For the last two years, KPMG has refused to sign off the accounts of Spelthorne borough council, a tiny local authority on the outskirts of London that has taken on huge amounts of debt to buy more than £1 billion of commercial and residential property, it has been revealed. The council has an annual budget of just £22 million, yet it has amassed more commercial property than just about any other local authority in the UK, all of it debt financed.

John Stepek points out that even though we are in the midst of a pandemic, low interest rates and a general lack of material shocks (cushioned in no small part due to government action) has meant that first world house prices have remained surprisingly resilient.

Without First Time Buyers housing chains will grind to a halt, unless of course the BTL brigade decide to double up their portfolios.

Average England and Wales house price has been falling since March. In Reading where I live prices are now down over 8% year on year. However, you wouldn't think so on a skim read of the report. The VIs behind the house price stats are laid bare by the headlines they choose. LSL Acadata series is based on LR data, like the ONS one. Ignore also the results from July, which are based on a pathetic 1,300 reported sales, things only become clear at 2-3 months distance, since that's when most of the data are in. Probably it will have ticked up when the dust has cleared due to stamp duty holiday, but that's a one-off.

Surely this can't be the first time HMRC have considered this. I guess the furlough money has to come from somewhere and as the comments note it won't be from Amazon or Google.

"However, there are two other areas offering better value for foreign buyers at present. In the last year, house prices in the City of London have fallen by £60,868. When combining this reduced cost of investing with the £30,851 stamp duty saving made by buying now, foreign buyers are some £91,720 better off investing in the London property market at present." This article doesn't mention the pound also down about 6% roughly against dollar etc compared with this time last year.

Overpaid to travel to London for a house to you need to pay for 25 years. Now when the income stops you are stuck