All right, I’m calling it. The UK’s property market has finished its freefall.
It’s just an impression I get: slight tinges of optimism in estate agents’ windows, somewhat more people talking about buying, a growing realisation that most people still have a job and the dip has enabled a large number of people who couldn’t buy before to get on the ladder. As credit eases over the next few months, I believe the property market will stay constant until March, then start growing at approximately the level of inflation for the rest of 2009.
My own patch of the market hasn’t really suffered: being near a massive Tube rebuild and the Olympic area it’s stayed fairly insulated from the plummet. Perhaps by 2010 I’ll actually be in profit on the thing.
Think the property market will be tough for as long as the financial makets are tough.
I also thought we had hit the bottom and was about to begin quietly buying positions in index tracking unit trust, I believe many good businesses are going cheap now so I thought I could set myself up for a cheeky recovery…
… but then I saw the rise in suicides among the top bankers and decided to err on the side of caution for a while longer. I think we are still in for a rough ride.
Got to be time to start getting back into play soon though if only because its fun to watch performance… come to think of it I might get back in a little early but just in a very very small way.
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