For all property investors that regularly follow news in the property sector, there are two undeniable facts that have been repeated over and over again. The first is that of a global credit crunch and the second of a mass exodus from property investments in the last few months. With all the evidence produced in favour of these two statements, it would seem as if they are both beyond verbal disagreement. Or are they?
The EBS building society has recently come up with the results of a survey done in partnership with the Gunne Residential Company; results that might very well be surprising to many seasoned investors and readers.
In this survey, a mere five per cent of respondents expected their property portfolio to decrease in size within the next half decade. Within the buy-to-let subgroup of property owners, 93 per cent of the respondents said that they were at the very least going to maintain their current level of investment in the property market and a full 54 per cent said that they actually planned to increase their investment in property over the next half decade period. Furthermore and perhaps most surprisingly, almost half of those surveyed at 43 per cent reported an increase in their property investment returns in recent times.
Are these results reconcilable with all the news we have been receiving on credit crunches and massive sell-offs? In a way they are, since five per cent overall and seven per cent in the buy-to-let subgroup are probably large enough numbers to cause the mass hysteria that has been reported in the worldwide media. Of course, figures that show people holding onto their properties are also the ones being forced to do so by trust funds that have temporarily suspended withdrawals.
Therefore, it is possible for both views to coexist, and it would seem that there is light at the end of the property crisis tunnel. With more investors looking abroad for property investment opportunities, it is definitely possible that the property exodus may have been exaggerated.
