Dominic Parravani of Durrants compares COP26 and little green men with the November property market.
Many of us will remember childhood comics with little green men warning earthlings that “resistance is futile”. It felt awful to be so helpless.
Yet in Glasgow at COP26, that is just what the scientists are saying. They warn that resisting change will only bring global catastrophe. The experts say that the future is in our hands, but that we must act now.
In a way, selling property is the same. We have experienced an almost unnatural market for the past eighteen months. But things are slowly changing.
The market in some areas is not as gung ho as it was. Multiple full-price bids on properties aren’t as common as they were. Buyers are more relaxed and feel they have more time. And over-priced houses and flats are not receiving quite the high-level interest that they might once have had, especially with the threat of higher mortgage interest rates looming.
For sellers, resisting this turn of events is futile. Keeping a property on the market in the hope someone will pay a premium in all but premium locations is fraught with risk and potential delays.
Just like resisting little green men or global warming, resisting or ignoring market conditions when selling a property is storing up trouble.
With little green men, the laying down of arms is sensible. With global warming, rushing out of fossil fuels and into renewables is sensible. And with property, setting a sensible asking price from the outset, whatever the market, will always mean a faster and easier sale.
