By the time you read this December edition of 2024, the annual Christmas feasting will be underway as many attempt to add a fair bit to their body weight by consuming quantities of chocolates, mince pies, puddings, turkey or vegan alternatives.

Turning to property, it’s not quite been the year for investing that many were expecting back in January, as overly optimistic forecasts for base rate reductions by the Bank of England (BOE) did not occur. Yes we now have a rate of 4.75%, but not around the 3.5% that many had expected by now and that has certainly not helped buyer confidence. Forecasting ahead is always very reliant on the whims of fate and unseen ‘events’ occurring, which skews our previous thinking.

The result is that leveraged acquisitions of investment property are more subdued, with lenders in risk averse mode and of course the recent Budget did not help confidence with the 2% extra SDLT charge for buying an ‘additional’ property.

Having witnessed previous market cycles with property investing, my own advice as Adam Lawrence concurs with in his article on page 24, is to ‘keep calm and carry on’ – BUT do be careful to not overpay. I am still hearing about developers and investors whose optimistic assumptions on projects in H1 2022 for interest rates ahead led them into some difficult situations.