Are we going to make it

Are we going to make it? I speak for all Estate Agents, particularly in London when I say that we go into this summer of 2012 with a certain degree of trepidation. That by the way is to put it mildly.

The D&G financial year starts on the 1^st April, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with our early results. Although a lack of property and too many estate agents has meant having property to sell has been a struggle, with other agents over-valuing and in some instances quoting ludicrous fees. Oh, while I’m on the subject, saving £2,000 in fees may easily mean losing £50,000 on the price you achieve. In agency, as with so many things, you get what you pay for. Anyway, I digress. With such little property to sell and a real appetite to buy from within the UK and abroad, it has meant what property there is to sell has been selling, and at very good prices.

However, a good April and May does not a summer make.

Anyone planning for 2012 was always going to have to make significant allowances for outside factors and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with its extended bank holiday and some atrocious weather (I was going to say unseasonal, but based on the last few years, it’s becoming seasonal), will certainly affect June’s figures. Now, as I write we are in the midst of the Euros, and although I hope England go all the way, if they do, that will again prove a distraction to the serious business of investing in property. The footie is then closely followed by Wimbledon, and considering the corporate entertaining involved, this will again affect our market.

I haven’t even got to the “big deal”. July, August and September are when we do almost half our annual rental business. My daughter is working at the Olympics and has been advised to add 2 hours to her journey. Quelle horreur! I sense the Capital may come to a grinding halt and the lack of business in June will feel like a drop in the ocean.

I sincerely hope I am proved wrong and that blazing sunshine, euphoria over victory at the Euros, Andy Murray winning Wimbledon and a mountain of gold medals will instil a similar sense of euphoria throughout the UK and everyone will go out and buy a property to celebrate. Well, we can always dream.