Housing Prices in Free Fall
May 18th 2008, 12:31 pm
#31
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 987
Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
For the simple fact if you taxed people who had more than one or two 'investment' property, then there wouldn't be such a lack of property in the UK for first time buyers, then people such as your daughter for example could afford to actually buy something without the need of parental help. Remember there are people who own litterly hundreds of investment buy to let property in the UK who couldn't give a rats backside that they're ruining other peoples chances of owning a property or going up the ladder.
If a country like the UK can not provide a fundamental thing like affordable housing then they need to invest in social housing, which they have not. So taxing the 'rich' ie people who own several investment properties to help the poor i.e the people who just want a roof over their head, somewhere that they can call home without worrying about putting up a picture frame, or if the landlord isn't going to sell up at the end of the lease so can't settle in properly seems quite fair to me.
It's ok for people that have seen both world wars in like yourself Mitzy who bought their first property for a half a bucket of coal and then their second for 2 shillings
Sure times have been similar in the past, but they have never been so disproportiante in terms of average wage vs average house price as we've seeen recently.
WHY???
And if you apply that premise then why not on more than one property. They are investing for their future in a positive way so that when they retire they will be able to support themselves without being a burden to others.
That being said, the only time I owned two properties was before we moved here and I had one here and one in the UK. I sold the UK house when we moved, but we just bought another property in the UK this month, £24k under the original asking price. I have no guilty conscience. Its a means to an end.
People have been landowners and property owners for hunderds and hundreds of years. Nothings changed.
If a country like the UK can not provide a fundamental thing like affordable housing then they need to invest in social housing, which they have not. So taxing the 'rich' ie people who own several investment properties to help the poor i.e the people who just want a roof over their head, somewhere that they can call home without worrying about putting up a picture frame, or if the landlord isn't going to sell up at the end of the lease so can't settle in properly seems quite fair to me.
It's ok for people that have seen both world wars in like yourself Mitzy who bought their first property for a half a bucket of coal and then their second for 2 shillings
Sure times have been similar in the past, but they have never been so disproportiante in terms of average wage vs average house price as we've seeen recently.
WHY???
And if you apply that premise then why not on more than one property. They are investing for their future in a positive way so that when they retire they will be able to support themselves without being a burden to others.That being said, the only time I owned two properties was before we moved here and I had one here and one in the UK. I sold the UK house when we moved, but we just bought another property in the UK this month, £24k under the original asking price. I have no guilty conscience. Its a means to an end.
People have been landowners and property owners for hunderds and hundreds of years. Nothings changed.
Last edited by zel; May 18th 2008 at 12:39 pm.
May 18th 2008, 12:44 pm
#32
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Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
For the simple fact if you taxed people who had more than one or two 'investment' property, then there wouldn't be such a lack of property in the UK for first time buyers, then people such as your daughter for example could afford to actually buy something without the need of parental help.
May 18th 2008, 12:47 pm
#33
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May 18th 2008, 12:49 pm
#35
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May 18th 2008, 12:53 pm
#36
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 987
Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
Theres no lack of property for first time buyers, well in the Midlands it seems .... I was quite suprised at the amount of property available for £70k ish. When we bought our first house it was a small box like thing. It cost £12k in 1975. The second house shortly afterwards was a wreck and we needed to do a lot of work on it, but it got us on the housing market proper. Many of the £70k houses we saw last month needed a lot of work doing on them, but maybe people dont want to do that now and their expectations are higher. My daughter could, unbelievably even on her cr@p salary, have afforded one with a mortgage, but as we want somewhere to stay when we go back we decided to do it that way rather than give the bank loads of interest
I can only speak for down south and it's very much a disaster for people wanting to own their first place or trade up.
But at least they can all have the last laugh when the news reports come in from all these people who own hundreds of buy-to-lets having to go bankrupt!
May 18th 2008, 12:56 pm
#38
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May 18th 2008, 2:59 pm
#39
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Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
The Spanish newspapers have been reporting in the last couple of days that Spain's major property developers have experienced drops of between 70 and 90% in sales compared with the previous year. With figures like that we should expect some pretty big price reductions this year.
May 19th 2008, 4:56 pm
#40
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Posts: 4
Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
Jeez!!!
How many property slumps have we been through in the UK only to see property prices rise again.
This isn't a first off occurrance in Spain iirc. I remember reading about one of the Great Train robbers that invested heavily in property in the sixties and was screwed by a property slump / overstretching himself.
A house can be a home or an investment, or it can be both. I dont see people in the UK as being particularly greedy in the buy to let market. Its just another way of securing a pension as an alternative to the stock market. A stock market that can be far more volatile based on things that happen thousands of miles away from where the investment took place!
A good quality product will always sell at the right price. I feel the multi box urbs are going to be the worst hit, but from my point of view I really am not worried as I'm in it for the long term.
How many property slumps have we been through in the UK only to see property prices rise again.
This isn't a first off occurrance in Spain iirc. I remember reading about one of the Great Train robbers that invested heavily in property in the sixties and was screwed by a property slump / overstretching himself.
A house can be a home or an investment, or it can be both. I dont see people in the UK as being particularly greedy in the buy to let market. Its just another way of securing a pension as an alternative to the stock market. A stock market that can be far more volatile based on things that happen thousands of miles away from where the investment took place!
A good quality product will always sell at the right price. I feel the multi box urbs are going to be the worst hit, but from my point of view I really am not worried as I'm in it for the long term.
May 19th 2008, 6:12 pm
#41
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Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
Just reading the threads with great interest, we have a finca which we delomlished to re-build, however cost ran away with our pot, now were considering re-morgage in the UK to finance the re-build, we wern't realy worried about cost because were going for thelong haul, however now that interest rates and credit crunch is here its put the frighteners on us, but we still desperatley want to get thing moving again.
If you're in it for the long haul then as I've already said, its not such a big risk,especially as build cost is likely to be lower than actual value
May 19th 2008, 7:11 pm
#42
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Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
It's been widely documented that there is a serious lack of affordable homes throughout the UK, so maybe you're just in one if not the only area that has available property for a reasonable price.
I can only speak for down south and it's very much a disaster for people wanting to own their first place or trade up.
But at least they can all have the last laugh when the news reports come in from all these people who own hundreds of buy-to-lets having to go bankrupt!
I can only speak for down south and it's very much a disaster for people wanting to own their first place or trade up.
But at least they can all have the last laugh when the news reports come in from all these people who own hundreds of buy-to-lets having to go bankrupt!
As you say widely documented but based almost totally on what it's like in the South.
If you're a nurse or Teacher round here, you'd be able to afford a house with little pain.
May 20th 2008, 5:42 am
#44
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 987
Re: Housing Prices in Free Fall
In all fairness from the news reports I've seen in the past couple of years many first time buying funny talking people from the midlands and up north were interviewed due to them being completely priced out of the market.
Infact more Northerners than Southerners as lets face it, it's been old news for over 5 years that it's impossible for a first time buyers down south!
I vividly remember a ginger bint from a place called Scotland? never heard of it myself, but boy she had a funny accent so it must be quite far up the country CRYING on bbc news about she couldn't afford to buy without having to take on a lodger!
May 20th 2008, 6:40 am
#45
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