Q. Following the announcement from Northern Rock last week, I’m wondering how this is going to affect the property market?
A. Whenever this kind of announcement breaks we can always expect a certain amount of hysteria to set in from some members of the general public. It’s a similar situation to the petrol crisis a few years back and the panic buying we saw then! Of course it came as no surprise that some prospective buyers that we were out viewing with last week decided to put their search for a property on hold for the time being, but for the majority it’s been business as usual. As you are fully aware Canary Wharf is an extremely lucrative area with the business district being the hub of our community. With that in mind, most people feel confident enough to ride the odd storm in what is potentially a sound investment given the strength of the market so far this year. That together with the fact that it appears that interest rates have now finally peaked with the next rate move set to go downwards, it just might prove that every cloud really does have a silver lining.