As conditions worsen due to coronavirus, wealthy people and homeowners are shopping and spending like they never did before. Some luxury services include booking private jets, hiring personal doctors/nurses, and getting disaster bunkers, all as an effort to avoid exposition to the virus. The wealthy are even preparing power of attorney in case of self-quarantine or sickness.
Consequences of the respiratory disease are starting to take notice within the real estate market. Homeowners of luxury real estate, are being more aware of who enters their homes and therefore are requesting more details and restrictions for showings. Some real estate agents are canceling open houses or having a cleaning team disinfect everything after the showing, at least until the outbreak situation calms down. This is happening only in specific sectors of the country, were coronavirus cases grew fast.
As a result, real estate agents are filtering all possible buyers not only by economic capacity but by travel history or suspect of illness.
Super wealthy Americans that have access to private jets want to buy real estate on islands and exclusive areas where they can fly off to when disaster hits. This extreme measure is not common since there is currently a hot market due to low-interest rates.
Agents and sellers have seen serious buyers show up to open houses taking every precaution, bringing with them hand sanitizer and masks, so, home sales are not expected to suffer as much due to the virus crisis.
In NYC wealthy buyers are taking advantage of the situation, since travels keep restricted or low-profile, investors are arranging private showings.