Influences of Covid-19 lockdowns in the property and the furniture removal industry

Property is a large underlying driver of most countries' economies and it is a good indicator of the performance and financial status of a country. A property slowdown is inevitable due to most countries imposing a lockdown strategy which has paralysed deeds offices, estate agents, and other property players across South Africa. Like other industries, this will snowball through all supply chain levels affecting every income-producing channel on this planet.

Moving companies across South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the world are directly affected by the property market and therefore we are expecting an initial pent-up or unwinding of pending and current property transactions which will quickly unwind into the slowing down that will mirror the initialisation of the lockdown patterns effected by the various countries. The inevitable looming recession will follow.

Impact on our international furniture removal activity

All shipping and even airlines have been ground to a halt and as a result, there are no international relocations services available as we speak. There are still many households that are currently in limbo and stuck on ships that are not allowed in their respective harbours. We are maintaining our communication with our clients and will advise them once harbours have geared up for reopening. The protocols for international cargo movement are heavily restricted at the moment with very rigid screening and sanitising processes in place which will delay all our international furniture removals to the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Keeping our heads up - now and post-Covid-19

Resilience is a habitual ritual of the human race: we humans have a habit of bouncing back and eventually the drama will unfold into more positive protection mechanisms for these scenarios in a very connected world. Be careful to not get caught up in all the media that will no doubt dissect and extract all the negative out of the current crisis. We don't mean to downplay the severity of Covid-19 but rather stimulate a fight-back attitude without getting beaten down with the ongoing negativity in the news. It is mentally and emotionally draining to continuously feed your mind and soul with the fear and drama that surrounds a pandemic like this. The news onslaught has a direct impact on our mental and emotional fitness, not to mention your much-needed immune system in these testing times.

Can property and moving companies recover?

Let's not kid ourselves, property and moving companies will need to be passionate, determined, and creative in order to expand their reach and bouquet of services. Some or all of these factors will need to be employed to determine how well property and removal businesses are going to bounce back and survive in their respective playing fields over the next six to 24 months.

Our vulnerable and elderly have no doubt been hurt the most with the Covid-19 pandemic, but the business fraternity will be reeling and fighting for their own lives as we speak. Our personal health is in the hands of our care workers who have been given much-deserved respect with their frontline attitude. It will need that same attitude, energy, passion, and strategy by all business owners, and they in turn need to be supported by strong creative Government initiatives to kickstart the economic comeback.

Is moving your home or office allowed during the current coronavirus lockdown?

Yes - Currently, the South African government has gazetted and allowed the furniture removal industry to continue and complete removals locally and nationally with certain protocols according to the Government Notice 43293 dated 6 May 2020.

These are all potentially temporary industry reopenings that could change with short notice should the pandemic escalate. Therefore, it is imperative that the furniture removal industry acts swiftly especially in Cape Town where the Covid-19 infection numbers are way over 60% in comparison to the rest of South Africa. SAFR Moving Company Services have a national infrastructure in South Africa with dedicated moving consultants ready to advise you on all the necessary documentation and protocols that need to be followed. All our consultants are working remotely and are ready to help you with all your moving requirements. Please click on the underlying regional options to start an easy process of preparing and booking your furniture removal anywhere in South Africa and even the United Kingdom. Storage, packing, and packaging materials for your removal are provided to help ease the disruption of moving in this current environment.

All our branches will help you with your local and national removal requirements: share load removals are also to South African cities.

Moving Company Services Cape Town
Moving Company Services Johannesburg
Moving Company Services Pretoria
Moving Company Services KZN
Moving Company Services Bournemouth UK (including National Part Load Removal Company Service)

Removal companies can operate during a lockdown provided they follow all safety requirements and Covid-19 protocols?

Our removal teams will be screened on a daily basis with their temperatures being checked as well as for all Covid-19-related symptoms.

Our trucks will be defogged for all viruses after each day.

All our removal teams will be provided with masks, soaps, and disinfectants.

Our furniture removal teams will follow the following protocols as well:

• The staff is to wash/disinfect their hands when arriving at a client’s house before starting with the loading of furniture.
  
• The staff is to wash/disinfect their hands before leaving the loading point.
  
• The staff is to wash/disinfect their hands before offloading once they arrive at the offload point.
  
• The staff is to wash/disinfect their hands once they have finished offloading the client's furniture.

We will then undertake to provide a furniture removal service in the interests of the safety and security of our clients.

The SAFR Group (Pty) Ltd encourages you to follow all Covid-19 protocols to ensure that you keep safe and let’s negate the power that this virus has and is having on our lives.

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