2021: Very insightful industry predictions – Property Industry Eye

What a year that turned out to be, one well and truly trampled and kicked around by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse thats for sure. And where was Nostradamus when we needed him most eh? We surely could have done with the heads up given what unfolded in the form of a global pandemic, prophecies of economic suffocation in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Satans man on earth Trump and his ongoing mission to divide America, bushfires, floods, locusts, Murder Hornets and the like.

Its been tragic for many and I wont make light of that. A horrendous period of loss, anxiety, anguish and economic despair that has left no-one unchallenged. But this is a property column rather than a Guardian lament and so Ill focus on the subject at hand, if I may

So as April dawned last year and we were knee deep in a protracted, hard lockdown which included all aspects of the property market, I was probably not alone in wondering how wed all survive. It felt as if all of those zombie apocalypse movies wed watched were an education as to how to actually prepare for our future. So much so that the media, in a typical attempt at frightening us all further, revealed that the must-have property accessory for the well-heeled was an underground bunker complete with cinema room, pool and shooting range. The mainstream media revelled in doom and exaggeration, misdirection and gotcha-scoring and delighted in contributing to sweeping panic. Project fear was not just for Brexit, it seems.

Accordingly, Q2 was less spring and more a thud as agency sales hit the floor together with everyones optimism. But eventually, one thing in the melee that HM Gov did get right was the realisation that turning the lights out for the housing sector altogether would kill the weakened economy even faster and so, not only did they allow the market to re-open in May and have kept it open ever since, but they boosted its return with a stamp duty tax dodge that even Starbucks would be proud of and which has had an effect similar to dumping OPECs entire petroleum inventory onto a lava field. The resulting increase in transactions happened fast albeit not quite as fast as the conveyancing industrys heads swivelling from Theres not enough business to go round, poor us to stop bothering us, we cant cope with all these cases. Still, its given them an excuse to take six months to get a case through rather than the previously supersonic three to four months and which now seems just a distant, rose-tinted, romantic memory.

Rishi Sunak, our next Prime Minister, has been the saviour of our professions fortunes and hence many of us, Im sure, now display a picture of the great man on our desks as a fitting nod to his greatness. Mine takes pride of place between a signed photo of Margaret Thatcher and my puppy slicer.

But what, we wonder, does 2021 hold? Well, history will record it as the post-Covid year as the various safe (ish) and ultra-profitable vaccines coarse through our collective veins eradicating the lurgy. And it will also be a year unrestrained from the rusty shackles of the EU and where, as will become evident, not only will financial Armageddon not prevail as a consequence of leaving the clutches of Brussels but instead we will prosper.

Watch as the queues at Primark, Wetherspoons and at McDonalds snake further around the council estates of Britain whilst pent-up demand for spending and going-out takes hold with a vengeance as we emerge from our Netflix comas. In all seriousness, the power of this future spending is best characterised by recent ONS data which shows that UK households saved 29% of their income during lockdown compared to a typical 7% usually. Spending in mid-2020 was over 80 billion down comparatively and thats an awful lot of cash to trickle down still.

Yes, this year will be an annus-lovelius especially for us property types whom will continue to carry Rishis flaming torch, igniting related prosperity wherever we go. Heroes, thats what we are. If Covid is a war, were the ****** SAS.

Now obviously, this cheery tale of optimism would not be complete without some associated forecasts for the coming year on my part. Not just a boring house price punt as youll disappointingly see elsewhere but some proper predictions. And so I will oblige with particular confidence given that my 2020 forecasts as made in late December 2019 were all pretty much spot on despite the subsequent twelve months being especially unforeseen except of course to those of us that are truly insightful.

Anyway, in 2021:

Ok, thats my top ten. Lets see how I do this time round. Have a fantastic and a lucrative year with perhaps less drama than the last one and please, please #benicetoaconveyancer if you do actually manage to speak to one.

A cheery fellow, wasnt he? I reckon if he was still alive today his morose demeanour would actually fit in rather well within the comments section below.

All the best.

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2021: Very insightful industry predictions - Property Industry Eye

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero