I write this note to you all in what can only be described as very strange times.  Many of you are currently sat at home on the government backed Furlough scheme probably feeling a bit helpless whilst waiting for better times when we can reopen the business.  For those of you that are currently working from home, you will be dealing with enquires and queries from lots of customers that are in most instances not linked to your branch and so must feel very unfamiliar.

The measures we have taken since the Prime Minister announced on the 23rd of March that we had to close have been completely focused around how best to protect the business that you have all been instrumental in building. In those first twelve months that NHM had been trading we had travelled so far and all the front end indicators at the end of February suggested that year two was going to be even better than year one had been.

We truly believe the market will come back to us when this terrible pandemic passes but unfortunately we nor anyone else can know how long that will take and therefore we are trying to be as careful as we can be around what we spend whilst we are incapable of generating any front end business and therefore incapable of generating any new revenue. It is imperative that we keep our costs bolted down as tightly as possible so that we can trade through this period and be financially healthy when we come out the other side, hence utilising the government backed furlough scheme to protect everyone's job security for the long term future.

Many businesses like ours have furloughed all staff and gone into complete hibernation.  We have not followed this path as we feel it is worth the cost of keeping some staff working from home maintaining contact with our sellers and our landlords that are currently on the market, our buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords that are within our Residential and Lettings Pipelines and our tenants and landlords that are within our managed portfolio's. The purpose of all this contact is to protect the business that everyone has worked so hard to build, so that we do not have to start from scratch when the day comes that we can return to our offices and start trading again.

With this in mind, we are also going to be using a new product that Brief Your Market are in the advanced stages of creating, it is an interactive online viewing platform that can host sellers & landlords self shot video content.  We believe there will be a lot of positives to be had from this as whilst we are shut and unable to conduct physical viewings potential buyers & tenants will be able to do virtual viewings. This will help to keep our sellers & landlords engaged and it will help us get a fast start when we reopen.  Our properties will hopefully be short listed for viewing physically when the circumstances allow following a Virtual viewing.  We will keep you informed of progress but we are confident that the system will be fully operational within the next few weeks.

I know times are difficult for everyone reading this note, both in terms of the financial impact they are feeling and in terms of the uncertainty around what is going on within our business and within our industry.  We will also be worrying about our friends and loved ones health but I can promise you this, we will come out the other side together and we will continue to be a great business that thrives maybe even more than before.

We are constantly reviewing the situation and we will communicate with you all again once the government has updated the nation with regards to ending or extending the current lock down period.

In the mean time, stay safe and keep well.

Best regards

Matt McCreath

Managing Direcor