What happens next, who knows?

Regarding the actual market, “Who knows?”

However, a positive approach is that there will be a great deal of ‘surfing’ going on as people increasingly get stuck in their ‘self-isolation’. They’ll be looking at houses in the sun and deciding that “When this is all over, I’m getting out of here and going to live in the sun”. Their social networks will have weakened because of no direct contact, and they’ll have realised that the internet will permit them to live and work anywhere, perhaps with occasional commuting.

The timing of this ‘wave’ coming onto the market is the biggest doubt, as we don’t know when restrictions will be lifted. Those countries affected later will be pariahs prevented from travelling by others that have gone through it and are opening their borders again.

Spain will be desperate to get tourists back as their spending is a major part of the economy. Although we are getting enquiries for snagging surveys with people due to go to the Notary, effectively now we can say that the market has stopped. It hasn’t fallen, it’s just stopped completely. When it starts again, there will be people desperate to sell and others keen to buy, with speculators in the middle offering low prices in the hope of making a profit. So, I think the market will drop, but not crash and should then stabilise.

The effects of the larger world economy, and especially currency exchange rates, are more difficult to gauge, and they could change all that I’ve written. Personal, company and national debt will have increased by the loss of income and the costs of the efforts to halt the viral spread. However, as always, there will be winners as well as losers. So once again, “Who knows”.