Buddleia
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Posts posted by Buddleia
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I had some Ozzie friends over to dinner last night. They are returning back to Oz in a few months. Hah, I said, you'll pick up a cheap shack now that prices across the industrialised world have turned negative since the financial crisis.
Not so, they said, shocked at my Pommy lack of nous. There is a massive boom taking place in Australia. Up 20% year on year apparently.
I couldn't believe it. The received wisdom is surely that the global credit crunch has knocked the wind out of the sails of a housing boom caused by cheap credit, and shoddy lending. But Google verified it:
Weighted average of the eight major cities is UP 4.8% on the quarter, UP 20.0% on the year.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6416.0
I find this hard to stomach. We are in a global credit crunch. The Australian economy is tiny compared to the Asian giants it rubs shoulders with. Where the hell is the money coming in from to sustain a housing boom? And to cap it all, Ozzie interest rates are rising, which should set the alarm bells ringing for most people.
I just don't get it.
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Greece cannot devalue since it is a member of the Euro-zone. Britain still has this flexibility.
Although the currency markets imposed a devaluation on Sterling anyway - remember all those threads about parity, and Euro-entry by the back door?
I am sitting on a pile of Sterling that I need to use as a deposit in Euros ... so I eye every fluctuation of GPB/EUR with a tremor in my heart ...
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Just a technical glitch, according to a Euronext spokesperson ...
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Can anyone tell me how "we" can get these benefits?
I live in another EU country with my British partner. He is unable to find local work due to the language barrier. The local government won't give him benefit and he has to pay for language classes... I don't need to tell you what the "immigrants" get - and yes, I do see the irony in calling others immigrants.
Anyway - I was under the illusion that the UK gov would not pay benefits to you unless you lived in the country itself - clearly, according to the Daily mail I am wrong. Can we apply online ?
Em ... which country is this, out of interest? There are reciprocal agreements between the EU countries for benefits, if I recall correctly.
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Good God, this woman needs her head examined.
“We’re going through a recession when we know there’s a substantial built-in growth of householder demand in the pipeline. The demand is not going to go away so we have to ask, how can we maintain supply through the recession?”
The problem is not the supply of houses, it's the supply of CREDIT.
There are more shite luxury two-bed new-builds on the market than you can shake a demolition ball at!
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Panorama just broadcast a programme about the recent financial turmoil. It cited several UK banks and building societies and demonstrated their deposit to loan ratios. I cant remember them all but I was surprised that they were fairly modest. HBOS was about 1.2ish and even B+B was about 1.6.
Surely these are fairly healthy figures? Can anyone explain?
Yes, it seemed far too healthy for anyone who has googled irrationally on Fractional Reserve Lending to believe.
What was the job title of that Essex woman who got sacked from Lehman's? Computer graphics operator? What's that?
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Some of those comments are crackers. Like this from Mr Bulgaria (off-plan in Plovdiv, by any chance?)
my house is on the market but i will try and ride out the storm , im not giving it away after all these years workinging hard for it to somebody that may have the money what can buy it straight off and try to get it say at there price because of what the banks and the goverment have done.ive always said when you it rock bottom theres only one way you can go thats up again. so this goverment and the banks what are rich as hell that have made money from the british people should be ashamed as if it was not for us putting money in the banks from the start of them they would have no jobs.they would be still trading a bail of hay for a sheep. -
This is something that has been weighing on my mind a bit recently. I earn Euros, but hold some Sterling that I might need in the future converted to Euros. So I have been miffed to see the inexorable decline of Sterling against the Euro.
I'm no currency expert - but if the southern satellites like Spain and fantasy lands like Ireland are forced out of the Euro-zone ... won't that make the Euro STRONGER as it will be more tightly bonded to the German economy and other work-horses like Holland?
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"Er...lads...we had a few drinks with Bertie the other noight and we decoided in the end that there probably was gunner be a crash loike....I mean slow down to sustainable plateau....and that this is good ting for the long term stability of the economy loike. Bertie will be in confession this morning to atone for calling sensible good people 'doom-mongers' and for calling for them to commit suicide. We reckon he'll be grand after a few Hail Marys and some good work wit primary school children. Sorry about that. It was the fault of the English."
Tog bog é, a chara ...
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Ambrose makes some decent points in this article. The situation is not exactly the same in the UK:
"In America, 29pc of all mortgages issued at the height of the bubble were 100pc loans - or even 105pc or 110pc, to pay for furniture. The craze has not gone so far in Britain, where the equity stake in half the lower-tier loans is 20pc or more, and prices have not been pushed beyond historic extremes."
But his past point (bolded) made me sit up straight. I thought it was received wisdom on HPC that inflated-adjusted prices are at all-time highs, and is one of the main arguments I use when talking to bullish friends.
So who's correct?
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Why no try the figures from Eurostat.
24% of all households in Britain with children are headed by single parents, compared to 13% in Holland. You really set yourself up for ridicule when making claims that can be checked and disproved with the quickest of internet searches. Perhaps I could claim "Britain has the sunniest weather in world. I know because I live there."
http://canadianeconoview.blogspot.com/2006...ponding-to.html
Fair point, well made. It seems that there are just as many, that's all.
But I think people should stop having a go at the single mums for feck's sake. It's so obviously loose credit and the banks that have let this ludicrous global asset bubble get out of hand.
Everyone else - you, me, and the feckless government, whose remit is to offer a safety net to single mums and plenty of others - has to work within this situation.
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Good idea.
I think the flaw for Guardian readers is that those who are social workers will have less work in the long term.
That's a lot of bitterness you are bottling up there, my friend.
But back to your original point, I can assure you that Holland has proportionally just as many single muns as the UK, and despite the easy availability of decent council housing has still experienced a tremendous bubble. I know, because I live there.
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Not really I just don't want them to have so much money and housing that I could never afford.
Amazing that no one has even attempted to disprove that paying for parasites to have a good house makes it more difficult for workers to have decent homes.
Does everyone from UKIP have such a toxic viewpoint?
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So you don't think that stealing money from the productive workers to pay for 'free' accommodation for chav slappers might have some effect on the housing market and the ability of productive workers to afford a place to live?
The proportion of the UK housing bubble caused by providing homes for single mums is statistically negligable. Did the government only start providing houses for them in 1995 at the depth of the last house price crash?
What contemptible crap. Look elsewhere for blame.
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So if Tony takes money from me and gives it to someone else to rent a nice house because they are a single parent. Then that has no affect on my ability to afford to buy/rent a nice house for me, even if I would like to rent/buy the house the other person has but I do not have the same amount as them because Tony B took some from me to give to them???
Wow that is amazing. So it is just coincidence that a country crowded like Holland has enough housing for working people and gives less money to single mums.
Not sure what point you are making ... Holland has had a massive housing bubble, too. It's just that it has no real shortage of socially assisted housing (yes - council housing) because it's throwing them up all the time on reclaimed land.
Rents in the private sector are so high they make your balls climb back up just contemplating them.
So still not sure what the single mums have to do with the UK housing bubble and your inability to afford a decent dwelling.
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My Dutch lodger told me that she was amazed that people live in shared housing here. She said that in Holland only students need to share houses not people with a decent job.
Last night she found one reason why on the news they were talking about single mums having to work when their children are 12 in Holland they already have to work when they are 6.
Also of course they get less benefits.
Hmm ... nothing to do with single mums. Holland has a very sound social housing policy for those who choose to rent (and believe me, millions do rent for their entire lives and think nothing odd about it).
Council housing has no stigma here - if you've ever been to Amsterdam, a large proportion of those beautiful canal-side houses are owned and let by the council in perpetuity for absolute pepper-corn rents.
Of course, you have to qualify for these properties by being on a waiting list for, quite literally, years. No chance of swanning in from overseas and bagging one of these des-rezes - the majority of recent immigrants are forced to rent in miserable shit-holes the the West and SouthEast of the city.
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Interest rates in the Euro-zone are lower, but yet there is no housing bubble in many of the Euro-countries.
The reason? If you ask me, it is all about better legislation for renters. In Germany, once you've rented a flat
over 5 years, there is a 1 year notice on it. It is simply much safer to rent there. Even short leases have
3 months notice. No need to hurry and buy.
Sorry, this is nonsense. Germany is the only country in Europe to have escaped a bubble.
The bubble is a GLOBAL phenomenon across the industrialised world, Japan and Germany excepted.
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Pull your head out your body part where the sun doesn’t shine and read it again. It is your problem if you have no sense of humour. There are more than enough smiles in my post to suggest the post has nothing to do with “ Misanthropy “
“yawn” to the some people’s interpretation.
Both the Daily Mail and the Torygraph have articles today on the flood of Poles - I guess I'm a little jaded to this topic.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...migrants128.xml
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yawn ... the usual misanthropy based on apocryphal tales ...
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Do your homework, prepare to compromise, keep your eyes open, have that deposit ready, buying a house doesnt have to be impossible. Yes it is hard work and yes you may need to sacrifice some pub time. But the choice is there...
er ... I am a professional with two degrees. 3.5 times salary in my part of SW London buys ... a studio, if I am, lucky. And that's throwing years of savings down as a deposit.
Where is the space to compromise?
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"The lesson she has learnt is to invest only in new-build flats with low maintenance."
Hmm ... that would be those new-build flats that are priced O-so competitively by developers, and which fall apart after a few years?
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At least an offer would be nice, though.
Indeed it would. I wish you luck.
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Well this thread has certainly ruffled some feathers.
I sympathise with OP ... but council housing is also a lottery like no other. There are hideous council estates I would never dare to tread, and an awful lot of recent immigrants end up there.
Remember the Iraqi that got stabbed in Glasgee because the rumours went out they 'they was all kemmin in en picking up all the choice houses'.
A fine line to tread.
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But seriously, could a government force major international banks to restrict their lending in order to prevent serious house price inflation?
It would certainly take some balls. And they would lose the next election.
But it just might avert a bubble.
How Do You Dispose Of 24 Ct Gold?
in Gold and other precious metals
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I've got a couple of oz of old industrial gold, 24 carat, four 9s pure. And I want to sell.
Now - if I go to the High Street, I assume I will get offered 60% of spot price because they'll sense desperation (after all, you have to be a bit desperate to flog your old jewelry).
But I assume for 24 carat gold it must be possible to get a price nearer to spot because there's no need to refine the gold?
Thoughts, anyone?
Cheers.