propertytalk Live! - Effect of bonuses on housing market assessed

propertytalk Live! - Effect of bonuses on housing market assessed

Here, Charlie Ellingworth, director of the independent buying agent, Property Vision considers the effect of bonuses on the housing market...

"We have always been keen to draw a clear distinction between the mainstream property market and the world that we inhabit.

"In rather crude terms it comes down to financing debt or cash. The mainstream market is dependent on debt 'its price and availability' and the prime markets, whether they be in London, the country, France or Switzerland, are mainly, but not exclusively of course, funded by cash. The key point being that debt is, more likely than not, optional.

"Another shorthand for all this is bonuses. Every spring, along with the Boat Race and Cheltenham, there is talk of the 'bonus season', a time when investment bankers look miserable (by definition they are underpaid and so have to appear aggrieved) and estate agents look happy (in anticipation of finally selling the properties that they had egregiously overvalued to get the instruction).