2. confused76 said...

"There is an interesting divide between London and the country,” said Kate Whotton, regional lettings director at Hamptons International. “In the last six months there has been a lot more supply in property in London so prices are somewhat flatter than in the country.”
But not all parts of the country have seen such strong growth in rents. Figures from Hometrack show places such as Nottingham and Manchester, where there has been an oversupply of new flats, rental growth has been much slower. In Liverpool and Newcastle rents had fallen since the start of 2007"

SUPPLY SUPPLY SUPPLY

I wonder if that old duck of Anne Ashworth will stop cheerleading at some point to spend more time with her grandchildren

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4217499.ece

4. stillthinking said...

Villain. I immediately tried to look for www.rentpricecrash.co.uk and there isn't one. Not everybody is sitting on cash. I would like rents to come down to affordable levels.

6. Thefallandriseoflondonman said...

The basic point about renting is that people who own houses with mortgages have to rent out at a price equal to or higher to make a profit. As house prices have become a speculative commodity, this has set unrealistic rents. Most flats in London, of any good quality will cost between 20-30K per year. Good money down the drain, and you are paying someone else's mortgage for them too. When people wake up to this, and its happening, people will want a more realistic rental proportion. I am a 30+ something male who missed the property boat in London and have nothing to show for my troubles. I have always earned good money 30K+ yet cannot afford a home. I have lived most of my life in London too. I have no savings and no debt. I did not buy in the 90s because I remember the house crash of the late 80s, and could not understand why such rapid house price growth was taking off in London in the mid-to-late nineties, built on no new fundamentals that I could see. Equally, I did not believe that with less job security these days that paying more for a house was risky. My friends with help from parents all brought flats (mine could not assist) at high prices with not much quality in buildmenship to show for it. All said we are rich now, property will never go down, and I was a fool. They had cheap mortgage repayments each month, which would mean that they could rent out a room (and they did) and have no outgoings too. More money went on booze. Their property values went up further, which they did nothing to deserve. So then they transferred their unrealistic credit cards bills, over to their mortgage totals, and continued to live a life far above their means. The government fueled this too and said no more boom and bust. And then people like me could not buy at reasonable prices now that Ninja loans or lair-lair loans and buy to let became the norm. All I wanted was a home not an asset. Now this boom has almost come to an end. The reality is dawning on people that they are not that rich after all, as all other costs rise, property comes back down to earth, with a thud or a crash we will just have to wait and see. I hope soon to see a more realistic proportion of income spent on homes again. A downward adjustment will need to take place quickly or we are in for a long downturn I fear. People have over stretched themselves in the UK for 15 years, I now think then people will realize that debt is not good at these levels it just redistributes more wealth to the rich. PM Brown wanted the banks to lend more to homeowners, but now the goose is really cooked, the only reasonable deals are 75% of the value of the property at the moment. This just means the banks don’t want to get hit, do we really think they care if homeowners lose that 25%? No and in two years time they will only lend 75% again or less.

But what of higher rental costs, recently promoted by the media and estate agents. Unfortunately, it forces everyone into the same old boat of sharing with others and splitting the costs again. It means many unoccupied properties with no takers. And leaves our quality of life and the extra noise from sharing carries with it stress too and more importantly a lack of optimism for the future. People with sensible attitudes to starting a family cannot plan for this, so we seek more immigration to fill the dwindling numbers or works in London.

So I cannot see this staying the same for long, possibly a number years but not for more than five. People will have to get ready for a more realistic percentage of their income on renting and that means more trouble for owners servicing mortgages. Good buy, by to let.

The government claimed and still do, that we need to build more properties. I think this is wrong. I have never seen so much building in the last few years. So when I walk around London e.g. Battersea or Docklands what do I see, lots and lots of unfinished buildings. And look we have missed infrastructure to get to work and what about time to enjoy our short lives outside work.

We hold a great weight around our necks of debt now and some cold sober reflection is need by the people of Great Britain. Houses are for living in not speculation. We are all the losers for this. We must remember his for future generations. SHAME ON YOU BROWN.

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