Relentlessly flipping the table, the effects of C19s’forward march continues. Rightly everyone is focusing on staying safe and healthy, however, I know it’s not only those in business, those with the responsibility of employees and our keyworkers who have concerns about juggling the impact of financial strain and uncertainty. As our Queen said, ‘While we have faced challenges before, this one is different’.
Figures offered up show over 1,000 mortgage products disappearing in the last two weeks and talk is of property prices falling by as much as 10% during the year. Some lenders have assigned staff to Furlough, others have reassigned staff to keeping momentum with different duties, others are working under differing criteria. Mortgage holidays are being made available and for those with the immediate need, the potential of access could be helpful, although not a foregone permission, however, for others switching might be a better temporary route at a time of low rates. Breathing space opportunities.
The normal for those who might have been able to buy a property before the new normal is additional stress on what was already a stressful process. Reflecting new practical difficulties (date extensions, additional mortgage/rent costs etcetera), lenders struggle to offer high LTVs (65% seeming to be the preferred settled average maximum) and valuations being limited (dependent on risk and valuer professional indemnity) and the suspension of actual inspections.
In business the financial focus is always Plan, Strategy, Review manageable debt and good cash flow. Self-regulation that, with the addition of conservation tactics, gets through finance downturns. The truth is, who knows what’s going to happen over the coming months but having a continuity plan is foregone in business and being ready for transformation when the world rights itself has a financial aspect.
