Swings and Roundabouts

Tony Wing of Robert Bell & Company advises prospective sellers and buyers not to wait until the property market gets back to ‘normal’.

Who remembers the boom and bust property markets of the early 1970s or the late 1980s? Who remembers the MIRAS debacle in 1988 and 15% mortgage interest rates? More people will remember recent mini booms and busts, general elections, Black Wednesday, the Scottish referendum, the banking crisis, Brexit and, of course, the global pandemic. Over the years all these events, large and small, have affected the market to a greater or lesser extent.

So, if anyone is waiting for the property market to get back to normal they will wait a long time as there is no normal property market. In property we have to play the cards we are dealt. Sometimes the market will benefit the buyer, and sometimes the seller. In all these years the market has never suited both buyers and sellers at the same time. But then what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts.

It is essential to understand that the market is continually in flux. We now have the challenge of low stocks of property for sale, increasing interest rates and property values in some areas rising steeply. Will this continue? No. Why? Because nothing continues unchanged in property for long. Things are constantly moving.

So, my advice is to play the property, not the market. Find a deal that works for you. Please don’t wait for the market to normalise; it won’t. Don’t try and wait until we have reached the top of the market to sell, because when you think that the market has reached the top, it will already be too late. Winning in property is finding the right property deal for you when you need it. Put another way, would you rather have a perfect property or a perfect market? I know which I would choose.