Share Bear

House Prices on the rise again... http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,1...1-31037,00.html

Last week a developer put up for sale 100 houses on a shared ownership scheme. 2,500 FTBers queued up in the hope of getting one of these houses. They sold the lot on the first day. Enough said. SB

Hi Bearfacts, I agree with the latter part of your post, and also I agree with the part I've quoted above. HOWEVER, your average FTBer doesn't see it that way. Imagine a FTBer with income available for accomodation of £400/month. They have 3 options: 1) Live in a £80,000 property with a normal mortgage. 2) Live in a £120,000 property for the same monthly cost courtesy of the wonderful New Labour government that they voted in. 3) Rent a £100,000 property. Now, Joe Public, without the ability to think logically or rationally like you and I, would dismiss option 3 because renting is "dead money" They'd look at £80,000 properties, but greed would draw them to the £120,000 property which they can buy now for a small long term sacrifice. Joe Public will choose this option. SB

As I posted on another thread, the hysteria surrounding todays press coverage of GBs new housing scheme, "Homebuy" is surprising since this scheme has been operating since 1999 on a smaller scale and the doubling of the availability of the scheme has been progressing for several months. I posted one article about this on another thread, here are some more articles, most from around the time of the last budget, and explain how the scheme works and the expansion plans for it: http://society.guardian.co.uk/housingdeman...1441034,00.html http://society.guardian.co.uk/housingdeman...1439824,00.html All about Shared Ownership on firstrungnow website: http://www.firstrungnow.com/shared_ownersh...d-ownership.asp SB

I believe, but do not know for certain, that the debt to the government/lender relating to "the half you do not own" will remain at the same level that was rent to you to purchase the house in the first place (several schemes currently work this way). So, in the quoted example, after 7 years if house prices have doubled, the other half of your house will still only (!) cost you £100k to buy. However, if this is actually the case it would be logical to assume it would work the other way so that if house prices fall 50% you will still owe £100k for the other half of your house which is now only worth £100k in total!!! SB

Waiting Patiently, Thanks for the welcome! No, I'm not Gordon, lol! I'm a stock market trader specialising in the Housebuilding sector. Need to read every piece of news & research on the subject... I also help moderate a share discussion BB ( http://www.sharesforum.co.uk ) SB

Everybody seems to be shouting and screaming that this is a new proposal introduced post election. The governement has been planning this implementation for quite some time and it the proposal has been in the public domain (although not on the front page of newspapers) for ages. For example, it was discussed in the budget in mid-March: http://www.in2perspective.com/nr/39053/17/...more-detail.jsp SB

Gordon Brown about to be interviewed on this policy on Breakfast with Frost on BBC1 now