Don’t be lulled by interest rate freeze

The Bank of England may have put off the inevitable by keeping interest rates at 0.5% for 77 consecutive months – but the only way is up.

And when that happens, we all need to be prepared for the impact this will have on the housing market. Borrowers will feel the squeeze as they struggle to pay the extra on their mortgages and householders will cut back on spending in order to make ends meet.

As someone who has ridden the rollercoaster of the housing market for almost three decades, I know all too well that once interest rates start to rise, they don’t stop. It may be slow at first, but gradually they creep up, stifling demand from those who once may have bought.

That might not be a bad thing in London and the south-east, where demand for property far outstrips supply, but there’s many a market town across the UK that ought to be worried if interest and mortgage rate rises dampen their housing market completely.

It’s something I hope will be considered by the new all-party Parliamentary group that’s been set up to tackle the housing crisis. Let’s hope it’s not just a talking shop. We need radical reforms – and fast – if we’re to avoid the old cycle of boom and bust.

There is nowhere near enough property in development, nothing on the scale that’s required. House builders are still land banking, the planning process is too long-winded even if reform is under way, and we need to be less precious about building on the Green Belt.

I’ve long lobbied on this issue and have spoken many times to housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis. Let’s see more garden cities with decent infrastructure and housing, tax breaks for house builders to encourage more building and incentives for budding grand designers looking to create a home of their own. Let’s see those interest rates remaining low and stable.

Let’s get behind the Government’s attempts to resolve the problem and see what wide-ranging innovative solutions they are proposing. And let’s play a part in tackling the issue. Otherwise it won’t just be the householders that are suffering – our industry will be far worse off too.

The true cost of digital

It’s not just the dairy farmers who need to be worried about operating at a loss. Have you worked out the real cost of promoting your properties online?

Digital marketing is a money pit and bumps up your business costs in all sorts of hidden ways. Try working out the cost of driving traffic to your own website. What does it cost you to get a lead, what’s the quality of the lead and what’s the cost of converting that to a valuation and listing?

Once you add website development costs and portal fees, then add in the time element of social media, email and content marketing – and time is money – plus any display ad costs, video, data analysis and staff training, you soon realise that the true cost of marketing property online is far higher than you think. And that’s not even taking into account traditional marketing techniques.

So where does this leave print advertising in newspapers, magazines and flyers? Will we even be able to afford them if portals keep hiking their prices? Agents have a blind faith that the local paper is going to get them business ­– yet the death knell for papers has been sounded, with their plummeting circulation and awful digital offering.

So what’s the alternative? Is there one? Does throwing more money at digital marketing always equate to more market share?

Inevitably, with increasing numbers of estate agents trying to occupy the online space, the cost of digital marketing is only going to get even higher – at a time when online agents are trying to push down overall fees.

So next time a customer moans about what they have to pay, sit them down with a cup of coffee and explain they’re not the only ones trying to keep up with the Jones’s. We all are too.

Why hide behind anonymity?

It’s great that the internet gives people a voice. I’m always interested to know what people think. But why hide behind anonymity? If you have a view, stand up and be counted.

That goes to the anonymous and alleged ‘ex-member of Spicerhaart staff’ quoted making unfound allegations on another property website about OnTheMarket.

People are entitled to their view if it’s based in fact.

But not when it’s a load of old tosh.

I started my working life as a photojournalist on the nationals. I always thought good journalism meant asking for a response.

If someone has a hidden agenda to bring down OnTheMarket, let’s get it out in the open.

Otherwise you’re no worse than the trolls who give the internet a bad name.