According to Isaac Newton, what goes up must come down. Fortunately, in the property market at least, what goes down, must also come up. At least, that is what happened in the '70s, '80s and '90s after periods of recession - now it looks as if history is repeating itself.
Estate agents are always glass-half-full people. But can anyone fail to have noticed that things are on the up? High Street spending is up, employment is up, manufacturing is up, GDP is up, the service sector is up, lending is up and the property market is up. In fact, the property market is back with a vengeance in most areas. Vengeance is such a bitter word but it is a correct one in this instance - the retaliation for something harmful. The recession was harmful to so many people. But the market is retaliating now.
Is this all a blip? It is now looking unlikely. The planets seem perfectly aligned for growth in the property market. This is a great time to buy or sell. Low interest rates, plenty of stock in many areas, keen buyers, less reluctant sellers - the market is set pretty fair.
But no matter how the market looks, there are still some things we must watch carefully. If purchasing, we need to keep an eye on the interest rates - they also go up as well as down. If selling, we must not get too ambitious and let our enthusiasm for achieving a top price blind us to reality - a glut of properties in the market means a lot of choice for buyers, and buyers never select an overpriced property when a sensibly priced one is available - would you? This is a time for level-headed buying and selling - remembering, at all times, the laws of physics, and of the market.
