Diary: 2020 ends not with a bang – nor a Whisper

Second lockdown may be over, but the news has still been grim, with most of the country facing Tier 2 restrictions at least, things remaining desperate for the hospitality sector, and the collapse of both Debenhams and Arcadia Group putting many thousands of retail jobs at risk. Christmas is coming, the vaccines are on the way, but it still seems like there is little to cheer – except maybe for scotch egg manufacturers. Life’s even tough for little donkeys. Whisper the donkey is, we are told, “out on his ass” as a result of the impact of Covid-19 measures on Shropshire’s only zoo. Hoo Farm has been forced to abandon its annual festive celebration, which leaves the four-legged star of the show out of a job this year. Perhaps not before time, though – five years ago, careless Whisper made headlines when he munched through the Christmas tree lights less than 24 hours before the big switch-on. This year, to save us from tiers ‘tis the season for Christmas music references. If you don’t believe us, just wait until you see next week’s Legal Notes end-of-year special. Similarly seizing the opportunity, the wittily named United City – a campaign and research group of local leaders looking to drive forward the economic recovery of Greater Manchester – is getting festive, while at the same time putting pressure on the government to take a fresh look at the city’s Covid-19 tier status. Billboards across Manchester bear the slogan: “All Mancs want for Christmas is two…” Nice work, we can hear it in our heads. It’s just a shame about the immediate explanatory addition of “Tier 2” in brackets, which comes across less Mariah Carey, more Alan Partridge – after all, if you have to explain the joke, is it really landing? They shall not yield The latest figures from lettings management platform Howsy show, somewhat unsurprisingly, that it has been a tough year for the rental sector, with the average rental yield across England down by 0.25% to 3.86%. London is, predictably, the worst hit (-0.28%), followed by the South West, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the East of England, with all regions seeing a drop. However, digging deeper into the figures, Howsy found three counties that resolutely stood against the storm – and where landlords can actually celebrate a rise in yields. Leicestershire tops the tree, with the average rental yield climbing 0.10% to 3.45% since last December. Buckinghamshire similarly bucks the trend (up 0.07%), while Tyne and Wear edges into the positive by the slimmest of margins – 0.01%. The steadfast East Riding of Yorkshire saw yields remain exactly the same to two decimal places – and, in 2020, any ability to cling to the status quo is a remarkable feat in itself. Law of averages They’re a vital part of any property deal, but it sure can be painful when the bill arrives. We are, of course, talking lawyers. But while the price of legal expertise is high in the UK, it turns out it could be an awful lot worse. Specifically, in Switzerland. Invezz.com took it on itself to calculate lawyers’ earnings across Europe, and while the UK average stands at a not-to-be-sniffed-at £63,951, over in Switzerland it’s an eyewatering £115,858. Sandwiched in between is Germany, where the average is £72,253. So, the lesson here is try to avoid getting involved in litigation with the Swiss, but if you somehow do, make sure you win. Elsewhere this factor can be far less of a concern, particularly in Turkey and Greece where the respective annual salaries (£8,760 and £9,680) hardly seem worth the years of study. The Greeks, it seems, really don’t value their lawyers at all: that figure is 40% less than the overall national average salary. This contrasts starkly with the UK, where lawyers earn 91% more than the rest of us – and Slovakia, where they are positively revered. Their average take-homes of £37,416 are a staggering 218% higher than the national average. Time for Diary to dust off that law degree, and start learning Slovak… A Slovak news week Last week, we reported the glum tidings that 32% of flatsharers expect to be on their own this Christmas. Perhaps they would be better off in Slovakia – which, incidentally, has now gone from never having featured on the EG Diary page, to starring in two stories in a single week. They’ll be dancing in the streets of Bratislava. The Slovak Republic (to give it its official name) is the European country where tenants are most likely to opt for a flatshare over living alone. An overwhelming 91% prefer to cohabit with others (the remaining 9%, one assumes, includes all the lawyers living in mansions and castles). According to the data from international rental marketplace Spotahome, here in the UK we are, predictably, a bit more anti-social, with a 56%/44% split in favour of flatsharing. At the opposite end of the table from Slovakia is, surprisingly, Sweden – 59% of Swedish tenants prefer to have their own space. What do they do when all those Ikea instructions insist on two people? Photo © Oliver Dixon/Shutterstock