We Have Great Responsibility Now Bestowed Upon Us

History will remember the heroes of the 2020 Covid-19 crisis. The nurses, the doctors, the paramedics, the shop workers, police officers, public transport workers, Colonel Sir Tom…

The past weeks have certainly highlighted character and have brought out the best in people. And the worst. I’ve noticed a distinctly more benevolent attitude between strangers with more selflessness on display, greater courtesy toward each other and fellow exercisees acknowledging one another with a friendly nod in the street like never before.

There have also been those that have sought to capitalise and those that have thought themselves above the rules. And a recent brush with a particularly belligerent individual on a pathway near to where I live reinforced to me that there are exceptions to a wider ethos of community spirit. But hey-ho, I never liked the Vicar anyway.

Us estate agents have long borne the brunt of criticism, regularly polling high in the league table of the most despised professions, less trusted by Joe Public than politicians – and that’s always especially insulting but is particularly so in the context of political performances of the last two or three years.

But this image will imminently change. I mean, there’s now good reason for property folk to be elevated to higher pedestals of people perception.

Really? Well yes, this is because on May 13th the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick bestowed upon us a significant responsibility. Now, I don’t pretend that this weighty burden is anything like the onus that our NHS have on their shoulders. I’m not suggesting that the courage of a local property expert matches that of a double shift-weary ICU Specialist. I’m not.

What I am highlighting is a responsibility albeit of far less danger and inarguable lower importance where life itself is concerned, but nonetheless thing of huge gravity.

On the day that the property market was unshackled I did a number of media interviews and was asked why estate agents had been favoured and so soon after the PM’s ‘three stages of recovery’ speech just two nights previously? Why were agents so important all of a sudden? Surely there were more important job functions to kick-start than awakening property bods first and foremost as seemingly essential? Shouldn’t retailers be top of the list, or car dealerships, or gyms?  

Why? Well, it’s the economy stupid.

All business is important, of course. Commerce creates jobs, taxes and consumer spending that in turn then ignite GDP. It's what separates us from being Venezuela.

But consumption is one thing, sentiment quite another. In fact, consumption is fuelled by positive sentiment and so it follows that with the majority of UK householders owning a home, the value of that home is rather important. Buoyant values means more equity. More equity means a warm fluffy feeling inside that your notional wealth can support a bit of consumer spending and indeed some consumer borrowing. Hence I guess the phrase, an Englishman’s home is his castle - or rather, an Englishman’s home is his wallet. Or hers, obviously. 

And so it seems this is also how the Government think. Evaporating sales and growing uncertainty over home values would surely not be positive things for the property market. A frozen landscape of suspended deals is sure to crack after a while.

I’d venture that Mr Jenrick is probably rather indifferent to estate agents themselves and so his move to quickly re-open our office cabinets was not due to some fondness for the profession. I don’t think he particularly heard our screams that we were facing yet another industry meltdown, the third in twelve years and which would almost certainly cause its own casualties let alone those inflicted directly by any virus.  

No. Dear Robert has unleashed us in order to steward the housing market back to good health so that it drags the now faltering economy back from the brink. Our task is important and one of great duty. Think of the brave bankers that toiled hard in the aftermath of 2008 to prop us all up with their relentless lending and capital markets trading. Their selfless sympathy in assisting mortgage holders and businesses with a kind ear and lashings of flexibility. No wait, that’s a terrible analogy - that didn’t happen.

Instead, consider the Bank of England slashing interest rates and printing money. Quantitively easing our way back to prosperity. Pumping money into the economy to be spent in order to inspire spending and so productivity and jobs and wider wealth and taxes and so on. Well that’s us. Estate agents are now, believe it or not, part of the economic stimulus that will pull the nose up from an otherwise potential financial Armageddon.

Yes, we are heroes. Kind of. Small heroes in our gloves and our masks as we shepherd viewers in and out of sanitised listings, risking our health for the good of others.

We’ve all become used to holding our breath of late – when someone walks a little too closely or a jogger rushes past us. But I wouldn’t hold your breath for any recognition for our new-found hero status I'm afraid. I suspect instead, sadly, that in spite of us stepping up and running from the trenches into the face of enemy fire, we will still ultimately be categorised alongside traffic wardens and Piers Morgan.

But as an important man once said, ‘…ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country’.

Onwards, fellow heroes.