As rehearsed many times, I’ve been a house price doom-monger for many a month. As with those who forever forecast a stock market crash, it was inevitable that I would eventually be right. Stopped clock syndrome and all that. Falls in average house prices are, of course, deceiving, because my house is not average, and neither, I’m sure is yours; and they only tend to happen every 10 or 15 years. But they do happen, and when they do, it’s very bad news for some, and perhaps better news for others, as in theory they become more affordable for first-time buyers, those Gen Zs trying to get on the housing ladder. The difficult part is that it’s now, with much stricter tests on income and abilities to repay, not so easy to get a mortgage. The whole reason this is happening is that mortgages are more expensive; so, in the short-term, potentially lose-lose, I’m afraid.
“John Lewis foray into BTR could result in losses of £57m”
I did predict a while ago that Waitrose Homes rather than Waitrose Home Deliveries could be the future. John Lewis were probably the most benign big business to decide to go into the housing rental market, a move which could swing things away from the unpredictability of the mass of private landlords who dominate the sector.
