February 28, 2020
What a difference a day makes
Simone Signoret, the great French actress once said “Nostalgia is just not what it used to be” and it’s all too easy to get into the mindset that things today are not as good as they once were. When I sit down to write our market comments, I t… Read more
June 20, 2019
Clear as Mud
A year ago, I wrote a piece titled “London Gravity” where we talked about how it felt as if we had rung a bell to signal the bottom of the market for London residential property, and the big question was how long it would take before the excess … Read more
November 2, 2018
Swimming in Treacle
Ever since the Stamp-duty hikes of 2015, the British country house market has been overshadowed by the increase in stamp duty (SDLT) and this has resulted in a fall in the number of transactions and a partial paralysis of the market. We are often as… Read more
March 12, 2018
London Gravity
Perhaps it’s a function of age, but increasingly I look around and am struck by a strong sense of deja-vu; conversations that seem familiar, houses that I’m certain I’ve seen before, and cycles of the property market that come around over and … Read more
October 26, 2017
Beyond the call of duty
The British country house market is a vast and richly varied picture, with many different layers depending on area and price range, so trying to come up with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ comment can be something of a struggle – but some universal… Read more
February 16, 2017
How’s the market?
here is a general truism in life that says if you ask ten people to describe the same event, you’ll get ten very different accounts, all seen from subtly different perspectives; this is partly why insurance companies are frequently confronted by t… Read more
March 22, 2016
Now you see them, now you don’t…
A popular device among novelists is to take the hero of the story down a tortuous road and then dribble misfortune after misfortune on his head, until the reader really begins to wonder “whatever next”? Read more
November 9, 2015
Should I stay or should I go?
As I write this in October, it seems clear that the Indian summer of the last few weeks is finally over and, as the joyful colours of autumn spread across the countryside and six months after the election, it would seem like a good time to reflect o… Read more
April 16, 2015
The Law of unintended consequences
Once again it’s election season and – contrary to what we read in the papers – I genuinely think that most people are fundamentally good by nature; at home, they love their families and when they go to work, they try to do the best they can an… Read more
October 5, 2014
Mind the Gap
In our Spring Market Review we commented that the country had experienced one of the wettest winters on record, and as the seasons change once again, following the driest September since 1910, it seems a good time to reflect on the Prime Country Pro… Read more