We went on socially distant house viewings in Leeds - and it's as weird as you'd expect

As we crossed the threshold into what could be our new home, we couldn’t help but notice the strangeness of the situation.

House viewings are legal again, and as one half of a couple looking to buy a new home in Leeds, I got to find out first hand what a house viewing during a global pandemic is like.

Turns out, it’s all a bit weird.

It began on Wednesday morning. The news broke (well, the Yorkshire Evening Post broke it), that the government had changed the rules on house viewings and they’re now allowed again.

From that point, it was a test of which estate agents were the most switched on. Having spammed viewing requests on several Leeds homes the week before, my phone began to light up with phone calls, emails and texts from estate agents, as one by one they got the memo.

Every agent had a slightly different tack. One of them asked if we had any symptoms, or had been isolating, and told us we could come if we wore gloves and masks. Another sent us an email with a strict set of rules we had to follow on the day. Another sent us videos on WhatsApp and seemed to discourage us from coming to see it in person at all.

By Saturday, we’d lined up three viewings, so we grabbed our gloves, masks and hand gel and hopped into the car.

At the first house, we pulled up, hand sanitised, then got our gloves on. The agent got out of his car and we both walked onto the pavement outside the house, then stopped. We exchanged pleasantries from about 10 feet away, he checked we were wearing gloves (but didn’t ask about masks), then told us that he’d opened all the doors, that the property was unoccupied and we could walk in by ourselves and he would remain outside. We were instructed to walk around anywhere in the house but not to touch anything.

Horrible pandemic aside, we actually liked this approach. We were able to walk freely around the house without having an agent trying to second guess our eye movements and our expressions, and we could talk freely about the horrid kitchen or the gaudy wallpaper without having to maintain a false politeness. And we could stand in each room and discuss what we might do with it without worrying about seeming too keen to hamper our negotiating position.

Returning to the pavement, the agent asked what we thought, again from about 10 feet away, and told us he'd left a brochure on the doormat we could go pick up. Viewing done, we hopped back in our car, hand sanitised again, and headed to the next house.

There, the agent wore a surgical mask and gloves and came into the property with us, which was a little surprising because it was tricky to stay two metres away from her. She held back and let us move through the house ahead of her, but it wasn't as easy.

At the third home, again a masked and gloved agent greeted us two metres away on the drive, and then sent us into the house on our own. By the time we reached the back garden, he’d waved another couple into the house, so we made tracks.

The next day, we had two couples lined up to view my house - and this was an even stranger experience.

Our agent had called us to tell us that we must disinfect all surfaces and door handles, and that we must leave the house and stand in the garden when the viewers turned up. We were also told to hide or remove any valuables, as the viewers would be walking around our house while we must stand outside.

We got a knock on the door at 2pm prompt, from a mum and daughter, both wearing surgical masks and gloves. They knocked the door, then stepped two metres away from it when I opened it. “I’ll just fetch my fiancée and we’ll get out”, I said, trying to mask the fact my fiancée was still desperately hiding clutter in cupboards upstairs.

We then stepped into the garden, opened all the doors and waited nervously while the first pair, and later another, disappeared into my house to judge my home, possessions and how I live, while we anxiously waited to read their expressions on the way out from a safe social distance.

So that’s the experience. Did it feel safe?

Yes, to be honest, it didn’t feel like we were putting ourselves in harm’s way, especially if the agent or owners can stay outside. Empty houses, gloves, on, no touching. Of course, there’s always the risk we’re walking into a home recently vacated by coronavirus sufferers and we’ll unknowingly breathe in all their viral load, but, as long as agents and vendors can act honestly and both sellers and buyers take themselves out of circulation if they develop symptoms, it seems like this - slightly bizarre - new world of distant viewings could be here to stay for the foreseeable future.