Why do people peddle untruths on social media? When I say this, I’m thinking specifically of my old mate Martin Stewart who can be found on X as @LondonMoneyFS.

Martin has tied himself in with a group that more sensible others and I refer to as the Property Price Crash Cult (PPCC).

During the last five and a half years I’ve been going back and forth with this collective to talk about the ever-coming property price collapse.

They continuously claim that it’s imminent. It still hasn’t happened. And nor will it.

For me, taking the helm of the PPCC is the one and only ‘Charlie Lamdin’.

Charlie has an extremely popular X account (@moving_charlie) and when he is not prophesying imminent doom or politicising, he actually gives out good ‘advice’ to both buyers and home movers. Indeed, his ‘buy but don’t overpay’ strapline is one I’m particularly fond of.

HOUSE PRICE CRASH

Charlie and I first crossed online swords in 2022 when he suggested that house prices would nominally reduce by 35% in a short period of just two-to-three years.

When I pointed out how ridiculous that was not only did I suffer a tirade of abuse from both him and his followers but others also randomly piled on too.

Now that the prophesied 35% timeline has passed, I must confess that I do like to remind them of previous discussions.

And the great thing about X is that you can bookmark posts and save screen shots so you can come back to them when the so-called housing Armageddon they predicted didn’t occur.

Charlie’s now changed his 35% prophecy from summer 2025 to ‘however long it takes’. The saying the internet never forgets is very true though so I was quickly able to bring up some of his old posts.

SOUND OF SILENCE

Was an apology my way imminent? Unfortunately, silence.

I’d like to hope that due to the amount of engagement Charlie gets that this is just an oversight.

But in an all too obvious attempt to suck up to Charlie, Martin recently tried to come to his rescue by suggesting all was not lost.

This, for me, is the interesting part. In my opinion you can’t argue with fact.

House prices are not now nominally 35% cheaper. Yet Martin has resorted to having to make things up that I haven’t said.

As an example, in a post on X earlier this week he claimed I had said: 1; house prices never fall. 2; never let a client buy leasehold and 3; 3% base rate by Christmas 2024.

Of course, when asked to provide proof of this all Martin had in his online locker was a rather silly fishing GIF. Zero evidence to back up his statements.

PETTY OBVIOUS

Online spats like this are pretty ludicrous and you might be reading this and thinking… Mike, why do you let them bother you so much? You can quickly debunk these untruths and call them out for what they are.

Well in part it’s down to what I describe as the ‘useful idiots’.

They see PPCC posts like these and not only do they believe them but they also repeat the misinformation.

It’s straight out of the Trumpian playbook – a politician Martin claims to dislike but obviously favours his style.

REAL VALUE

For me, honesty has real value: building trust, long-term credibility and zero contradiction risks. It builds both stronger relationships and reputation.

When Michael Dean, co-founder and non-executive of Avamore Capital, invited both myself and Martin onto his Property Funder podcast to debate our X interactions I was delighted to go on.

I didn’t have a position to defend. The facts speak for themselves.

Martin’s argument in defence of the PPCC is that they got the ‘direction of travel’ correct.

I’d been told about this imminent correction since 2020 so this defence of the doomsters was quickly debunked.

The problem with straw arguments they don’t hold much weight and you can listen to the podcast HERE and hear how quickly he concedes this point.

My problem with the PPCC is that they constantly call it wrong but they never admit to it.

It’s always next year, then the year after, then the year after, then the year after…

RIGHT TO BE DISAPPOINTED

And here’s the rub. How many lives have they put on hold? If you are a buyer who put off purchasing in the belief that the so-called 35% crash would lead to cheaper property then you have every right to feel disappointed.

I understand that both Martin and Charlie want to generate engagement.

Martin has a book to sell –  ‘Goodbye Morecambe’ which is, to my surprise, an engaging page turner. You can even buy a copy HERE.

And Charlie too has a great video channel where homebuying ‘advice’ is in abundance and has led to countless success stories. You can watch his engagement HERE.

I just miss the days when you could have a forthright back and forth discussion. And that while you were unlikely to change each other’s opinions you still stuck to the Queensbury Rules of engagement.

Is gaining more followers and likes worth sacrificing your credibility?

For me, no. But then again, I also don’t have anything to sell.