He also urged caution about reading too much into direct cross-market comparisons. The survey was conducted in Q2, and conditions have shifted considerably since – including in Australia, where Driver noted the housing market had changed significantly in the weeks prior to October. “It really depends at what point you ask the question when you compare these markets,” he said.
Certainty over speed
The report’s most significant finding for the UK is the premium buyers place on certainty. Some 66% of UK buyers said they would choose certainty over speed when purchasing a home – a preference Driver described as entirely rational given the structural realities of the property market in England and Wales.
“We’re not quick in the UK at getting deals over the line,” he said. “I think UK buyers are sort of saying, ‘Look, I can’t really impact the time it’s going to take. I’m happy it’s going to take six months. I don’t mind waiting, provided it’s going to happen’.”
The solution, in Driver’s view, lies in front-loading information. He described the current experience of receiving material in piecemeal fashion as a kind of death by a thousand cuts – a sequence of minor disclosures that collectively derail transactions that might otherwise have proceeded.
“If we could give everybody all the data, all the knowledge, everything on day one – all the goods, the bads, the indifference, everything in the first minute – then I can look at it and say, ‘don’t like that’, and I wouldn’t start,” he said.
