[Buffer Bear]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle5375501.ece

Quote

From The Sunday TimesDecember 21, 2008

Website homes in on the crashRobert Watts
FOUND, at last – a property business that has had a successful 2008. It’s name? Housepricecrash.co.uk.

When 25-year-old Brendan McLoughlin bought the obscure website three years ago the only visitors were a few doomsayers warning that the end was nigh for the house-price boom. Now, as property values nosedive, the controversial news and discussion website is attracting 50,000 hits a day and revenue of more than £300,000 from advertisers including Sky, Virgin and BT.

And according to the internet rating agency Hitwise, it is now the ninth-biggest property website in the UK.

However, the site has attracted the ire of property experts who accuse McLoughlin of profiteering from pessimism.

TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location has described the site as “sick”.

“There is a website called Housepricecrash and I am their deadliest enemy,” she said earlier this year. “They all rent and have a vested interest and enjoyment in watching others suffer . . . We are not going into freefall unless we panic ourselves into it.”

McLoughlin defended the site, saying: “I’ve owned a property since 2003 and have felt the pain of falling prices.”

House prices have dropped by 14.9% over the past year and many economists predict further losses of 15%-20% in 2009.

[porca misèria]

Only the #9 property site?

OK, rightmove must be #1. But who are the other 7?

[A.steve]

Quick, post something insightful. Don't let the side down.

Something with more substance that pointing out that Kirstie Allsopp is a vile self-serving parasite.

[porca misèria]

A.steve, on Dec 21 2008, 04:22 AM, said:

Quick, post something insightful. Don't let the side down.

Something with more substance that pointing out that Kirstie Allsopp is a vile self-serving parasite.

House-hunting is a lot more fun.

I spent Friday viewing three properties (to rent). Two of them are really quite special, and would've been mindbogglingly unaffordable just a year ago, now just a little over "base price" for the area.

[A.steve]

niq, on Dec 21 2008, 04:28 AM, said:

I spent Friday viewing three properties (to rent). Two of them are really quite special, and would've been mindbogglingly unaffordable just a year ago, now just a little over "base price" for the area.

I'm considering moving, too. I'd hoped to be buying by the end of this year - but the fall in prices which were inevitable from a basic analysis of the securitized debt markets are taking a little longer to be recognised than I hoped... I now suspect that prices might continue to fall substantially for at least another 2/3 years. In my optimism, I'd hoped that these losses would be recognised more quickly and transactions recover sooner rather than later.

I'm considering various career moves at this stage - and where I will live has a significant bearing on what choices I will make. If I move to a new area, I'll want to rent while I get a feel for the surroundings - so, maybe, this delay is a blessing in disguise.

I'm noticing quite a lot of properties which would have been let immediately a year ago languishing with voids - in spite of 10-20% reductions in advertised rent. The thing I'm finding a little frustrating is that, while I rent, I'd prefer a smaller place than when I buy... I don't want to put energy into selecting lots of furniture if, six months later, I want to move and it won't suit the next place I chose... and I don't want to be responsible for a garden I don't keep. There are some spectacular places on offer - especially when you consider that I'd not be liable for the cost of maintenance.

Where are you looking?

['Bart']

A.steve, on Dec 21 2008, 04:22 AM, said:

Quick, post something insightful. Don't let the side down.

Something with more substance that pointing out that Kirstie Allsopp is a vile self-serving parasite.

David Staples (not, of course, my real name), Sheffield, United Kingdom posted some telling comments I thought.

[Nelly]

[Quote]
TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location has described the site as “sick”.

“There is a website called Housepricecrash and I am their deadliest enemy,” she said earlier this year. “They all rent and have a vested interest and enjoyment in watching others suffer

Actually you fat witch I bought this year

And I DONT want to watch people suffer the nightmare of have to spend well over the odds just buying a house, and forking out a huge percentage of their wages for it every month.

Although her comments are acurate about the STR's on here.........you lot are exactly the same as her.

She's trying to profit from rises and you are trying to profit from drops.....................morals?........my @rse!

[Confounded]

Nelly, on Dec 21 2008, 06:54 AM, said:

Although her comments are acurate about the STR's on here.........you lot are exactly the same as her.

She's trying to profit from rises and you are trying to profit from drops.....................morals?........my @rse!

You complete idiot..

I am a STR but don't for one minute think it is easy and put us in the same category as the property rampers. I have 2 Children and obviously a wife tied up in this and I have had to spend a lot of time educating myself on the current mess. Beleive me I would have much preferred housing/economy not to have been the mess it is in and forming such a large part of our life. As you are finding out due to the distortion created in the housing market buying near the top could have a severe detriment to your life prospects. Just because some of us said enough is enough and wanted out of this debacle you can not claim it to be imoral. It has been a long a lonely route to take with friends and parents being concerned and worried about us, general comments from friends and strangers like "I hope you know what you are doing" (said in a condersending way). Read some of the STR threads from 2 years ago, even this site was not encouraging it, consequently it took a lot of conviction to take this route.

You have made your bed, you will have plenty of time to discern who the real culprits are in this mess, I am not claiming to be morally perfect and want the best for my family but I did not create the game we now HAVE to play in!

[Tonkers]

Confounded, on Dec 21 2008, 07:25 AM, said:

You have made your bed, you will have plenty of time to discern who the real culprits are in this mess, I am not claiming to be morally perfect and want the best for my family but I did not create the game we now HAVE to play in!

Well said. I will not be buying at all now, but we are all affected by this mess that was created by misgovernment and unleashed greed. Those of us who did not partake in this stupidity are still going to be punished by it.

[Bloo Loo]

Kirsty clearly understands the housing market.

500 people posting an opposite view on a website, and government stamp duty are clearly the reasons for the crash.

These two items are holding back the enormous pentup demand.

I guess both these items have caused the other crashed in US, Ireland, Spain and even Scotland in the last year.

I feel ashamed to have been a small part responsible.

I wish I had STRD instead of building a business and been a renter for the past 15 years.

[Bearback]

Quote

the controversial news and discussion website is attracting 50,000 hits a day

Is this free publicity for HPC actually a big thank you from the Times?

HPC must generate a lot of hits for the Times' website through the news blog links.

[BTB]

I am glad to be part of a sucess story in these troubled times.

[Tonkers]

BTB, on Dec 21 2008, 08:48 AM, said:

I am glad to be part of a sucess story in these troubled times.

You're getting on with the job.

[ScaredEitherWay]

A.steve, on Dec 21 2008, 04:45 AM, said:

I'm considering moving, too. I'd hoped to be buying by the end of this year - but the fall in prices which were inevitable from a basic analysis of the securitized debt markets are taking a little longer to be recognised than I hoped... I now suspect that prices might continue to fall substantially for at least another 2/3 years. In my optimism, I'd hoped that these losses would be recognised more quickly and transactions recover sooner rather than later.

I'm considering various career moves at this stage - and where I will live has a significant bearing on what choices I will make. If I move to a new area, I'll want to rent while I get a feel for the surroundings - so, maybe, this delay is a blessing in disguise.

I'm noticing quite a lot of properties which would have been let immediately a year ago languishing with voids - in spite of 10-20% reductions in advertised rent. The thing I'm finding a little frustrating is that, while I rent, I'd prefer a smaller place than when I buy... I don't want to put energy into selecting lots of furniture if, six months later, I want to move and it won't suit the next place I chose... and I don't want to be responsible for a garden I don't keep. There are some spectacular places on offer - especially when you consider that I'd not be liable for the cost of maintenance.

Where are you looking?

For 99% of the above I thought I was reading something I'd written.... have you stolen my identity and my entire brain/thought process?

Piece of advice for your plan: make a decision about what to do. I'm still sat scratching my **** 18 months on, wondering what to do and where to rent. However, the Govt has been very helpful with this, by slashing interest rates they ensured my STR fund was no longer enough to live on, so now it's job/decision time.

[Tin Foil Hat]

Quote

I was a poster at HPC. They are good people there. They do not want to see others suffer, contrarily many of us knew for years this boom would be the ruin of the UK and it's people. It is a reality site and is far from 'sick' as Alsop says. She needs to look at her contributory role in peoples fate.

Mr Parry, Bristol, UK

Mr. Parry gone as well?

TFH