Why we may be approaching peak of property mini-boom - Sarah Coles

As far as he’s concerned, it doesn’t matter if he starts his homework on the bus on the way to school, does half a job, and then rocks up to class late to deliver it: as far as he’s concerned, he has hit the deadline so he’s beyond criticism.

I’ve always assumed it was yet another joyous aspect of teenage behaviour that he would eventually grow out of, but apparently not.

Last weekend, just hours before many of the Coronavirus support schemes were due to come to an end, and two and a half hours later than promised, the government finally handed its homework in.

On the plus side, the new furlough rules are more generous that what was previously on offer. Anyone who was on the payroll on 30 October (as long as their employer sent a Real Time Information payroll submission by then) can be furloughed on 80% of pay – even if they haven’t been before.

But although technically the government announced the new rules before the deadline, in reality it was far too late for many people.

Employers haven’t been able to wait until the 11th hour and cross their fingers for a spectacular U-turn: the only responsible thing to do was weigh up the future of the business and in many cases make horrible decisions about letting people go.

As a result, many people were made redundant weeks ago. The Treasury has since said that anyone facing redundancy since 23 September can ask to be re-hired and furloughed, but employers don’t have to agree.

The announcement didn’t do the whole job either, and as a result, the government has been hastily revising its plans ever since.

Millions of self-employed people had to wait for Monday to hear that the third grant would be increased and we only found out on Thursday that furlough and the higher self-employment grant would last until March.

Rishi Sunak argued that there was nothing wrong with hoping for the best and adapting plans as circumstances develop. But it’s hard to see exactly what changed in the space of a few days to indicate that life wasn’t suddenly going to get much easier overnight at the end of November. And by changing tack every few days it risks leaving people utterly baffled as to where they stand.

Meanwhile, the millions of people who have been excluded by the schemes so far are still waiting in desperate hope for an announcement that will bring them into the fold.

Likewise, the deadline extension for requesting a mortgage holiday – or a deferral on other debts - will come as a huge relief to those who haven’t used two payment deferrals, but offers nothing for those who have used all the official help and have effectively run out of road.

There are an awful lot of people for whom this announcement didn’t go far enough to alleviate their anxiety. And many are already at the end of their tether.

This last-minute lockdown is very different from the first one, because it comes after relentless months of lower income have already taken a toll.

Government figures show that one in five people are worried about how their finances have been affected by the crisis.

Of this group, more than half say this is because their income has dropped, and more than one in ten say it’s because they have no income.

The FCA says there are 12 million people with low financial resilience in the UK today, 2 million of whom developed it during the crisis. Of the people in this group with a mortgage, more than a third will struggle to make payments, and of those with a credit card, more than a third will have trouble paying on time.

Managing through the crisis has been a lonely and miserable business for so many people, and we now have official confirmation that it’s not going to get any easier for the foreseeable future.

It means we all have to be prepared to ask for help. In some cases it means talking to your mortgage or credit card company to find a way through. In other cases you may need to talk to a debt charity like StepChange or consumer rights experts at Citizens Advice.

Sometimes we just need to offload onto friends or family, so we know we’re not facing this entirely alone.

And unlike those who are officially in charge, we can’t leave it to the last minute.

The longer we wait to deal with the pressures on our finances, the bigger the problem we have to tackle in the end. We need to get some help to find the best possible solutions as soon as possible, and we need to do a thorough job of facing up to it all today.

The worst possible time to be buying a house?

Buying and selling property is stressful enough at the best of times, but right now, we’re in a perfect storm of potential house buying misery.

We’re approaching what may prove to be the peak of the property mini-boom. Post-lockdown demand and a rush to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday mean house prices in Yorkshire are up 7.4% in a year.

Not only does this mean there are few bargains to take advantage off, but too much demand means the buying process has ground to a virtual standstill too, as everyone from lawyers to surveyors are overwhelmed. Endless delays mean property chains are more prone to collapse, leaving buyers out of pocket and back at square one.

While prices continue going up, we might be prepared to accept the extra cost and needless drama, but this mini-boom won’t last forever. In the world beyond the housing market, the economic picture is looking increasingly bleak, and the lockdown isn’t going to help. At some point this is going to feed through into house prices.

If you’re ready to move, you can afford the right property, and you’ll be there for the long term, then you may be perfectly happy to buy - regardless of what happens to house prices over the next couple of years. However, if you’re rushing into something that’s not right for the sake of saving stamp duty, you could come to regret it.

By Sarah Coles