Housing Market Archives - K2 Business Partners | Turnaround Investment Partners

Are we brewing another bubble?

Profits are up at Currys, PC World and Asda. Outgoing Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has revised upwards the bank’s growth forecast for the year and the CBI too is a bit more optimistic about “more balanced growth” in the economy.
Add to this, results from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ latest survey showing that house buying enquiries had reached their highest level for three years and in April the Ernst & Young ITEM Club predicting a pick up in the housing market activity to almost pre-2007 levels.
Some would argue that Chancellor Osborne’s Funding for Lending and Help to Buy schemes are finally helping potential home buyers but let’s not get carried away here.
Was it not unwise lending on housing that led to the unsustainable property bubble that precipitated the 2008 economic meltdown?
Despite the unseasonably chilly May are these reliable signs of green shoots?
Or are we collectively clutching at short term straws?
We should remember that banks are still weighted down by illiquid assets such as commercial property, investors continue to seek short term gain rather than investing in the longer term future and politicians think only in career terms of keeping their seats in the next election.
Clutching at short term straws will not fix our economic problems. Investing in the longer term, in promising new companies, in support for R & D to keep our knowledge economy competitive overseas and investing in a sensible education and business support policy that provides the skilled workers for the future through apprenticeships just might give the economy a fighting chance.
In the meantime while it’s a bit early for SMEs to shift their focus away from managing cash flow it might be appropriate to revisit the business plan and model to identify any changes that should be made to prepare to take advantage of growth should it materialise.

Are Estate Agencies Safer Businesses Now than they were in 2008?

The sub prime mortgage crisis that precipitated the 2008 global recession led to plummeting property prices, very limited mortgage lending, repossessions and to a dramatic slump in the housing and commercial property markets.
Estate agencies were among the first businesses to feel the effects of the crisis. By December 2008 an estimated 40,000 employees had lost their jobs while around 4,000 estate agency offices -approximately one in four – had closed.
The smallest agencies, of perhaps four or five branches or less, were worst affected particularly if they depended solely on property sales.
So is the worst over now for the estate agency business? Not if the most recent information on the housing market is any indication.
Gross mortgage lending declined to an estimated £9.8 billion in April 2011, down 14% from £11.4 billion in March and the number of mortgages approved for house purchases hit a new low in April, at 45,166, the lowest April figure since records began in 1992.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders predicts that the numbers of homes repossessed will rise from 36,000 in 2010 to 40,000 in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012 and the online housing company Rightmove reports that average unsold stock rose from 74 to 76 properties per branch, reaching the highest ever level for May.
Although the housing market varies significantly in different parts of the UK, with London booming and East Anglia holding steady while the north suffers there is also evidence that the demand for rented property and buy to let property is rising along with rent levels.
None of this suggests that the business of estate agency is likely to be any more secure for a few years yet. If the High Street agents are to survive they need to revisit their business models, diversify their activities into letting, make use of online marketing and be sure they are up to speed on all the regulations governing landlords’ and tenants rights’ and other property letting regulations.