‘What’s going to happen to house prices’, I was asked yesterday. I’m proven to be the wrong person to ask, as I’ve been doom-mongering on most people’s most precious financial concern for years now. Surely, I’ve written, with new villages springing up outside every village, supply will soon exceed demand? Surely higher interest rates will hit existing, new and particularly buy-to-let borrowers? But apparently, prices rise-on undaunted. So here’s my latest theory. Top-end properties and those that own, buy and sell them will be unaffected, as the rich always are. Those in the middle will stay put, and not want to sell for less than the bloke next door, so the market will freeze. But there will sadly be a glut of forced-sale repossessions and buy-to-lets which no-one will be able to afford unless they’re sold for bargain prices. So they will be. A tale of three cities.
“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.
