Monday, Jan 14, 2008
Reality check for Rosie Millard
The Times: We’ll have to stop treating our homes as cashpoints
it’s not just speculators who are worried. It’s everyone. We have known nothing other than the phenomenon of using our home as a convenient cash cow. When we first bought property, in the early- to mid1990s, everything was at the bottom of the previous cycle.
For the past decade, or longer, life has gone as follows: buy something. Watch it go up in value. Laugh. Remortgage and spend the cash on another property, or a roof extension, or school fees, or a holiday in Mauritius.
Now all that has changed. But everything eventually bounces back, and if you don’t mind doing without an annual holiday in Barbados, what the property market does should only bother those who have to move house.
Posted by little professor @ 01:13 PM (1206 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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1. confused76 said...
"What, if it doesn’t bounce back? What happens if the British property market develops along the lines of, say, Germany or Japan, where a slump turned into a downward slide that just went on and on."
Hey, the chick has a brain too!
"Does this mean I’m going to have to get out of my skimpy devil outfit and start dressing à la Mary Poppins? "
Yeah Rosie, and age is taking its toll too
Notably missing in the article is the effect of the BTL speculation which will CLEARLY turn any soft landing, or Japan style slide, into a loud CRASH
2. Johnnyp said...
BTL AND SPECULATION I THINK SHOULD SHOULDER MOST OF THE BLAME FOR THIS PROPERTY BUBBLE,HOPE THEY ARE THE FIRST TO GO DOWN THE SWANNY!
3. techieman said...
I posted a while back what i thought was extraordinary. In the US MEWs between 2000 and 2007 accounted for 50% of consumption. Now I would like to know the % here. To my relatively simple mind if that MEW stops then how can consumer demanded predicated on it continue, i mean what can fill that gap.
4. cyril said...
@ techieman
UK GDP is about £1 trillion. The amount that has been 'invested' in houses since NuLabour is about half that sum. Lets say about £5% of GDP per year. Hmmm...what's GDP growth at the moment?
5. alan said...
@Techieman,
I don't know the answer. But I do know lots of low paid people who have bought nice new cars, long haul holiday trips and loads of Argos gadgets that are finding it hard to pay their secondary loans off. Worse still they seem to owe well over 70% of their house values and are hitting retirement age.
Essex women clearly feel they have a god given right to spend money like water. Houses won't keep going up.
6. mark said...
but she does look sexy in her devil outfit in the times....lol so we can forgive her...lol
7. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
IMHO that thing isn't sexy.
Thats the whole point in this argument about house prices and the economy. The inflation has been THE driving force behind the economy.
Without it expect out service sector economy to flat flat on it's face.
8. Landedgentry said...
Property will suddenly lose its sex appeal soon
9. Landedgentry said...
Dutch Tulips in the 17th century lost their appeal quite sharply
10. Baudot said...
Is the Times contractually stuck with this ghastly woman ?.