Looking beyond Brexit
While the result of the recent EU referendum was a shock for many, it won’t herald a return to the dark days of 2008, when the property market plummeted and remained in the doldrums for many long months. The appetite for buying land and building new homes remains, and this burgeoning area of the property sector may well shine a light on new growth.
The Land & New Homes Network’s Kevin Ellis offers his view of the situation: “Certainly, there are agents out there wondering what this decision will have on their pipeline sales and on new instructions coming to the market, but I’ve spoken to many market-leading agents from within our network and beyond and there is actually a feeling of optimism. We have learned not to talk ourselves into a recession and that the winning strategy is to diversify into new areas and develop existing operations – whether that’s sales, lettings, mortgages or Land & New Homes.”
Right now, Land & New Homes is the smart choice. The requirement for new properties hasn’t vanished overnight, and nor will it for many years to come, given our growing population. Just over a decade ago, the Barker Review of Housing Supply found that about 250,000 homes needed to be built every year to prevent spiralling house prices and a shortage of affordable homes. It’s a target that has been repeatedly missed and even the Governor of the Bank of England has noted that housebuilding in Britain was half that in his native Canada, despite us having a population twice the size.
Ultimately, the country needs new properties, and this is borne out by the fact that – even immediately after the referendum – agents were reporting property sales where multiple offers were being made. Similarly, it’s ‘business as usual’ for house builders too, with many reporting a very healthy demand up and down the country.
Kevin continues: “In fact, this is the perfect time for agents and developers in this sector to take advantage of situations where the weaker competition might be having second thoughts. Land & New Homes is here to stay. And we feel that the timing of launching our new business represents a real opportunity for agents to diversify and benefit from an additional revenue stream, as well as generating greater visibility on their future order books of properties to sell.”
