Wednesday, Sep 08, 2010
A Landlord Speaks
Property Talk Live: Stop the housebuilding insanity
If you all keep building I might not make any money.
Posted by ontheotherhand @ 04:28 PM (1042 views) Add Comment
32 Comments
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1. mark wadsworth said...
Typical Home-Owner-Ist propaganda
"the environment cannot take much more (1). In the south, our roads are overcrowded (2), our public transport is overloaded (3), our water and drainage systems cannot cope (4), and there is a shortage of school places in many areas (5). Yet, in the north, whole streets of houses stand empty, fast falling to dereliction and vandalism. Our green spaces are being stolen (6), and the character and amenity of our towns and villages is being destroyed. (7)
1) it's not buildings that are a burden on the environment, it's people and travel. So - if we build more buildings where people want to live (i.e. near where the jobs are), there will be less travel, so overall less burden on environment.
2) Then either build more roads or hike fuel duty.
3) Then either build more railways or hike ticket prices.
4) Big, fat, massive lie. No evidence to support that.
5) The number of children in this country is remarkably stable over decades. Sure, it cost money to educate kids, but does it make much difference where in the country they go to school?
6) What "green spaces"? To whom do they belong? Lying idiot.
7) Surely, people want to move to places where it's NICE. So if it's so horribly overcrowded blah blah in the south, how come people want to move there?
People like this should be lined up against the wall and shot. Seriously.
2. drewster said...
- the more honest lettings agents and landlords will also tell you that voids of 6 weeks plus between lets are the norm, and 3 months is not uncommon. There is certainly no queue to rent property in most areas.
Plenty of other stories in the media contradict this; rents are rising in many areas.
[...] ignoring the fact that these people are usually already living in private accommodation, paid for by housing benefit
There are figures available to demonstrate overcrowding too. Point your Google at the terms "overcrowding" and "housing", and you'll find stories of millions of families forced to squash into tiny homes because numpties like this one don't want their precious greenbelt touched.
3. Crunchy said...
Overcrowding is nothing more than bad planning and policy. Take a plane ride.
Overpopulation is nothing more than an agenda tool.
A myth to support another myth that just so happens to be profitable for the bad planners and policy makers (who crawl around in dark
foundations) that would rather not be called cold blooded killers and thus serve prison time of death themselves.. imho.
4. markj69 str05 said...
drewster said...'Point your Google at the terms "overcrowding" and "housing", and you'll find stories of millions of families forced to squash into tiny homes because numpties like this one don't want their precious greenbelt touched.' - I couldn't agree more.
A little curbing of planning reg's, allowing for affordable and socially acceptable housing (ie somewhere where people can live without feeling claustrophobic, and paraniod about others ehcroaching on what little land they own. Also making available as single property ownership deals only, (Ie no second/third home, portfolio, empire-building). All government controlled, so most profits go straight to HMG. Developers being grateful for any tit-bits thrown their way, keeping them afloat. Then with a flooding of property onto the market, prices normalise to say 3x salary.
Speaking of earning ratios, does anyone know how on earth Halifax calc's the avg male full-time salary to be approx' £35K? Or have i got my maths wrong?
See end of monthly rpt. Avg house £168K, ratio 4.7-ish. [http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media1/research/halifax_hpi.asp?WT.ac=MHPER]
Especially when national stats (OK 2009) have earnings at: 'Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest for 40 to 49-year-olds at £551.' [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285] - WhiIE. £28.6k. New ratio = 5.9. That's probably more like it.
5. enuii said...
markj69; Having experienced the level of incompetance at the Halifax first hand I would not believe a single statistic they produce. They ceased to be a credible organisation when they turned into a funny bank and floated themselves. Had the great pleasure of selling their shares as soon as I got them and moved my business elsewhere after the great anonymous banking fairy kept deleting direct debits paying my mortgage without my or their knowledge and this was in the days before internet bwanking!
6. drewster said...
Markj69,
There are two types of average: mean and median. £35k is the mean; £25k is the median. If Bill Gates moves in next door, the average (mean) income on your street jumps much higher too; but the average (median) remains virtually unchanged. If you're going into politics, you're always safest quoting the median; since that is the figure that 50% of the population earns less than and 50% earns more than.
Then there's the question of what constitutes "salary". Does it include discretionary annual bonuses? Does it include the self-employed? (Not just plumbers, but sportsmen, entertainers, etc.) Does it include cash-in-hand work, eBay trading or car boot sales or drug deals? Does it include landlords who receive most of their income as rent; or rich shareholders who live off their dividends? Does it include someone on a modest salary but who boosts that salary through rent-a-room or some stocks & shares? All those factors can push up incomes; yet usually none of these is included in the "average salary".
When trying to work out the relationship between salary and house prices, there's an important gearing effect. If you earn £25k but spend £20k on your family's living expenses (excluding housing), then that only leaves £5k spare to spend on housing. But if you earn £30k then that leaves £10k for housing, which is double the amount. Similarly if the cost of living (food, petrol, gas bill, school uniforms) rises, then your £20k living costs might rise to £21k or £22k. Right now we're seeing both falling wages and rising food inflation. The amount of cash left over for housing is shrinking fast.
There's a useful primer on "average" salaries here: BBC: Just what is a big salary?
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8. Peppersauce said...
drewster,
I really find it hard to believe that 50% of full time employed people are earning more than 25K. I am extremely suspicious of how these statistics are put together and who is actually included as 'full time'. Do they exclude women, certain age groups or regions?
I would imagine that the bulk of full time employees in the UK earn less than 20k per year and the higher average figure that is normally quoted is distorted by very high earners or is a statistical fudge.
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