Signs of improvement?

A journalist from the Independent is working on a piece about accessible property. His questions, my answers... What's your experience?

You have had the APR for some time now. During this time, have you seen the attitude or approach of 'mainstream' estate agents and websites towards adapted homes on sale change in any way? Have agents been more willing to publicise adapted homes or do they still routinely play this down for fear of deterring other buyers?

No, depressingly there is very little sign that estate agents are any more aware of the importance of promoting access than they were three or four years ago. The fact that we have an increasingly ageing population (plus more than 10 million people who identify themselves as disabled) seems to have passed them by completely! Only around 20 estate agents have ever registered with us and most of them have only posted one or two properties. Only one agent (ELR in Sheffield) has added an accessible property section to their own website.

The reason that APR is now advertising around 500 accessible and adapted properties at any one time is that we have given up waiting for estate agents to provide the information, so we go out and get it! Improvements in search technology mean that, if wheelchair access is mentioned anywhere in property details (however well hidden!), we can usually find it. Did you know that Globrix have adopted our access criteria and being able to search their site for wheelchair access has made an enormous difference?

Agents still fear that promoting access (and particularly adaptations) will put people off - and of course they are right! Who wants to live in a house once owned by a disabled or older person. We might catch it! It's not all the fault of estate agents. Their job is to sell houses for their vendors and they do it the best way they can. But I do believe that by sidelining access, they are reducing their market and in the process making it far more difficult for older and disabled people to find suitable property.

2. Have buyers and sellers with disabilities changed over the years? Have they become more impatient with developers/agents/websites for not appropriately addressing needs or publicising appropriate properties?

I don't think buyers or sellers have changed much. The need for suitable accommodation is the same, but an ageing population means that more is needed. My conversations with people suggest that there is still little expectation that estate agents will understand anything about access needs. Try ringing up a selection of estate agents and telling them that you are a wheelchair user looking for property in the area and have they got anything suitable?!

I do think people are more aware that there are alternatives and there is no doubt that services like APR are greatly appreciated. Changes in the public environment have made it much easier for people with mobility impairments to get out and about and there is increasing awareness that the barriers can be reduced. Have you noticed how many more mobility scooters you see nowadays? Same with public transport and all these things create a changing climate and expectation.

I think the real difference will come through changes to planning regulations requiring firstly social housing developers and then private developers to build to Lifetime Homes standards. The supply of top-class accessible housing is increasing and even better, most people won't notice that it is accessible until they need it. What they will notice is good design, a lot of space and it's easy to get your three-piece suite and your baby buggy in. I don't know if you have ever been around a Lifetime Home but I was pretty impressed.

3. The slowdown has, of course, reduced business for everyone. In what way has it affected demand/supply of adapted properties, or the number of clients with disabilities?

The slowdown is probably good for us. When agents have to work a bit harder to shift property, they are more inclined to look at alternative routes. And lower prices have pluses and minuses for disabled people just like anyone else.

There is certainly no decrease in people visiting the APR website. We are running at around 15 to 20,000 hits per month at the moment. What we do notice is that, when we check adverts after 90 days to see whether the property is still available, 90% of it is. The percentage unsold after this period has significantly increased since the downturn.