By Legal Futures’ Associates SearchFlow
It has been just over a month since the government officially reopened the property market in England, following the Covid-19 restrictions. Dr Thomas Quirke, managing director of SearchFlow – the UK’s leading provider of conveyancing search solutions – provides his observations on what has happened during the last few weeks, as well as what changes he foresees moving forward:
“The housing market was officially reopened on Wednesday 13th May and since then we have seen some positive signs of the market returning. We are seeing volumes steadily increasing and are currently well over 50% of the normal market experienced prior to lockdown. This is improving on a daily basis.
“For property lawyers and conveyancers, in the short term the market will be tough, but that challenge drives experimentation and change, with the desire to find new ways of doing things. As far as I’m concerned, the law firm of the future will be very different and I believe the next 10 years will see more change and innovation than the last 50 put together.
“This whole experience has also highlighted the importance of having a strong continuity plan in place. We’ve been able to continue operating throughout this whole timeframe, however it will be interesting to see how legal firms respond to the working from home model. We’re going through a ‘proof of concept’ now, and there will be firms that continue to embrace this approach and will save significant overheads in the process. The competitive landscape will adjust as a result.”
Concludes Thomas Quirke: “Change is always a hard thing, however when forced upon you as it has now, those that embrace change or are agile in their approach will succeed. Recent events have really highlighted to me that underlying trends will now be accelerated – including embracing data and technology. We are leaning into the future, embracing disruption, and are fortunate that we have the resources; ability to invest, the team, systems and processes – all of which allows us to support our customers return to growth.”
With more than one million conveyancing searches and legal reports run every year for over 2,000 legal clients across England and Wales, SearchFlow is the leading provider of comprehensive searches, surveys, identity checks and conveyancing insurance solutions and prides itself in working in partnership with its clients to provide solutions that enable competitive advantage.
For more information on SearchFlow visit www.searchflow.co.uk.
