2
Nov
The Balloon Goes Up
Nick Churton of Mayfair Office looks at future options presented
by the property market. "In the same month that a helium
balloon in Colorado made its famous flight - without its supposed
young passenger - the balloon also went up in the UK regarding
mortgage lending, not that this generated quite so much global
publicity. The news that the Financial Services Authority was to
hold banks and other mortgage lenders responsible for their conduct
in providing funds for house buyers was, however, met at the same
time with both partial agreement and sharp criticism.
Some were pleased that no one would now be able to borrow beyond
their means. Others were anxious that this would be yet another
factor to help stall the market – along with VAT going up,
the Stamp Duty holiday coming to an end, the general election next
year and a new taste for austerity that might deter buyers from
moving up market.
Some commentators predicted that the market would go into the
dreaded double dip and there were even those that predicted
Armageddon – especially, like the builders of the Colorado
balloon, those that wanted to seek some extra publicity for
themselves.
The reality will probably be less headline-making. All the above
factors may have a slowing effect on the market. There may be less
choice and this could keep prices artificially high. But even the
most pessimistic headline grabber must agree that the market
shouldn’t return to its position of last year. The factor
that the doomsayers always seem to neglect is human nature. We are
an ambitious species and those in our islands are an ambitious
people. We like to better ourselves. We like to invest for the
future and, if possible, for our children’s future.
As for the FSA, not to agree that some sort of onus should be
put on the banks to lend in a responsible manner rather suggests
that they should act irresponsibly. It was irresponsible banks with
irresponsible lending policies that partly got us into all this
financial mess in the first place. As the banks seem to have
forgotten how to demonstrate fiscal responsibility it must surely
then be up to others to ensure they do.
Banks and building societies telling us what we could and
couldn’t borrow served us well for hundreds of years before
the customers’ financial wellbeing was overtaken by greed.
That we return to those days of responsible banks and lending
should be a comforting frustration for most house buyers, even if
it does mean some may have to save a little longer and the steam
will be taken out of the market for a while.
But the problem with this new regulation is that it may well go
too far. It will make it harder for the self-employed to obtain a
mortgage without established proof of earnings. This is unhelpful
at a time when we should surely be encouraging brave new
initiatives and entrepreneurs. Those with self-certification
mortgages - which made up 10% of all mortgages agreed in 2007
– will find it harder to re-mortgage when their fixed terms
come to an end. Perhaps just as importantly first time buyers will
certainly have to jump through a great many more hoops to buy a
property than those who bought over the past twenty years. Cold
comfort that their parents may well have experienced the same
difficulties, but they at least have had the advantage of seeing
their bricks and mortar assets accumulate at an extraordinary rate
– albeit with a couple of glitches on the way.
We are entering a new era of mortgage lending. It will take a
while for things to settle down but one thing does seem certain:
for those with the funds and the ambition investing in property is
still one of the soundest investments we will make for ourselves
and our families, and that is worth getting the balloons out
for."