siskin

Pyracantha aren't you planning on buying in East Renfrewshire? What do you think of the enormous incinerator planned just south of Newton Mearns? The Kilgour guy behind it doesn't look very trustworthy.

Article continues: There are still risks “to both sides” of the economic outlook, Bean said in answer to questions, adding that an “unhappy” outcome to the euro-area crisis may yet trigger an increase in so-called quantitative easing. “It is certainly possible we may want to undertake a second round of QE if the outlook for U.K. growth and inflation prospects is slowing,” he said. More of the same old lies and waffle.

Bankruptcies in Scotland are running at twice the average rate for the UK according to this in the Scotsman. Interesting times ahead.

This article in the Herald gives a different slant from its blatantly ramping front page. Liked this quote at the end. Back in the real world EAs know houses aren't selling. these types of articles aren't making it any easier for the poor souls to sell enough houses to keep up the repayments on the Porsche.

Their busiest day! That's not saying much the ROS are running at a loss because housing market turnover in Scotland is so low. Here's some comments from their recent annual report. These figures are measured in (£ ,000) . Clearly no problems for Scotland's property market then.

-1.8%

Have just done a check on Rightmove for my target area (suburb just outside Glasgow of the kind the estate agents always say is different and won't fall). Of the 30 houses added in our price range over the past 14 days, 14 have had price reductions. The best reduction is o/o270k to o/o 255k to o/o 229k in 2 months but most are showing 10% drops. HPC is happening again in this area and I think that we are pretty close to the prices and sentiment being felt in 2008 with more drops to come. I keep picturing the bubble graph and thinking this must be what the top of the fear phase looks like.

Done.

+1

] The official view on what effects the introduction of home reports may have had on the Scotland property market. My link

The best deal I'm aware of on a instant access current account is Lloyds TSB vantage account. Keep £7000 in your account and you get 4% interest you need to pay in £1000 a month but I know of people who have 7 accounts (for the up to £50000 safety limit) and move the £1000 through the accounts in rotation making sure each account has the £1000 in it for at least 24 hours. Just checked it's still on and it seems to be. http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/answers_to_changes.asp#changing

Predictably enough the only reports on the BBC news website re Nationwide figures are both of the prices up variety http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11437915 30 September 2010 Last updated at 10:48 House prices rose slightly in September, says Nationwide and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11443742 30 September 2010 Last updated at 11:05 'Slight rise' in NI house prices, says Nationwide Zilcho on BBC Scotland News about Scottish house prices falling. :angry:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/8034438/UK-house-prices-fall-in-most-regions.html House prices fell in nine out of thirteen UK regions in the third quarter as the pace of growth turned negative for the first time since May last year, the Nationwide said ... Scotland was the worst performing region with prices falling 3.4pc Good to see the 'experts' getting it so wrong once again.

Article by Larry Elliot from the Guardian - House prices have nowhere to go but down. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/30/house-prices-first-time-buyers

Done.

I'm sorry if this is a bit off topic but the comments on here about banks on building societies made me curious about who owns what. So I checked out Countrywide the UK's biggest estate agency group. Countrywide have 1200 offices covering 41 estate agent brands They are the UK's largest residential surveyor employing over 350 regionally based surveyors covering all UK postcodes The also help private builders like Barratt with their mortgage arrangements through a subsidiary Hurst Independent an independent financial advisory group operating on behalf of Countrywide to offer whole of market mortgage and general & life insurance advice to builder & developer customers. With clients ranging from Barratt Homes to the Davenham Group, Hurst is the choice of developers looking to add value to their projects through bespoke mortgage arrangements. . and when the poor suckers can't keep up with their repayments on the overvalued homes Countrywide sold them they offer A comprehensive repossession service is at the core of our asset management operation and extensive experience makes us true professionals in this area. Countrywide deals with the entire range of repossession services, from drive-by valuations to taking possession, developing a marketing strategy and pro-actively progressing sales. and are the UK's largest regional auctioneers Oh did I mention they also own 21.5pc of property website Rightmove? . Telegraph 21 Feb 2007 I think this is what's known as vertical integration. Real cradle to workhouse to grave stuff. And who owns them? Countrywide were bought by a private equity group Apollo management in 2007, a stunning bit of bad timing. Some nice allegations of possible insider trading around the buy out involving another shareholder Polygon. When the business was going belly up in 2009 they were subsequently refinanced by a combo of distressed debt investors including Oaktree capital management, Polygon Global Opportunities Master Fundand Alchemy Special Opportunities Fund. i don't really understand the ways these guys operate but it looks like they specialise in leverage buyouts (I think this is a bit like what the Glaziers are doing to Man U buy a company with borrowed money then borrow money on the basis that they 'own' the property increasing its debts and creaming off as much as they can for themselves. But more knowledgeable folks on this site can explain it better. Goldman Sachs Bank of America and Deutsche bank were all involved in these deals at some time or another too. I think sometimes it's easy to get caught up in thinking of the VIs as the people in the local estate agents offices or the journalist or MPs with their 2 or 3 properties looking at this has reminded me just how massive and complex and linked all these VIs are.

You've been really out of luck with your timing Johnny. I'm not surprising you're feeling pissed off. The VIs have been pulling a lot of rabbits out of hats over the last couple of years and I don't think anyone could have predicted the mini boom of 2009. But, it's getting harder to see how they are going to keep this going for much longer. You've waited this long surely it's worth hanging on for another year or two or are you fated to be that 1980s VW guy?

Reading this article in the Telegraph It looks like we are in for more QE. I now officially have no clue how to protect my savings do I buy now just before house prices crash or hope that house prices crash quicker than the value of my savings?

Used to live in an old tenement flat close to where they've built all the new flats in Pollokshields and went to have a look at one of the new developments 'Dystopia' in Barrland Street out of curiosity around 2008 when they were being built. They're tiny inside, an open plan kitchen in a living room that was so small they'd installed a hanging chair in the showflat to try to give the impression of more floor space. Absolutely no cupboards or storage space so everyone ends up putting their junk out on the balcony but of course there is the ensuite bathroom ( in a 2 bed flat ). At the time it was all designed to look aspirational but in reality I think these places are set to be the slums of the future. I'd advise you steer well clear of them. The areas aren't great either. I think there's been a steady decline in East Pollokshields for the past ten years at least. Partly due to the proliferation of fast food shops and accompanying litter that's happened despite campaigns by local residents.

Yeh, that's more or less our plan too. We sold our flat in Glasgow in December 2008 and completed in February 2009. We'd priced our flat at 2004 prices to get a sale but didn't foresee the big drop in interest rates coming in March 2009 or the mini house price boom that followed. So now we're just waiting for reality to reassert itself. We're renting our current place from an owner occupier who will be out of the country until August 2011 so we're lucky to have some security while we sit things out. We couldn't really believe what was happening when the house prices started rising and kept going through all of last year. But around November we decided that nothing major was likely to change until a few months after the election and locked our deposit money away in an NS&I bond paying 3.95%. Will wait until November/December this year and reassess, but having waited this long we're content to wait longer if we have to. By that time we will also have a better idea if one or both of us is still likely to have a job too. Of course if a house we want and can afford without stretching our budget comes up before then we'll buy it. Not in this for the money just somewhere we can settle down in for the next 20 years or so.

Thanks for that article it explains a lot. Have had the feeling this was going on for sometime and have even searched for newspaper articles addressing it but nothing til now. Feel vindicated but no less frustrated. Just another case of VIs skewing the market. I think I might send this to my MP and ask him what he will do about it.

Sadly I'm beginning to think you're right you describe my situation exactly.