Mirrors are fascinating. From the moment someone first saw their image in a pool of water we have loved looking at ourselves. There’s something magic about a mirror. Snow White’s Queen talked to hers. The Lady of Shalott was forced to look at the world reflected in one. Breaking them brings bad luck. And all the other superstitions.
We’ve been reflecting that mirrors are quite symbolic in our industry. They’ve always been there, combined with smoke, when it comes to values and sellers’ intentions. But the last six years have been quite the worst we can remember. They’ve emulated previous bad passages, but none lasted so long, nor was quite so all-embracing. It was as if Alice took the market by the hand and glided with it, through the looking glass, from the Wonderland of confidence and rising prices to the Wasteland of depression. From Carroll to Eliot as it were, in one slow slump.
But now we can glimpse Alice again, there in the mirror, starting to edge slowly but definitely back through. Almost to where she was before. Almost, because she won’t find quite the wonderland she left behind. But it is getting better. More people are enquiring about property. Transactions are being completed.
Confidence is returning, slowly. The time, it seems, has come.