Everybody is an expert

Go into any pub and you will get as many opinions on how to run the English football team as there are drinkers at the bar. Everyone knows what Capello should have done and where he went wrong. Want to find your way to Norwich? Everybody knows the best way – and most are different. Want to know how to run the country? Just ask – you’ll get a wide range of authoritative but completely different views (mostly right wing if you are in a pub in my part of the country).

Most of these people cannot do much harm (except if they send you to Norwich from Ipswich via Bristol). But there is one area where everyone is an expert – property – where unqualified people can cause real problems. Most people have bought and sold a house or two. So they are experts on everything to do with buying and selling property, construction, development and planning. And unlike managing the England football team, some of them are in positions of power and regularly take decisions on property matters that they do not understand.

There are many examples of property projects run by amateurs that have gone off the rails.

Tales of public sector projects that have gone wrong are legion. It’s not just officers – it’s politicians as well. The Scottish Parliament cost about ten times the original budget. So did the British library – and the construction programme overran by eight years.

But the private sector can also make mistakes. Tobacco Dock is a Grade1 was refurbished and converted to a retail centre in 1990. The scheme was intended to create the Covent Garden of the East End – but it is in a predominantly residential area with pretty ordinary public transport access. The developer was and old established firm, which, if I recall correctly was in the clothing business. No one had a clue about property development – but they thought they couldn’t lose. Well they did – and in spades. The scheme cost £47 million and was eventually sold for under £10m to convert to an outlet centre. Even that was an abject failure and the lonely, sole surviving shop has now gone and the development is boarded up.

If you want your pipes fixed, you hire a plumber. If you want a new hip you go to an orthopedic surgeon. But if you want to organise a major retail or office development – you do it yourself. Because you know what you are doing. Years of boom in the residential and commercial markets have given people the belief that they cannot go wrong. “It’s only a blip, don’t worry, values will soon be on the up.” “That roof only need a couple of new tiles.” “I don’t need planning for the new dormer.”

Of course property professionals can and do get things wrong. Agents of all types can be incurable optimists. Building surveyors can miss hidden defects. But by and large a professional will know a lot more about property than an amateur. So my advice is seek the opinion of a professional. And in the unlikely event that something does go wrong – you can always sue them.