A couple with a first baby sought my advice: they had accepted a low offer for their cramped London flat and bid the asking price for a nice house in commuterland. But they need a bigger mortgage and if Brexit leads to a property crash, they could face negative equity and financial stress. Should they call the whole thing off?
Emphatically I said they should not: buying a family home is a long-term choice, rarely regretted, in which fluctuating value matters far less than whether you love the house and whether (as in their case, I gathered) income is sufficient to support the mortgage. Conventional wisdom, perhaps, but I’m pleased to see the nation thinking the same way: the property website Rightmove reports a 6.1 per cent year-on-year surge in agreed sales in the month to mid-August, with rises of up to 10 per cent in the east and north-east, with many buyers pressing for completion before 31 October.
It’s the way to go, kids: just get on with your lives. We’ll never know how Brexit changes the future because we’ll never know the counterfactual — but you’ll make your own luck by your own decisions and you’ll always regret a hesitation.
Europe’s sinking banks
To add to last week’s list of negative signals in the global economy, European bank shares have collapsed back to levels last seen during the 2012 eurozone debt crisis, reflecting recession indicators in Germany and elsewhere. Their problems, we’re told, are not about solvency — most banks have been adequately recapitalised and passed their ‘stress tests’ — but limp profitability at a time when the European Central Bank is highly likely to cut interest rates again as a stimulus measure, while hard-pressed corporate customers are not borrowing to expand.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in