Brexit: let’s stick to facts over fiction and feelings

But when that story is Brexit and the temptation is to indulge in headline-grabbing hyperbole and talk a market down, we must.

Here are some facts. Deals are still being done - and good ones at that. Property companies are still hiring. Healthy sales are being achieved at auction. And markets such as Frankfurt and Berlin are not yet thriving at London’s expense.

Yes, there has been bad news as well - the shopping centre sales that have been pulled - but on balance, this week’s news is pretty positive. Indeed, so far the news has been evenly split between good and bad post-referendum.

That is not Property Week deliberately contriving it thus in the interest of balance. That is just the way events have unfolded, which is why, despite having firmly been in the ‘remain’ camp, I see the glass as half full.

Others take the opposite view, but it is not an either/or scenario: the glass is both half full and half empty. It is how we choose to see it - in an optimistic or pessimistic light - that is key.

Why be needlessly negative? I don’t get it.

It was with an optimistic outlook in mind that Property Week and King & Wood Mallesons invited some of the great and the good of the property world to assess the opportunities - as well as the challenges - presented by the post-vote landscape in what was a fascinating and ultimately upbeat debate. This is not to say that people were in denial about the downsides of Brexit.

There was a frank discussion about the sizeable obstacles ahead. But the emphasis was on how to navigate those obstacles, while identifying the upsides.

What also impressed me was the measured tone of the debate. There was neither triumphalism on the part of the Brexiteers nor doom-mongering from the Remainers.

I hope the new government adopts a similarly can-do attitude. I also hope we’ve seen the end of all the political upheaval: I’m quite happy for the US to resume its status as the laughing stock of the political world after our short-lived attempt to usurp its crown.

What’s going on over there at the moment is, frankly, disturbing. If journalists are sometimes guilty of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story, at least they have a rough grasp of what the facts are.

Not so the politicians and D-list celebrities who attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, it seems. John Oliver, UK host of US chat show Last Week Tonight, called out those speaking at the convention for confusing feelings with facts and regarding the former as more valid.

Incredibly, the actor who believed President Obama to be a Muslim (he’s Christian), and when challenged simply reiterated his belief and his “right to believe that”, was just the tip of the iceberg.

It was the stuff of dystopian nightmare. The Brexit landscape is not quite utopian by comparison, but it could be a whole lot worse than it is.