Saturday, Mar 22, 2008
No mercy!
Guardian: Sympathy for the BTL devils?
Should we shed tears for the buy-to-letters who are losing a fortune as property prices start to nosedive? Compare this with first-time buyers. They have to stump up a deposit. They have to prove their income. They have to make monthly mortgage payments from a taxed salary. There could only be one winner in such a one-sided game. With access to easy finance, the buy-to-letter could outbid the first-timer and push prices up to ever more ludicrous levels
Posted by confused76 @ 09:28 AM (771 views) Add Comment
13 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
Should we shed tears for the buy-to-letters who are losing a fortune as property prices start to nosedive
Absolutely not; the reverse in fact.
2. Greytornado said...
What goes around etc. Fact is, the BTL lot have wrecked a long standing system that worked well, because they have derailed the first time buyers. No sympathy here !
3. Crashinhand said...
'The big buy-to-let landlords who started their property empires long ago won't be crying too much. They have cash. At the auctions, they will snap up ever more properties. First-time buyers will continue to be outbid, especially now that access to finance will become ever more difficult.'
I fail to see why in this downturn all the properties will be snapped up by these 'longtime' landlords. Has this happened before? and I wonder if these experienced landlords were immune to 'MEW and leverage' or did they jump on the bandwagon also. From 20 years of dealing with landlords my guess is that many of the leaches wouldn't have been able to resist the lure of easy money.
4. Baudot said...
The Guardian understates pension fears as the "exploitation of snake oil salemen". Not surprisingly this left-wing newspaper makes no mention of how private pension schemes have been ruined by NuLabs relentless multi-billion pound raids on pension funds (to prop up generous public sector schemes including their own outrageous benefits). No wonder so many ordinary people are forced to look for alternative means to fund their old . Not just BTL, but trading up to larger houses with a view to cashing in and moving to a smaller property on retirement.
Until NuLab stop raiding private pension funds, money that might otherwise have been invested in a pension will continue to flow into property keeping prices higher than the long term norms of the last fifty years and ensurinng that BTL remains a significant player in the housing market.
.
My sympathy for BTL investors matches my sympathy for stock market investors at the moment. Life's like that, "the value of your investment may go down as well as up".
5. handle_it said...
"Look at my face and ask me if I'm bothered" :o)
6. nopensionnohouse said...
"But at its core was simple human greed that is now rapidly turning into fear".
It is what I have said all along. So simple and so sad.
7. plato said...
Victims of Universal Laws.
8. Stevie Dee said...
nevermind... you win some and you lose some... I remember telling three BTLers last September that I sold my place because the market was coming down, told them to look at Gold. They looked at me & laughed, as they were successful property tycoons, paper billonaires, the guy is no longer my landlord & as for his associates they sold their property to him. I'm guessing he still thinks about what I said 6.5 months ago. There's a saying: "Whoever laughs last, laughs longest".
You have to laugh, because this is so tragic and was preventable. The government are wholly responsible for this debacle.
9. daft boy said...
Make it a condition that all bankrupt BTLers wear a large yellow BTL patch on their backs so that the rest of society can see what a parasite looks like. Let them all burn.
10. Stevie Dee said...
When are the "Rolling Stones" going to release this version, that's what I want to know. Could be a Christmas No.1!!!!
11. Jimmyb said...
At least this is being written about in the press, the television seem to be hiding it behind the makeover sofa. Why is none of this hitting our television screens, I suspect that television has become more like a red top newspaper than anything romotely serious, drival for the masses that don't want to hear what is going on in the real world.
12. drewster said...
"We feature Geoff Morris, whose £3m portfolio has turned to dust, and Chris Miller, who is £3.5m in debt to the buy-to-let lenders."
This reminds me of the old saying: If you owe the bank £10,000 then you have a problem. If you owe the bank £10m, then the bank has a problem. These BTLers can just declare bankruptcy, leaving the banks to clear up the mess.
13. tyrellcorporation said...
'These BTLers can just declare bankruptcy, leaving the banks to clear up the mess.'
...which will ultimately be paid for by us! Makes me want to vomit.