Goatman328

Hello. I hope everyone realizes that within 6 months the USA and UK, along with probably most of the westernized world will be in the midst of a recession. I hope you all consider this whenever you decide to move.

britvic

So it's within the next six months is it, Hmmmm

krizzy

Whats that got to do with the price of eggs...

Jerseygirl

Will you be applying for Alan Greenspan's job?

britishvixen21

Wow your the voice of optimism arent you!! and if its the western world then ti wont really matter where we live LOL

Jerseygirl

??????

Goatman328

Greenspans job was replaced ages ago by Bernanke. Anyway, all we hear about here is Northern Rock, and the BoE propping it up. Bad times indeed.

Elvira

Houses may become cheaper

LouiseD

Gosh another recession - that must make this the fifth in the last 10 years

Goatman328

Houses in the UK will go down, wayyyyyyyy downn......

krizzy

Hopefully houses with go back to being a place to live...and not an ATM machine...

dingbat

If only....:curse:

dunroving

The sad thing is, eiher way, someone is unhappy.

If prices keep going up, short-term and long-term owners are happy because they get "richer" (although it's a fasle rich unless you own more thyan one house). Of course, potential buyers would be even more upset than they are currently.

If prices stay the same, long-term owners are happy ("rich"), short-term owners are neutral/unhappy (because they broke the bank to buy, but at least aren't losing house value), and prospective buyers are unhappy (because they have to crucify themselves to buy).

If there's a drop in values, buyers are happy, but owners (especially recent buyers like me) are completely p*ssed off because they lose wealth.

I won't say I hope prices keep going up (because I know there are returners who are really struggling to find an affordable house), but once they go up, it just doesn't seem right to wish they'll go down.

I just pray for wage inflation to redress the balance somewhat, and that the government introduces legislation to slow down the number of BTL investors - especially the fat cats who use their wealth to steal houses from under the noses of honest hard-working people. Maybe a graduated tax system on BTL properties is the answer (i.e., the more you own, the higher the tax rate on rental income).

Englishmum

I have to agree with your point about Buy to Let investors, many of whom are not UK nationals and have no connection with the UK other than buying property to let out at a profit. When I lived in the Far East the Singapore "Straits Times" and Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" were constantly having adverts for UK properties (mainly flats in London) for investors to buy and rent out at a profit, often purchased 'off-plan'.

The lending laws were then changed in the UK to let just about anyone jump on the bandwaggon....and now we see that lenders such as Northern Rock have lent out far more than they have actually taken in deposits. I do worry for my 23 year old daughter as she's in the London area and will never be able to afford a deposit on a property, which I was able to do on my own at her age.

I remember when I bought my first home in the Midlands (at 23) by putting down a 5% deposit and got the loan from a building society. At that time (mid 80s) all applicants at my BS had to wait six weeks for the funds to come through, even though the loan had been approved. To the best of my knowledge, building societies could only lend money for mortgages if they had enough funds from deposits. Eventually building societies moved away from their roots and became more like fully-fledged banks (eg. Alliance & Leicester, Abbey National) borrowing money from other banks and lenders rather than obtaining most of their funds from savers (ie. the man in the street with a savings passbook) and now Northern Rock is in a mess:

http://www.channel4.com/news/article...ank+run/802462


Alan Greenspan believes that the UK housing market is heading for a fall but the UK economy is overall strong enough to 'deal with any problems'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...e_id=1770&ct=5

I remember the housing crash in the late 1980s and our next door neighbour in Essex handed in his keys to his house. However, in the years since the house has obviously increased in value so if anyone is in the UK housing market for the long haul then they probably won't lose out financially.

Fleaflyfloflum

Hoorah hoorah, hopefully i can afford one!!