01 July

Persuasion

Nick Churton of Mayfair Office finds that in classic literature there is plenty of sound advice about buying and selling property.

To borrow from Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a buyer in possession of a good mortgage must be in want of a property.

Keen readers of Austen’s work will appreciate that in terms of houses - and marriages - she knew what she was writing about. She understood houses' physical space and their roles as symbols of personal identity.

Today, three hundred years later, it’s likely that she would still describe houses as economic necessities, emotional havens and social arenas. Furthermore, she would no doubt understand clearly that as mortgages in the UK become easier to obtain the current opportunity to purchase a property, particularly for first-time buyers, is getting better.

Lenders have lowered affordability thresholds, increased income multiples, and revived low-deposit products; interest rates are trending down and new schemes are re-entering the market.

But Austen also understood risk so would no doubt advise caution - especially while economic uncertainty persists. She observed first-hand how a sudden change of fortune could affect status and comfort and knew the financial and emotional burden of downsizing or upsizing. Houses, she might have reminded us, are never just dwellings. They are investments in our futures.

Persuasion

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