4 FIBA
Is it really an election ?
MARTIN REYNOLDS Chairman , FIBA
So , the date has been set for the General Election and we are now being bombarded with 24-hour news about who will do what , and why they are better than the others and now is the time for change or a reset . Not many state when they will get it done , what it will cost or how it will be funded , but that is politics as we have always known it .
What has been interesting so far , and has been mentioned by a few people recently , is that currently it does not feel like an election of old . Is it due to the polls showing such a lead or just apathy as a society to politics in its current state ? Without getting too political , it can just feel like it is happening in a bubble and the rest of the country is just getting on with business . The interesting part of the election will probably be around tactical voting and how some of the more well-known MPs get on being re-elected .
So , away from politics and back to specialist property finance business . The comment above about people just getting on with business seems to be resonating with
many we have spoken to over the last month . The markets seem to be acting very consistently at present with many people seeing very similar numbers of enquiries and applications month on month . The feedback is that investors and developers have confidence now that 5.25 % is the peak for Base Rate and while it may stubbornly stay there for a little longer than we would all wish , it will start to come down later this year and hopefully continue into 2025 , unless we have any nasty surprises .
Landlords seem to be confident and , while they may be shedding some properties , they are also buying others , so for the professional it is more around rebalancing their portfolios than an exit from the market . We are seeing more landlords look at HMO and semi-commercial properties for yield and it is good to see more lenders amending criteria to acknowledge this or launch new products to support this change . This is always the positive side of the market in that it is flexible , it changes and adapts to the current conditions to ensure clients are