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Everything posted by Buddleia
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Massive Hpi: What Policies Might Have Averted It?
Buddleia replied to Buddleia's topic in House prices and the economy
These are good answers, but Holland (where I am based) has also experienced massive HPI since the mid-nineties despite having these same policies in place. Here, BTL is unknown because income from a second home is taxed out of existence. Even OWNING a second home requires you to be taxed on its putative worth. Here, tenants rule the roost (that shit called the shorthold assured tenancy is unheard of) and social housing is widely available, without the stigma of it being "cahncil housing". However - big lenders are happy to thow five times salary at you here, property porn abounds on TV, and the result has been that house prices have risen massively (not to the absurd levels of the UK though). This is why I think it is the widely available credit that is the prime driver of HPI. Governments are helpless in its wake. -
Imagine a scene a few years from now. The global economy is reeling from some sort of shock - say a European energy crisis with Russia turning off the gas tap, or a savage flare-up over Taiwan, or a natural disaster. In the UK jobs are shed quickly in the services sector. The government trims civil service staff savagely. Interest rates reach nine percent. In the housing market, tens upon tens of thousands of people slowly start to default on mortgages, primarily first-time buyers. Lenders, licking their wounds, tighten all lending criteria to unprecedented levels. HPI, denied its nurturing flame, dies. The market dies. Property prices slump 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%. The Daily Mail cries Apocalypse and ceases publication. In the ensuing social crisis, what will be the view on this government's involvement in allowing house prices to treble in a decade? Could they in any way have constrained the unsustainable growth? Could they have taken the wind out of BTL earlier by taxing gains more punitively, or made the sector less appealing by scrapping shorthold tenancies? Could they have punished second home owners? Could they have arm-wrestled the high-street lenders into more responsible lending? Or will the verdict be that the government was guiltless of its country's blood: HPI was a global phenomenon fuelled by a clement economic climate, globalisation, and immensely powerful banking interests. They could no more have controlled the housing market than re-taken India. Your views?
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Likewise I hold substantial Sterling but am based on the Continent. Sterling soared after the recent January hike to 5.25%. The spot rate on www.moneycorp.com was something like 1.52 EUR as opposed to 1.48 EUR today (it slumped after the February hike failed to materialise), which is a big difference if you are transferring tens of thousands of quid. If there is a March or May IR hike, as many are predicting, this could be a good time to convert. Caveat: the ECB is widely known to be about to increase EUR rates this March, which will strengthen the Euro. One thing - don't trust your bank to do the transfer. Used a dedicated currency broker. I got stiffed rotten by HSBC when transfering a six-figure sum. The Indian call-center worker quoted me a rate which was entirely different to the actual rate which resulted in me losing thousands of pounds. Upon investigation, the rate I was quote was "indicative only", which means tha bank can use any rate they want, and I was helpless. **** the useless HSBC - I wept with joy when i heard their sub-prime lending division has gone tits-up!
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Any prizes should still be valid. However you're unlikely to be sitting on a goldmine as they tend to make sure you know if you've won anything large. Worse case scenario - you've won nothing, so the value is still a fiver. Good luck!
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IMHO premium bonds return about 2% which is cack-all unless you hit the million!
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Why You Should Be Careful Who You Listen To....
Buddleia replied to needle's topic in House prices and the economy
Personal spats ... yawn. Move on folks, nothing to see here. -
Telegraph Btl Guide: Are They Allowed To Say This?
Buddleia replied to Buddleia's topic in House prices and the economy
It's sponsored by Abbey. Given the bad mortgage debt from America in the past few days, you'd think they would stop screaming BTL from the rooftops. I suppose the Abbey will only get burned as well. Cry I won't. -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtm...requestid=95975 Ok, the guide is sponsored by Abbey so is bound to be upbeat, but I simply don't believe they can get away with point 2! Sure it's criminally misleading. <cutandpaste> YOUR GUIDE TO BUYING-TO-LET PROS • Average national rents are on the increase • There are no serious indications that the ongoing rise in house prices will end any time soon • Property has been the strongest asset class over the last five years • Since 1999, it has been much easier to dislodge unsuitable tenants than under previous law • Property investments are usually quite easy to finance </cutandpaste>
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Abstract poverty? As opposed to Abject poverty?
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BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
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B*llocks. I was counting on 2007 starting with a drop.
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Rosie Millard To Be On Question Time
Buddleia replied to jp1's topic in House prices and the economy
What a miserable, ghastly, evil article. Oh how I hope she gets slaughtered on Question Time. -
http://my.expatica.com/c:nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83801 " ... My friend has left the UK and is now in Holland for 6 months and has a permanent job.He has no money problems over here and all is ok but he left England with bad debts with his bank, so the question is will the UK bank track him down in Holland and arrest him? if he has no intention of returning to England and paying his debts off? will the UK authorities contact the Dutch Authorities to track him down and deport him back to England? he owes approx 20,000 pounds in upaid loans and overdraughts which he left at his local HSBC bank. Any advice would be good thanks as he does not want to return to England for this reason." "overdraught" Is that what happens when your Boddingtons spills over the side of the glass?
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Inclined To Believe No Crash In London
Buddleia replied to MrNobody's topic in House prices and the economy
I would like to know exactly how many houses were bought in cash using City Bonuses last year. I suspect it was feck all. How tediously and predictably the meeja strung out this red herring as the driver behind increased HPI. -
Yes, but straight out of Uni with a BSc and a hard-won MSc, my CV was also derisible trash that embarasses me to look at now - curse those early experiences with Word on Windows 2.0, the way they emboldened the user to get creative with fonts, italics ...
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If you had gone to university you would know that Mong is a rather distasteful phonetic corruption of "Mongoloid", pertaining to people with Trisomy 21 or Down's Syndrome. "Peice of paper" (sic)
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"house Price Growth Of 4% In 2006" Shock From Ireland
Buddleia replied to Realistbear's topic in House prices and the economy
There's been nothing daft about the Irish in the last 10 years - the wealth in Ireland is staggering at the moment. Although a lot of it's built on a fragile base, IMHO. -
http://www.icesave.co.uk/financial-protection.html Deposits made with Icesave are protected under the Icelandic Deposit Guarantees and Investor-Compensation Scheme (details of this scheme may be obtained from www.landsbanki.com/legislation). Payments under this scheme are limited to the first €20,887 (or the sterling equivalent) of your total deposits held with us. You have further protection from the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (www.fscs.org.uk). Payments under this scheme are limited to 100% of the first £2000 of all your deposits with us, plus 90% of the next £33,000 of your total deposits with us, less any payments made under the Icelandic scheme. This means that the maximum claim amount as at June 2006 is £31,700.
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Would you stick your savings in an Icelandic bank given the precarious state of the Krona?
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Where does it all come from? MEWing can't answer it all!
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I think sentiment is already veering to the cautious. Banks pulling fixed-rate deals is very worrying for ANY buyer, including Polly Filler sunday broadsheet journalists in the broadsheets. Hence the incidence of the words "debt" and "reposession" in the meeja has risen ten-fold in December and January.
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Uk Economic Meltdown Imminent
Buddleia replied to SundanceSquid's topic in House prices and the economy
Er ... the US barely made it into WW1 on the Allied side because of sympathy from the numerous Americans of German descent.