Profitoftruth

I think it's offers over 100k. Trouble is these valuations don't reflect the inevitable double-dip that everyone is expecting in property prices. If these flats were unloaded at an auction, they would be snapped up by BTLs who wouldn't offer more than £45,000 per unit, coz they know these flats will have maintenance charges attached. Also, the security issue means paying for security fencing, cameras and on-site security guards and electronic pass keys for residents and their cars. A development like this can be made to work so long as the additional investment is made to turn it into a "gated" community.

Yeah, crucial point. You wanna buy any precious metals, buy the real thing not a paper investment, then lock it away in a bank vault, Just make sure it's not a Lehman's one.

The U.S. can't cut Interest Rates any more than they have done. They've just taken on the FreddieMac, FannieMae mortgage guarantor companies and they couldn't use taxpayers money to fund it, so they've borrowed it from Sovereign wealth funds by selling them bonds. To keep those bonds attractive, the interest rates have to stay within certain limits. The U.K. is in the same boat, but actually worse. We're currently nursing a 1.8 trillion pound liability deficit. Don't hear about that on the news much do you? The Saudis and other oil producers want to keep oil prices at or around $100 a barrel because they feel threatened by the "Green" agenda of the THEORY of Global Warming. The British public have been sucking up this propaganda for the last 5 years and now we're paying the price for our naievity. This winter is gonna be rough for a lot of people. Don't expect interest rates to drop any time soon. This tsunami is just getting started.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but since the demise of the Wizard of Spin T.B., the truth is finally coming out. Just 12 months ago, commentators, economists and property "experts" were still insisting that affordability should NOT be the deciding factor in determining how big a mortgage we should take on. They were wrong, badly wrong and oh boy are we going to pay the price for this greed and gullibility. Here is the hard and fast affordability rule (proven by 100 years experience) that mortgage payments must not exceed more than 30% of the household income, BASED ON A STANDARD REPAYMENT MORTGAGE OF 8% INTEREST. Please Note: banks are starting to enforce this! This means if you own a house with a mortgage of £150,000, with monthly repayments of: £1,000. That means you must be earning a minimum of £40,000 a year AFTER TAX. Yes that's right, AFTER TAX. This original rule was set in place at a time when you used to be able to claim back income tax set against your interest payments. But the Government stopped all that, so the original rule only works against your NET income AFTER TAXES. So how many homeowners do you know who have a mortgage of £150,000 plus who are earning less than the minimum gross wage of £50,000 a year? The answer is probably most, if not all!! SO UNDER THE AFFORDABILITY RULE, HOUSE PRICES WILL HAVE TO DROP BY AT LEAST 40% RIGHT ACROSS THE U.K. IN ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE THE AFFORDABILITY RULE. Good luck finding one politician, economist or media personality willing to admit that.

Vince got it absolutely right. DON'T CUT THE BANK OF ENGLAND LENDING RATE, because if they do that will encourage people to borrow even more and this Country is swimming in debt. Cut government spending and give us our money back! Do you know how much debt we're in?? UK Government (Total liabilities): 1.8 trillion pounds (Official figures) UK Business: 2.6 trillion pounds (Official figures) UK Consumer including mortgage debt: 1.2 trillion pounds. These are frightening figures, far in excess of what we can handle as a nation. It will take us 25 years to pay this all back at a standard year on year growth rate of 2%. BofE Governor: Mervyn King knows it and so does Gordon Brown. Why isn't the media picking this up? Why won't the economists discuss it. We're not bankrupt as a nation yet but it's not for a lack of trying. Vince Cable's speech has been the most honest assessment to date, let's see if the Conservatives will be equally as transparent.