Persimmon, the builder previously known as a byword for executive greed, is striking a hopeful note on the housing market. The dividend, which had been put on ice, is being reinstated and sales have surged since lockdown.
This fits with other straws in the wind. Rightmove, the property website, says home sales surged over the summer, usually a slow period.
Asking prices were up 4.6 per cent nationwide, though they dipped by 2 per cent in London, because people want to move out, apparently, to larger houses with bigger gardens.
After a period during lockdown, where the market went into suspended animation, there is plenty of pent-up demand
Demand in Devon and Cornwall is hitting new heights. Mortgage approvals more than quadrupled in June after a record low in May, according to the Bank of England.
The Halifax house price index points to a 3.8 per cent annual rise and a ‘mini-boom’. It’s not hard to see why this is happening.
After a period during lockdown, where the market went into suspended animation, there is plenty of pent-up demand. Spending months at home, instead of being at work, makes one aware of its defects.
The Chancellor’s stamp duty holiday, which means buyers will pay nothing on purchases up to £500,000, has also given an incentive. And yet, I wonder.
Once people realise a move to the country might not be all it’s cracked up to be, the fantasy flight from cities may die down.
Friends of ours were all set to quit south London for a rural life until the 20-minute drive to the nearest shop sank in.
A housing boom, mini or maxi, doesn’t seem sustainable with so many jobs at risk, with the 7,000 yesterday at M&S just the latest announcement.
Furlough, which has helped more than 9m people, has shielded us from the harsh realities, but will end in the autumn.
The banks are being more cautious about lending, and understandably so, given the economic climate. Most sobering of all, almost 2m borrowers have availed themselves of the mortgage holiday scheme, suggesting widespread payment difficulty.
I have been around long enough to know that it takes an awful lot to dent the British love affair with property, but the pandemic gives pause for thought.
Musical chairs
The departure of Charlotte Valeur from the Institute of Directors is unfortunate, coming so soon after the exit of the previous incumbent, Barbara Judge.
Lady Judge left a couple of years ago after a row with the then director general Stephen Martin over allegations, which she strongly denied, of sexism, bullying and racism. Counter-accusations were aimed at Martin for allegedly making covert recordings of Lady Judge.
All terribly undignified.
Valeur, who served less than two years, says she feels unable to devote the time needed to the job because she lives in Jersey, in a vulnerable household.
It is a shame, however, that there will be more upheaval for the IoD, at a time when business leaders could do with a strong lobby group. For several years it has been losing relevance and fee income.
At one time, membership and an entree to its Pall Mall premises, were a badge of success.
Nowadays it feels like an old-fashioned gentleman’s club marooned in the wrong part of town for Canary Wharf, the Square Mile and the new tech hotspots.
A younger generation of directors has discovered The Ned and Soho House. The new chairman needs to work some magic.
Miner key
Oil giant BP and now BHP, which is pulling out of thermal coal, are reshaping along greener lines.
But the advance of the environmentalists is creating casualties. I find it very sad that the Banks Group, a family-owned company working in Scotland and north-east England, is having to close the last coal mine in Co Durham after activists complained.
The company has also endured more than two years of limbo waiting to hear from the Government whether a surface mine in Northumberland can go ahead.
Protesters might think jobs and investment in one of the poorer parts of this country is a price that must be paid for the sake of the planet.
But the reality is industries like steel and brick making in the UK are still big users of coal, burning through around 8m tons last year, much of it from Russia and the US.
It would be better for the economy, and the planet, if British coal was used instead.
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