For now, business as usual in real estate market, says agent

POTENTIAL home-owners and tenants are being reassured the residential market is still up and running.

First National Collie & Tierney have put in place safety measure amid the current COVID-19 threat, but agent Robert Stephens said for now it’s business as usual.

“At the end of the day the message is life is moving on and we are taking precautions but we are still here,” he said.

“We are doing all the right things, we have signs on the office door and at open inspections with information about the precautions for people who have been overseas or have flu-like symptoms.

“We have also ramped up the hand sanitiser and hygiene measures.”

The company has a three phase contingency plan in place, but are only operating under stage one currently.

Mr Stephens said they will continue with routine inspections and open homes with extra hygiene measures within this phase.

“There isn’t a local outbreak here at the moment and so we won’t consider moving to phase two until that happens,” he said.

“That’s when we will start scaling it back and possibly look at closing the office but still working from within or from home where we can.”

Mr Stephens said the safety of staff and customers were the forefront of the company’s decisions.

“It’s just about protecting our staff and the wider community,” he said.

“We will keep working while we can but we have systems put in place to protect everyone.”

Flush warning

TENANTS have been warned by some Sunraysia property managers against flushing paper towel and tissues down their toilet.

While panic buying has continued to make it increasingly difficult to buy toilet paper, some renters have received warnings about using other items as substitutes.

In a letter sent to tenants from Barry Plant Mildura, renters were warned they would incur the full fee if their toilets became blocked.