Textbook thinking would have us believe that market sentiments have improved dramatically and sales are taking place ‘thick and fast’ but,in reality, this is not quite the case and let me explain why.

There is no question that in the run up to the Election buyers kept their moving intentions very quiet as they contemplated a ‘financial holocaust’ were the Labour Party to be elected. Sellers felt like the Captain of the Marie Celeste with no activity to speak of and all was ‘set fair’ for a moribund property market if not a full blown crash. The sales that did take place were at discounted prices where the sellers accepted the reality of the situation and the few buyers that abounded took a long view on the economic outlook even if the Socialist government were to be elected . Continue reading →

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has a new ‘spring in his step’ and he is back on the pontification trail.

There is no question that he speaks eloquently, and he is quite handsome to boot, but his record, to date, of being a forecaster of economic trends in the UK has been pretty abysmal.

The most recent and notable ‘gaffe’ was to predict that the trigger for an interest rate rise was when unemployment reached 7% and this was 18 months ago. In reality unemployment reached well below 7% within 4 months and he had to backtrack on this – smartly. Continue reading →