House prices have barely moved. Pull the numbers we track at Propalt and it's plain: the national median asking price has sat around £320,000 all year (roughly £310k in January, steady near £320k since), effectively standing still, and the typical home is taking an average of 59 days to go under offer.
A flat market is honest in a way a rising one isn't. When prices climb, they hide a lot of mediocre decisions. You can overpay, refurb badly, misjudge the tenure, and the tide still bails you out. When prices sit still, none of that gets forgiven.
It's the same in any business. Cheap money and a rising market cover for a lot of loose thinking. Take the growth away and the fundamentals are all you've got left: did you buy well, do you actually know your patch, can you price a thing correctly.
The flat years tend to teach you the most. They just don't feel like it at the time.
If the market isn't carrying you right now, that isn't bad news. It's just the year you find out how well you actually bought.
Co-founder of Propalt and a property investor and developer for 20 years
