Ed Mead: Sellers need a notional interest rate rise to smack them across the face

Today was a corker. Daily Express headlines saying that the property market is set to surge this year, sadly they were narrow mindedly talking about prices only, and on the same day the FT were talking about prices set to fall.

I’m guessing that overall we know who to believe even if we want to believe The Daily Express.

But it sums up the issues puzzling any buyer or seller. It seems buyers mostly want to get on with it and most sellers exist in a world of inertia, needing a notional interest rate rise to smack them across the face and get them moving.

What I can tell you is that a couple of weeks in to the new year and it’s beginning to look a touch better here in London. A strange confluence of events, namely mortgage rates bottoming out, dollar pegged buyers from India Russia China and the US here in strength, Eurozone buyers worried about the future of their currency and looking for a safe home for their money, and the fact that Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is going to 5% for transactions over £1m (not that uncommon in Central London), means that perhaps a market that never really kicks off until the end of Jan might just be perking up a bit earlier.

More soon.

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Ed Mead is a regular contributor to The Big Property List blog.  An Estate Agent for over 30 years, he has been writing and commentating on the market for over half of that as the Sunday Times Property Expert and The Agent Provocateur for the Telegraph.  He sits on the Board of The Property Ombudsman Ltd, has a regular LBC slot, and is happy to say it as it is.

Other places you can find Ed online are:
Douglas & Gordon blog
Ed Mead on Twitter