The year ahead

Although there were many difficulties last year, the Christmas cheer seems to be working and the property market seems to be holding its own.

In my humble opinion people are clearly keen to buy. What is also interesting is that the lettings market is just as buoyant as the selling market. This tells me that people are simply bored with the property waiting game.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t see the market leaping for the stars just yet, I hope those heady days of soaring and crashing are behind us, for a few years at least.

It would be good to put down some firm and stable foundations, producing a steady market for a while.

There are potentially two blots on the landscape, the Football World Cup and the forthcoming election. Neither of these is inconsequential nationally and both may affect the economy as a whole. New activity in the housing industry usually slows down considerably during the period of the World Cup as football fever hits the nation. The election will have an effect not least of all because of Tory promises to abolish Home Information Packs if they win, which looks likely.

Although the Bankers are still taking a beating in the press, one would hope that they have learnt a few lessons along the way. We have gone from complete free and easy lending, to the other end of the spectrum, where getting any form of lending is difficult. One thing is for sure, to make any money the banks must lend, this will happen, if a lot more cautiously this year.

Hopefully 2010 will give us the opportunity to get out of this financial mess and start to grow again.