoor and outdoor leisure facilities have been forced to close, as will non-essential shops, plus restaurants and pubs for dining in (take away will still be available). 

But how do the new restrictions affect those who are in the process of moving or will need to move in the next four weeks?

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick posted on his Twitter account on 1 November that renters and homeowners are able to move house during the UK’s second lockdown and removal firms and estate agents can still operate with Covid-Safe guidelines in places. 

These include keeping to social-distancing regulations, wearing a face covering, and washing hands. See specific advice to your circumstances here. 

Jenrick wrote in his post: “Housing market update ahead of Thursday's measures: Renters & homeowners will be able to move; Removal firms and estate agents can operate; Construction sites can and should continue; Tradespeople will be able to enter homes.”

As of July, stamp duty was suspended on property purchases up to £500,000, offering people a saving of up to £15,000. The stamp-duty relief has tempted many into buying during the pandemic and stimulated a temporarily stagnant market, following the first UK lockdown. The stamp-duty holiday is due to end on 31 March 2021, and those already in a chain will be looking to complete as soon as possible.

Property industry leaders have written a letter to chancellor Rishi Sunak asking for an extension of the stamp duty holiday, to keep up with the demand for home buying and to avoid a cliff-edge end to the initiative. Some in the property sector say disruptions, due to the pandemic and coronavirus restrictions, are inevitable. They have seen “average property transaction times lengthen from 12 weeks to 20 weeks”, and say an extension of the scheme will “release the pressure in the system to allow transactions to complete and avoid a disorderly and distressing period for movers and businesses throughout the market”.

At the start of the pandemic, the government considered rough sleepers in its “everyone in” scheme.

“For some of society most vulnerable – rough sleepers – we made the decision to ask every local council in England to provide emergency accommodation in hotel for everyone sleeping rough on our streets at the start of the pandemic,” said Jenrick.

However, no details of the same kind of support during a second lockdown have yet been announced.

Tom Copley, deputy mayor of London for housing said: “Rough sleepers are particularly vulnerable to Covid. Everyone In, pioneered in London, was world-leading, and resulted in very low Covid infection rates amongst homeless people here. Now we need Everyone In 2.”