Adapting to change - Time to get off the fence

What the future holds for property investment 

If you are not careful you will look back and realise you sat on the fence during one of the most astonishing and significant shifts in wealth seen in this country since the second world war, a shift out of which you could have emerged a big winner.

Before you start wondering, no, we are not predicting a property crash but the proverb is still appropriate if we apply it to the buy to live Market. Without betraying the writers age, when I were a lad, first time buyers were generally in their twenties and usually bought with a 100% mortgage. This was well before the dark days of irresponsible lending at that time banks would lend 100% and keep the loan not sell it on, they were protected for up to a 20% loss by what was called a mortgage indemnity policy paid for by the buyer. 

All the above nostalgia aside, the latest statistics show that last year 66% of new households were rented not purchased! 66%! that is an absolutely society changing number. Tenants are lining up to rent property like never before because they can't get the deposit to buy. 37 is now the average age of a first time buyer buying without parental support, soon it will be over 40.

Yet property prices have not dropped significantly and in many cases have gone up. If you read these missives regularly you might remember a prediction we made that buy to let lending would ease as lenders became more attracted to it as less risky and onerous than lending to live. Well we were bang on the money and it is already possible to borrow 85% on a buy to let and experienced landlords are being actively courted by lenders keen to get a piece of this rapidly growing, low risk Market.

So if you are sitting up there on your fence wistfully wondering when you will be able to buy your first home, forget about it, rent a property to live in and use the money you have saved to buy to let before this opportunity of a lifetime passes you buy. In the old days my parents encouraged me to get on the property ladder and work my way up. These days that means buying your first rental property and building a portfolio. With our help you can do exactly that and use the profits you generate to buy that ideal family home currently beyond your grasp.

Finally we would like to say something about what has happened and will continue to happen to personal wealth and living standards as a result of our Governments decision to pay back the countries debts accrued  during the years leading up to the credit crunch.

On average, most people have seen their real incomes fall back to levels last seen in 2005, and we think this trend has only just started. By the time we have put the economy back on a viable footing we for see that the average person will be earning the same in real terms as they were at the turn of the millennium. This will represent the greatest reduction in real living standards ever recorded. To some extent at least this change will reflect a transfer in wealth, power and influence from the Western economies like us to new emerging powerhouses like China, India and South America. Whatever the reasons, inflation and below average pay rises will mean a lot of people will have to readjust their expectations when it comes to prosperity.

Paradoxically, change is the only constant feature in our society and in the end, long term success depends more than any other factor, on our ability to adapt to change. This means being able to exercise  vision, to see what is in front of our noses and act on what we see. 

Sometimes an industry is ended by change, like coal mining,  Sometimes an industry changes in a way that means you have to adapt, like what has happened to the property market today. Either way it is our capacity to perceive change, to predict it's consequences and to take steps accordingly that determines whether we are harmed by, or benefit from it.

So what are you waiting for, react to the changes that are happening around you and be a winner in a changing market, join us and join a growing community of ordinary people set to make extraordinary gains from the seismic shift we are all going through.