Has there ever been a madder time to move? If there has, I can’t remember it.

Now, following Boris’ announcement on Saturday night, movers have found themselves faced with further potential obstacles as we get set for Lockdown 2.0. Apart from, as it turns out, nothing much is going to change.

Fears that agents were about to be forced to shut their doors once more, as they were with the first lockdown, have turned out to be unfounded; as long as they’re prepared to follow government guidelines to the letter, they can pretty much carry on as they have been.

Our Secret Estate Agent confirms in his column this week that it looks like business as usual for agents - though obviously this is far removed from how things were pre-COVID-19:

“I don’t think we will be going back to the deep freeze,” he said, “as we are still able to conduct viewings and valuations as long as we continue to follow strict health guidelines.”

So basically lashings of sanitiser, some serious social-distancing and definitely no ‘open house’-style viewings.

This has come as a relief to agents and movers alike, with any further restrictions likely to have undone much of the mini-boom goodness the stamp duty holiday brought to the faltering housing market back in July.

It will be business as usual for overworked conveyancers, too – the heavy workloads brought about by the temporary tax cut have left many of them struggling to keep up, and this seems set to continue as movers race to complete on their purchases before the holiday ends on March 31.

All up, Lockdown 2.0 is a lot less stringent than its predecessor, which is good news for the property industry and a massive relief for movers.