Tag Archives: property market

The post-election residential property market – is it safe as houses or should you run for sunnier climes?

Are the Stamp Duty hikes doing more harm to the UK Economy than just strangling the Residential Property Market?

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We all know the reasons why the former Chancellor imposed those draconian hikes on Stamp Duty charges in the autumn Budget of 2014 and we can now see the full devastating and distorting effect it is having on the Residential Property Market, particularly in London.

Prices are down by 25% and activity is down by 70% and since transaction expenses are now playing such an important part in the mind-set of prospective buyers, in certain price ranges, there is absolute gridlock in sales, where sellers outnumber buyers by 10-1. Continue reading →

Interest rates up, for the first time in 10 years!

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For the first time in 10 years, Mark Carney and his ‘merry men’ at the Bank of England have decided to put Interest Rates up to ½%, which is where they were before the Referendum last year.

If you remember, they dropped the rates when the unexpected Brexit result was known, in order to stabilise the markets and also promised to support the Pound where necessary.

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The story of OnTheMarket.com

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On The MarketAbout seven years ago a sales representative from one of the two major portals came to me and asked for a 50% increase in our yearly tariff.

I was so horrified at the audacity of this proposal, that I thought I had misheard him. “Did you say 15%”? Even this ‘stuck in my craw’ as it was the equivalent of seven years worth of inflation in one hit. “No” he retorted, “I said 50%”, my worst fears were confirmed. He then tried to diffuse my mounting anger, by sheepishly asking me “not to shoot the messenger”. He explained that it was a diktat from the “head honcho” and there was nothing he could do about it.

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