General: Homing instinct - Stewart Andersen

Homing instinct

In 2009 there were all kinds of reports about property markets around the world. “The runes were read and the omens told of disaster,” says Stewart Andersen. But has it happened?

In recent months, we’ve all heard a great deal about the dreadful state of property markets in countries around the world. Reports in the media of just some of those places included:

1) Mexico (property market falling apart with American owners returning to US because of the economy. In turn, this led to problems - or issues, as problems are now called - among the makers of tacos and nachos who had a surfeit of their products on their hands)

2) Spain (total meltdown of property market throughout Spain. This led to panic among bar owners who found themselves having to serve Spaniards and speak Spanish, something they hadn’t had to do for quite some time)

3) France (according to the Press, the French property market was in complete chaos, with packs of Brits abandoning their homes and rushing lemming-like back to the UK)

4) Poland (property market unable to cope because of so many Poles rushing home in the opposite direction to the Brits leaving France. This exodus also contributed to a dearth of plumbers, painters and builders in the UK which in turn caused panic among those homeowners who were trying to increase the size of their properties rather than moving to somewhere larger)

5) Greece (with the euro and sterling on a par with each other, Brit property owners found that Metaxa brandy prices had shot up and this caused many of them to abandon their holiday plans. They stayed at home and worried about the lack of Poles to work on their UK properties)

6) East Anglia (B&B and hotel owners as well restaurant owners, pub owners and estate agents rubbed their hands with glee at the thought of all those Brits who would, to use a dreadful new word, indulge in a ‘staycation’ and holiday in East Anglia. This optimism was inflated by the Met Office prediction of a ‘barbeque summer’, months filled with sunlit days and ringing tills. Quite the reverse happened. Wet days followed wet weeks and many of the B&B and hotel owners as well as restaurant owners, pub owners and estate agents became bored with peering through rain-splashed windows and began to think of selling their properties and moving to France, Greece, Spain etc)

Never has the old saying, ‘The grass is greener on the other side’ been so true. Yes, there have been problems in property markets in different countries. Certainly, more than usual For Sale, Se Vende or A Vendre signs have appeared outside homes during the last 12 months, but a great many property owners have hunkered down and weathered the financial storm.

On the whole I have an instinctive distrust of statistics (and politicians) and when they tell us that, hooray, the economy has emerged from recession, I think we should all wait and see.

The last year has been tough but like so many other things, property values and sales are cyclical and the proof of that is that prices are creeping up once again. I doubt that we’ll reach the heady days of 2006 when values went up faster than a Moon rocket but a recovery in housing does seem to be in the air. And certainly property rentals are a much better option than putting your money on deposit in a High Street bank.

There is perhaps one negative portent on the horizon. A recent BBC report stated that 98 per cent of the eels that were due to return to the Thames from their annual jaunt out into the Atlantic have failed to appear. Do they know something about the property market or the General Election on 6 May that we don’t? Smart chaps, those eels - is this an omen or are they floating voters?

Stewart Andersen

Stewart has worked on a variety of magazines for more than 20 years as a journalist and editor, usually specialising on property and travel, both in the UK and overseas. His first book ‘Wild Thyme in Ibiza’ was published recently and this year he launched Property & Travel with Stewart Andersen