Getting the housing ball bouncing in 2020

Well, money has not gone away, homeownership aspirations have not faded and the need to move for personal, family, employment or school catchment reasons are still evident for many homeowners. And let’s not forget the huge numbers of first-time buyers, second steppers and all other links in the housing chain who have suppressed purchase aspirations on the back of lingering political and economic turmoil.

So yes, I expect any Brexit deal to potentially open the gates to increased buyer confidence across a variety of property transactions over the next six to 12 months. Conveyancing will play an integral role within this, but there are still areas which are sadly falling short and, as a collective, we have to be honest enough to hold our hands up and recognise that we can, and must, be doing better. The government must also follow through with their commitment to affordable homes, something that they have been woeful at, so the property industry can use first-time buyers as the spring-board for wider growth.

For example, conveyancing was recently highlighted as the weak link in the new build homebuying process by a panel of experts speaking at The British New Homes Mortgage Senate. Panellists bemoaned long, drawn-out conveyancing processes, slow response times and poor service.

Such stories reflect badly on the sector as a whole but there are conveyancing firms out there who have made some great forward strides in recent times, especially those who have embraced technology to improve service standards, efficiency and workflows. So, let’s keep positive. I, for one, am looking forward to 2020 with great enthusiasm and can foresee many further enhancements being made across the conveyancing process. And this enthusiasm is reflected in the latest Annual Regulatory Return from firms regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which outlined that 45% of respondents believed their workload will increase in the next year, while 42% said it’s likely to say the same. Only 13% felt it might contract.

After experiencing our first minor ‘Brexit Bounce’ back in March, let’s hope that the final months of 2019 and early 2020 follow suit. Confidence really is key and there is plenty to shout about in an interest rate environment where mortgage rates sit at historic lows and even longer-term fixed rate deals offer quite remarkable value and additional security for homebuyers. However, such value might not be around forever.

The ball firmly remains in the court of the Government, estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors, lenders, distributors and intermediaries to provide some much-needed confidence around property-related solutions. One thing we certainly can’t afford to do is to rely solely on any potential ‘Brexit Bounce’ to kick-start the UK’s housing market. So let’s not just get the housing ball rolling, let’s get it bouncing.