Page 19 - Future Demands Jan 2021

FUTURE DEMANDS
SIMON BROWN
CEO – LANDMARK INFORMATION GROUP
TIME FOR SOME JOINED UP THINKING
The resetting of any new year is a time for looking back and looking forward, but as I sit down in December 2020 to review perhaps the most societal-changing year in living memory, it’s even more so.
How do you make sense of the rollercoaster that was the year that was, and what lessons we can find to help us predict what is ahead of our collective property industry for 2021?
The truth is it’s challenging to do so.
The Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) relief cliff of 31st March 2021, Brexit, COVID-19 restrictions, and economic uncertainty are four factors significantly impacting 2021, and any one of these would cause serious concern in a normal market.
Meanwhile, delays in reporting completed property transactions to Land Registry, alongside the dynamic nature of the current market means there is reduced clarity of the property market in general.
However, I said it was challenging, and not impossible.
The good news for our industry is that – if we combine a clear understand of what’s happened before, alongside a precise understanding of the current state of play – we can forecast forward, and better protect our industry, and the millions of people who rely on each of us to buy their dream home.
At Landmark, we are privileged to operate across multiple parts of the entire house buying process, which allows us to develop a wide data-led view of the market. From here, we can analyse trends and predict futures, and it’s been a pleasure for us to share this insight with partners and government since the outset of the pandemic.
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