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Last Updated on 18/07/2023 by STEPHANE
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This article is the second one of our dedicated reports on the Coronavirus, here is our introduction paper: What are the impacts of Coronavirus on the Spanish real estate?
First, let’s have a look at the Covid-19 illness itself
For a lot of people, at least those living outside of Asia, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Viruses, SARS Viruses, are a first, therefore it has a huge impact on everyone.
The scientific community is still learning about it, and because of its ability to spread from people who don’t appear to be ill, the virus may be harder to control. People may be at their most infectious before symptoms appear.
The pandemic creates a lot of uncertainties:
- The coronavirus pandemic is likely to last as long as two years and won’t be controlled until about two-thirds of the world’s population is immune as said by a group of experts from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
- Potentially curative therapies are beginning to appear: Remdesivir of Gilead.
- It is unknown whether or not you are immune once you have had the virus.
- The long-term health effects on survivors are unknown.
At the same time, we learned some sure things:
- Covid-19 is highly contagious, spreading across populations in days.
- It’s deadly, but we are yet to determine a concrete fatality rate due to a lack of testing and surveillance.
- According to the American health organisation, CDC, people with the following conditions could be more at risk for poor outcomes: People aged 65 years and older, people with Asthma, Chronic lung disease, Diabetes, Serious heart conditions, Chronic kidney disease and being treated with dialysis, and with severe obesity. People in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, immunocompromised individuals, and people with Liver disease.
So, unfortunately, Coronavirus exacerbates difficulties for vulnerable individuals even more, with their risks being much greater than younger, or healthier individuals without other comorbidities.
Second, the impacts of the Shelter-In-Place orders
The first impact was economical:
people with little financial means are highly exposed and the Spanish economy was stopped for nearly everybody for two full months.
The second impact was practical:
people had to stay and live where they were with their relatives:
- No possibility to go outside except for necessary shopping
- This meant living in a place with all household members 24/7. Many Spanish Children couldn’t exit the buildings for 7 weeks, until Sunday the 26th of April.
- No possibility to visit/help relatives living elsewhere
- Living in a place foreseen for sleeping and eating but not for other activities: many residential units are too small, without enough light, posing more difficulties for working from home…
- No social contacts (inside or outside)
Depending on the length of the Shelter-In-Place orders, a lot of people suffered many indirect (psychological) impacts of this.
Last but not least, social distancing and wearing masks outside have greater impacts on people’s daily lives.
We will come back to that as those will impact the real estate market as people will change their criteria for their ideal properties.
Don’t neglect the basic recommendations to keep yourself and others safe:
- maintaining a social distance of 2 m,
- regular hand washing,
- cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze,
- avoid touching your face after touching hard surfaces where the virus can live.
