Oh my God, we’re at it again!
Todays Times headline has sent shivers through the property owning classes as they think that the economy is ‘stuttering’ and house prices are stalling/falling again.
It’s August - this country’s main school holiday month - and whilst large numbers of us are not jumping on airplanes to Spain or sunny places as (not being heavily bonused bankers)our budget won’t stretch to it, we are in the majority ‘on holiday’.
Since I became an estate agent in 1979 the late summer has always been slow in terms of sales and new instructions. I have never had a best ever sales month in August. Now, add into this the Cameron/Osborne/Clegg effect and you have the perfect recipe for a seriously depressed property market.
Forgive me but I have to say politicians never learn from past mistakes.
Whilst waiting in a queue outside a Pork butchers the other Saturday morning I made the mistake of passing the time of day with the gentleman in front of me. He asked what I did for a living, as I had commented that I would like a queue like the butcher’s outside my premises, and when I replied “estate agent” he said “You lot deserve all you get!”
So,of course I agreed with him 100%.
Getting to the point, our politicians do things like announcing the end of dual tax relief then waiting 6 months before implementing it. They announce reducing and cutting the public sector, then leave it until the autumn before actually doing it. So therefore we deserve what we get - a market where everyone employed by government or who gets any proportion of their work from government, decides not to spend anything they don’t have to until they know where they stand. I believe this is the root cause of the mixed messages about house prices and the state of the market we are currently hearing.
Never underestimate the power of the media - print it often enough, repeat it often enough on TV and radio and you’ll find it will come to pass.
It’s August - this country’s main school holiday month - and whilst large numbers of us are not jumping on airplanes to Spain or sunny places as (not being heavily bonused bankers)our budget won’t stretch to it, we are in the majority ‘on holiday’.
Since I became an estate agent in 1979 the late summer has always been slow in terms of sales and new instructions. I have never had a best ever sales month in August. Now, add into this the Cameron/Osborne/Clegg effect and you have the perfect recipe for a seriously depressed property market.
Forgive me but I have to say politicians never learn from past mistakes.
Whilst waiting in a queue outside a Pork butchers the other Saturday morning I made the mistake of passing the time of day with the gentleman in front of me. He asked what I did for a living, as I had commented that I would like a queue like the butcher’s outside my premises, and when I replied “estate agent” he said “You lot deserve all you get!”
So,of course I agreed with him 100%.
Getting to the point, our politicians do things like announcing the end of dual tax relief then waiting 6 months before implementing it. They announce reducing and cutting the public sector, then leave it until the autumn before actually doing it. So therefore we deserve what we get - a market where everyone employed by government or who gets any proportion of their work from government, decides not to spend anything they don’t have to until they know where they stand. I believe this is the root cause of the mixed messages about house prices and the state of the market we are currently hearing.
Never underestimate the power of the media - print it often enough, repeat it often enough on TV and radio and you’ll find it will come to pass.
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