As the pandemic set in during April 2020 a number of housing experts exclaimed that house prices would melt as a consequence of the economic harm that Covid and lockdown would exert upon the property market. ‘Uncertainty will prevail…’ etc.

And when we say ‘a number of housing experts’ we mean all of them. Savills, Knight Frank, Capital Economics, the Halifax, Nationwide, Henry Pryor, Jeremy Leaf etc – the usual pundits rushed to talk the market down and to declare that values would drop by as much as 35%.

Well, we know a thing or two about property having been at the forefront of the industry for 25 years or so and with a family pedigree that extends back to Russell’s grandfather, a London Chartered Surveyor and estate agent way back in the 1940’s.

We disagreed with the doom-mongers. Our belief was that the fundamentals that drive the property market would remain sound – more demand than supply, low interest rates and a culture that promotes home-ownership… would all necessitate that prices would not drop. So confident was Russell in his prognosis that he began taking bets. Here’s the bet:

“That between May 2020 and May 2021 house prices would not be lower, according to the Nationwide Building Society House Price Index”. Of course, in the months in between then and now we’ve seen soen interesting stimuli introduced by Government and not least their determination to keep the market open in order to ensure that a healthy housing sector would support the wider economy. An injection of enthusiasm by way of the stamp duty holiday, later extended, plus the 95% ‘Boris Mortgage’ added fuel to a fire that was already starting to glow brightly.

The upshot is that some of those bets that Russell took are starting to be paid. So far, £300 has been confirmed for Shelter and for Great Ormond Street Hospital, Russell’s designated beneficiaries and we thank those that have paid up already and await the remaining stragglers with optimism.

Our property expertise is one of the main reasons that we are the property PR agency of choice. We are able to promote you as experts because we are experts too.

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