Property Doom? Correction or Crash or Neither?

Two weeks ago a friend and colleague who is an experienced property professional was expressing his concern about the stability of the property market and how a ‘crash’ was coming. The gentleman in question reads endless articles and forecasts. I was fairly damning of his negative view point and told him that reading press articles to that degree was dangerous, depressing and utterly unrealistic. We strive to be informed but information overload is daft in itself. Articles are people’s opinions, the press like dramatic headlines when most articles have little substance, opinions vary and are not always written by those who should be commenting on the property market. I firmly told the friend in question that there was no justification for his concerns, it is not what the market is suggesting, demand will not alter and simply continue to grow and that construction is still ultimately the backbone of the UK economy. I said that I felt that the midlands and northern market would simply continue to be relatively flat with some growth.

Interestingly I then discussed this with a regional house-builder who agreed with my opinion.

The ongoing coincidence was that I attended an Evening with Entrepreneurs event yesterday evening at PPG Canalside and one of the speakers was the the MD of a large PLC construction company. He was asked whether he could see a crash or correction in the property market and whilst his answer was lengthy in summary he felt that the property market would potentially correct itself but basically continue to be relatively flat. There was more comment and more detail but that was his opinion.

I am not suggesting I’m an industry expert but merely an informed property professional who has been involved in the property, market for over twenty years and it is interesting that a successful regional developer, an MD from a national PLC and of course me agree where the market is and where it is likely to go.

A stable but gradually increasing market is where we are and what is almost certainly going to continue in my opinion. This hugely supports the buy to let property market and its basic principles of buying in the right area, where rental demand is strong, the right sort of property and of course with a discount. Nothing will change the ongoing rental demand and the need for housing.

As ever your thought are welcome.