Property 2021 Feast or Famine?

Feast or Famine

In three and a half decades in property, 2020 was for me and I am sure you, the most exciting, devastating white knuckle ride that I can remember.

Like a badly mixed cocktail, with shots of alcohol/events that should never share the same glass, and two cocktail umbrellas, one Brexit the other Covid-19, it is time to down the whole concoction and brood on the hangover which might be property market in 2021.

RICS reports market sentiment now cooling, but every December this happens, and with property inventory per branch being at its lowest for decades, it is hard to say if mid-January will be boom or bust for the residential industry.

More subtle, nuances though will play out, just as Zoom became our new best friend, the real story was that adoption of technology takes years or can happen all at once.

Apply this to the present way business has been done by estate agents – and as CBRE said earlier this year – there will be a widening gap between digital tech agents and those who stay in the analogue world. With the modern agents focusing their tech on ‘analytics, management and experience.’

So, my view of 2021 and the housing market is I hope it remains strong, but the strongest and most resilient property businesses will be those who modernise, as the real enemy at the door is agents – ‘complacency or just doing the same thing.’

When your competitor is doing the same thing as you everyone gets a piece of the housing market pie, but if one single thing 2020 has taught us, businesses with big pedigrees in retail and other sectors are gone forever, why? The way they did business had become irrelevant, as the consumer changed the way they shop.

Property is a commodity, the second biggest asset class on the globe, and we are all in a service industry. We either plan, build, sell, lease, or asset manage things that humans dwell in.

The trickiest part of 2021 will be second guessing how our customers most want to do business with us. What communication channels and when; great rewards for those who get it right, and a nasty hangover perhaps for those who do not.

Andrew Stanton

CEO & Founder Proptech-PR. Proptech Real Estate Influencer, Executive Editor of Estate Agent Networking. Leading PR consultancy in Proptech & Real Estate.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

First-Time Buyers Prioritising ‘Forever Homes’

A third of first-time buyer purchases are semi-detached properties, as young people turn to ‘forever homes’   Barclays mortgage data shows semi-detached properties rose in popularity in August, accounting for 33.5 per cent of first-time buyer purchases Four in 10 Barclays first-time buyer customers chose mortgages allowing them to complete their repayments over a 30+…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Closing the gap on client relationships and recommendations

New research from iamproperty has highlighted the growing disconnect between what buyers and sellers want from their agent and what they experience, which could be killing recommendations from happy clients. iamproperty’s quarterly consumer survey revealed that only a third of respondents (32%)¹ would recommend their agent following their experience. With many agents relying on recommendations…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Northern Ireland to expect over 25,000 new home movers

Belfast-based estate agency John Minnis has revealed that Northern Ireland is to welcome an estimated 25,000- 30,000 new arrivals from the UK and Europe over the next five years, as migration to the region reaches its highest levels in more than a decade. Recent figures show that 11,700 people relocated from other parts of the…
Read More
Breaking News

Red tape and rising costs stifling new-build availability across the capital

The latest analysis from London estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed how protracted building timelines are preventing the capital’s housebuilders from delivering the level of new-build housing stock required to meet demand, with new homes currently accounting for just 7.5% of all properties listed for sale across London. Benham and Reeves analysed the latest…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

UK’s new wave of ‘second cities’ offers strongest yield growth for property investors

The latest research from West One Loans has found that whilst investors may continue to favour the nation’s key cities such as London, Birmingham, and Manchester, a new wave of ‘second cities’ is delivering the strongest growth in rental yields. These emerging markets are offering investors the chance to achieve attractive returns, driven by rising…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Decline in change of use further constricting housing supply

Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Octane Capital, believes that a decline in conversion projects could ultimately prevent the Government from hitting its ambitious housing delivery targets, as the firm’s latest analysis has revealed that the number of homes created through change of use has fallen sharply in the last five years. Octane Capital analysed official Government…
Read More