It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Peter Garrett, MD at Keyland Developments Ltd.
I’ve completed a number of predictions pieces over the years and fully understand that it’s impossible to forecast the unpredictable. For example, how many people looking forward into 2020 included the likelihood of a global pandemic? And how many in late 2021 predicted the start of Vlad’s ‘special military operation’ in February 2022? So, caveats regarding seismic world events in place, here are a few of my property predictions for 2025.
Early indications suggest the Labour government will continue to demonstrate serious intentions to revive the economy by getting Britain building again. The 1.5m new homes is certainly a stretch target and it will shortly become very clear – if it’s not already – that one term in office is too short a period to deliver the changes needed to tackle a housing crisis that has been decades in the making. But demonstrating that the changes ushered in by the brand new NPPF are working is exactly what Labour must do if they are to achieve that all important second term in office.
The Green Belt review will be a battle that is fought based on lots of mis-information; getting Joe Public to understand that Green Belt is not a landscape designation would be a good starting point.
Even better if people also understood the negative implications of restricting development around our major cities to how those cities looked (and the populations they accommodated) in the 1960s. The UK’s population in 1965 was c54 million; in 2025 it will be pushing 70 million. All those extra people need somewhere to live and work and the size of our major cities as defined in the mid-1960s simply cannot accommodate them.
Even with the Government’s push for development, I think the vast imbalance between supply and demand will ensure that house prices continue on their upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond. There doesn’t seem to be a limit on how far the relationship between average earnings and average house prices can be stretched.
