Wednesday, Mar 24, 2010

Schadenfreude

Liverpool Daily Post: Investors hit as the buy-to-let bubble is finally burst and mortgage debts rocket

Our favourite BTL kings and queen are getting there there just deserts no matter how much our finical-industrial complex rig the system to support asset owners.

Posted by the number cruncher @ 10:07 AM (1930 views) Add Comment

18 Comments

1. the number cruncher said...

I put the wrong headline on this - it should be 'Britain’s most famous landlords sell their portfolio bit by bit' from www.bridgingandcommercial.co.uk
Sorry

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:11AM Report Comment
 

2. righttoleech said...

CGT up to marginal income tax rate WEF from 6th April 2010 PLEASE DARLING??????

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:25AM Report Comment
 

3. wiltshire said...

"Fergus and Judith Wilson – to some property villains, to others entrepreneurs – are in the process of selling their 700 houses one at a time, making a swift exit from the market"

Selling 700 houses one at a time doesn't sound like a particularly swift exit to me!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:26AM Report Comment
 

4. mark wadsworth said...

Does nobody remember the Hunt Brothers? They managed to corner a large part of the silver market in the early 1980s, the price went up tenfold but sooner or later the bubble burst and they lost more on the way down than they made on the way up.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:33AM Report Comment
 

5. Neil B said...

"One or two people want to douse us with petrol and set us on fire, but I think that's going a bit too far."

Not far enough - I think most people would then p*ss on the ashes......

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:52AM Report Comment
 

6. the number cruncher said...

I have just checked out Rightmove for Ashford and you can spot Fergus' properties as they are all going for 180k. But there are lots of similar properties much cheaper. I think his strategy is to drip one or two on the market each week and to hold the price firm. Silly boy. He will be sitting on a pile of unsold properties and it will suppress the rental as who is going to rent a property which is on the market?

This is great news for me as the halo will hasten the decline in the area I am looking to buy eventually. I wonder if the other BTL'ers of Ashford are going to follow his strategy, they did on the way up.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 11:14AM Report Comment
 

7. Orwell said...

"For the tenants of course it’s just as worrying. Though the Wilsons have promised to try to sell the houses with sitting tenants, for many the situation looks precarious, their futures uncertain."

I am surprised that most decent people aren't very worried at this. Apparently (small) things like this caused a violent revolution in 1917. There may not be a risk I know, but remember that in 1917 the UK had a proper socialist government to speak for ordinarly working people. Now it doesn't.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 11:17AM Report Comment
 

8. luckyjim said...

MW,

Are you sure you don't mean the Duke Brothers ? They tried to corner the market for Orange Juice in the early 80s.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:01PM Report Comment
 

9. mark said...

I am off to corner the dust market, the next major boom will be in buying dust...

it amazes me how stupid and greedy people really are, surely sense would have said sell in 2006 make a profit and run

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:22PM Report Comment
 

10. 51ck-6-51x said...

Wow...
"They can always buy them off us." [emphasis mine]
- Done. 1p.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:12PM Report Comment
 

11. greenshootsandleaves said...

A lose-lose situation for the banks (Dontcha love it?). They either stand by and watch as the trickle of mostly unsold properties forms into a pool, or they have to admit (publicly) that the properties are not worth as much as they said they were. Could Ashford by any chance be a microcosm of the British property market?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:23PM Report Comment
 

12. orcusmaximus said...

So, if they couldn't sell their whole empire on the open market, then it's not worth what they thought it was.

By putting properties in at a set price, they are to some extent fixing the price even if their properties don't sell. So,
if they only trickle the properties in at the same rate as they are selling, then this is a good strategy.

As long as the interest rates don't rise, they're not losing money.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:49PM Report Comment
 

13. mark wadsworth said...

No, I mean Hunt Brothers. And it was early 1970s not early 1980s.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:58PM Report Comment
 

14. greenshootsandleaves said...

orcus maximus 'if they only trickle the properties in at the same rate as they are selling'

Can they really hope to sell two a week, week after week?
For would-be buyers, on the other hand, a good strategy would be to wait and see. This could even develop into a 'pent-up supply situation'. Now then, if (contrary to all expectations) interest rates rise ....

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 03:24PM Report Comment
 

15. alan_540 said...

@6 Luckyjim - Yes I remember the Dukes, didn't they get scuppered by Winthorpe & Valentine?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 05:11PM Report Comment
 

16. jack c said...

I can just imagine the late Johnny Cash singing to Fergus and Judith - "you sold your properties one piece at a time and they didnt make you a dime"

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 06:08PM Report Comment
 

17. luckyjim said...

alan_540

Yes, an insider dealing scam as I recall.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 07:44PM Report Comment
 

18. estrader said...

@4 Mark, I remember them. History is littered with people who tried and failed to corner markets.

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:04AM Report Comment
 

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