Living with COVID-19

It’s been a tough six months in Australia, as before COVID-19 emerged, we were dealing with severe drought and horrendous bushfires throughout the whole Eastern Coast of Australia.

COVID-19, the pandemic that has shaken the world, with hundreds of thousands of people losing their lives. COVID-19 has caused chaos in the world’s financial systems, costing tens of millions of jobs lost around the world. Air travel has been slashed worldwide, by 80%, resulting in the airline industry shutting down and this was just the start.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until around 12th February 2020 when most Countries in the world were informed, how severe and contagious COVID-19 was. By the time Countries around the world were told about this deadly virus, the spread of the virus was heading towards a global pandemic.

Fortunately, in Australia our politicians - namely our Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team - were on the front foot from day one. Mr Morrison has been under extreme pressure and has worked our Country through the drought, the bushfires and COVID-19 immediately after.

Our death rate is still under 100 people, which is still a lot, though low when you compare our death rate to other Countries. Italy and Brazil where there are nearly 30,000 deaths, USA approaching 100,000 deaths, UK approaching 40,000 deaths and also Spain and France have recorded a combined 40,000 deaths.

The official shut down in Australia came around 19th March 2020, when the Government virtually shut our borders, including the state borders and completely restricting people from entering Australia - unless they were Australian citizens.

Australians all over the world and many on cruises, where the infection rate was 10 times higher than anywhere else, the problem seemed to compound. Due to Countries’ thoughts on social distancing and restrictions - in terms of travel – ensured the virus did not form in clutters. Clubs, pubs, restaurants, and cinemas were forced to restrict all social gatherings, resulting in the entertainment industry coming to a standstill and only the essential services were allowed to operate. People were told to stay at home and abide by the new social distancing rules. By this stage we felt this to be the new normal. Credit should go to every Australian for adhering to the restrictions and listening to our leaders in working together and being flexible. That has flowed through to our whole business community, which starts at our Banks and flows down to our essential services like Real Estate, Doctors, Supermarkets - amongst many other essential professions. We all had to adapt to the new way of life and before our eyes we realised that the planet started healing itself in all different parts of the world.

Also, people are now reflecting on their lives in the past and how fast moving it was and subsequently this time out has enabled us to align our thoughts with the new world we now live in. It’s really important to be focused, more than ever before, on cleanliness, washing hands, not coughing uncovered, not going out when you’re sick, getting tested immediately if you think you have the symptoms of COVID–19 and being there to support your friends who may be suffering. So there are some

positives that have arisen from COVID-19.

How has COVID-19 effected real estate? Some people have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, resulting in them not being able to pay rent. That means some Landlords cannot pay their mortgage. So COVID-19 has had a massive effect on real estate,

more so in the rental market. At any one time, we have seen rents drop by 20% and tenants have at least 5 x more choice of     property to inspect, than they did at the same time last year.

The main reason for this is no tourists coming into the country, no university students coming into the country, to study from overseas, no interstate travel and 1000’s of properties that had been listed on Airbnb for holiday accommodation are now back on the long term rental market. So, what this means is, more choice, more units than houses available, properties staying vacant for longer periods and landlords suffering financially.

At NGFarah we have adapted to a difficult landscape with some of our staff working from home, to abide by the new distancing laws, but as a whole the business has adapted extremely well. In April 2020, the company made at least $25M of residential sales which is outstanding, considering open for inspections and on site auctions had to reform to private viewings and online auctions. This did make the process much more difficult, but not impossible.

The Morrison Government has protected the majority of Australians and businesses through Jobseeker and Jobkeeper. This has guaranteed employers $1,500 a fortnight, to keep their employees and this in total is a $130 billion package.

Jobseeker is also protecting people, who are unemployed, by doubling their unemployment benefits from $275 a week to $550 a week. There are businesses going into administration, like Virgin Australia who have approx. 10,000 employees and are an iconic brand - though this could not be helped.

6 weeks into the shut down and Australians have adhered to the new rules and as a result the curve has finally flattened to below 1%. There is now talk that things will start resuming very slowly - sport, schools, open homes and auctions just to name a few.

Let’s hope that we can all take something positive from COVID-19. Whether it’s putting more time into your own health and wellbeing, to strengthen your immune system, or spending more time with family, or just helping the elderly neighbour who can’t get down to the chemist to get their prescriptions or haven’t been able to get their weekly shop during the pandemic.

We have seen a really good side of humanity, during the most difficult time since the Second World War. We have seen people come together. We have seen people united and as a result - when the dust does settle - and things eventually do get back to normal, Australia will always be a great country filled with great people from all walks of life.