Better late than never

It is with a great degree of guilt that I write this, having realised that no less that 7 months have passed since my last blog post. I feel rather like the mechanic who never services his own car. At MMS we're forever preaching to our clients about the importance of keeping online content fresh and making a regular commitment to social networking as part of the marketing mix. Do as I say, don't do as I do.

Having got that off my chest, it's interesting to see what has actually changed since February in the housing market. The biggest influence, I guess, has to be the election back in May and the subsequent impact of a lot of negative press comment regrading the remedial measures needed to get the economy back on track. I don't under estimate the task facing the new government, but I do wish the press would present a more balanced picture. Memories are still fresh of nightly appearances on the BBC by Robert Peston in 2008 - I'm sure he was responsible for a significant proportion of the recession with his sensationalist reporting.

But looking specifically at the housing market, perhaps the most significant change in the last 7 months has been on the supply side, with the abolition of HIPS resulting in many more private vendors coming to the market. That aside, I think there is still a lot of uncertainty out there and the comments I made back in February still largely hold true. Sales are patchy and there are big regional variances; for most developers it is very much a case of having to get on with it and make the most of what market there is. But at least we're still here...