Robert Burns was the author of a renowned saying: “the best laid plans of mice and men… often go awry”. At this time of the year many property entrepreneurs assess their goals ahead and reflect on what they have achieved over the previous 12 months. The impact of Covid-19 has of course upset ‘many an applecart’ and some who had huge ambitions in the early part of 2019 will have seen their dreams shattered or badly impacted.

As I write this column the government has pledged to  roll out the mass vaccination programme for the coronavirus in the next five weeks to ensure that the 13m ‘most vulnerable’ of us are given a high degree of protection and that by Easter we can look forward to some degree of normality returning to our daily lives as the year unfolds.

Should that occur then we can begin to plan ahead with a greater degree of certainty that our own ambitions for property investment might be realised. Obviously there are some critical factors to consider and some currently stated deadlines which may yet change, such as the expiry of the Furlough programme and also the end of the SDLT ‘holiday’ for property purchases under the £500,000 level which are not deemed ‘2nd homes’.