1
Jun
Can A Swallow Make A Summer?
Paul Twyneham of Paul Twyneham & Company looks back over an
encouraging springtide in the property market.
All over the UK the swallows have returned to liven up our skies
and line our overhead cables. At first there were just one or two,
then they arrived in their hundreds and then thousands. They are a
most welcome sight after a miserable winter.
In the first months of this year we in the property world were
also eagerly looking out for other harbingers – house buyers.
After such a dreadful year for the housing market as well as the
economy generally in 2008, any sign of increased activity was
keenly anticipated.
Initially buyers were very few in number but as April and May
unrolled the numbers grew from a trickle to a steady flow. One
buyer certainly doesn’t make a market recovery, but as the
weeks have passed there have been sure signs that things are really
warming up.
It is also encouraging that this new activity is being played
across the entire property spectrum - spurred on by some
exceptional opportunities for homebuyers and property investors
alike. With interest rates at their lowest level ever, poor returns
on other forms of investments and a market that is reaching the
bottom of its cycle - if it hasn’t reached it already - there
is a fresh sense of urgency.
Up to now most of the vanguard buyers have been cash purchasers,
and while the banks and other lenders sort themselves out over the
coming months these will form by far the largest group of buyers.
But as the year wears on more mortgage money will become available
and, although we may see the traditional market slowdown over the
holiday months, I think we can safely predict, for this year at
least, that while one swallow may not make a summer, a few of them
have certainly made for a very encouraging spring.