martymcfly

Can't edit but that should be 1 - £100k/£120k = 16.67%

A 40% fall up to the start of 2009 and a 50% fall up to now does not imply a 10% fall in prices from 2009 until now. It implies a fall of around 16-17% from 2009 until now. For example a house valued at £200k at peak After a 40% fall to 2009 the hose would then be vaued at £200k * 60% = £120k After a 50% fall from peak the house would be valued at £200k * 50% = £100k But the fall from 2009 until now in % terms is 1 - £120k/£100k = 16.67%

AFAIK the schemes are setup as a cash savings plan, but with the additional benefit of an attaching option to buy the shares at a discount (anything from 0 to 25%, at employers discretion) to the price of the share at the date the plan was started. The cash savings element is dictated by HMRC to be priced off governement bond/swap rates - so the interest is currently paltry (in fact 2013 the interest rate is zero!). In the past the interest rate was around 3% so you effectively had a tax-free savings plan with a free option attached paid for by your employer. Not so generous now but with savings rates so low elsewhere anyway not a bad place to put your money. The cash is held separately from the assets of the employer so if they were to go bust you would recieve your money back, although obviously with no gain from the now worthless options.

On the other hand good for the consumer - would the EA be honest enough to give useful tidbits such as: "Shame the apartments are freezing cold in the winter and like saunas in the summer!!! #shouldnothavecutcorners"?

Had a "suggested post" on facebook today advertising a 1 bed apartment in the Obel Building. Never seen this form of advertising property before, but with comments like "I checked a 1 bed flat over a year ago. My cat liked it cos I couldn't swing him about. Looks a mess from the outside. Well overpriced. Sell them at half the price or give the rest to Clanmil etc. for social housing." might not take long for EA to realise that social media might not be the best idea in the current climate to promote property.....

The banks will have already secured any lending against the properties in the portfolio. If the business is in trouble it would be unlikely there would be any remaining equity/property to secure against.

No mention of - 30 year mortgage, odds on the 4 of them still living together in 30 years is virtually nil - Costs involved in selling the house, presuming they won't live together for 30 years - Cost of upkeep, currently paid by landlord. - Council tax, currently paid by landlord. - Interest rates can only go up from current levels.

Blimey - mental note - read small print of any future mortgages I take out.

Can only imagine this is not an isolated case - there will be a lot of BTL landlords (accidental or otherwise) coming out of introductory periods from the boom years now with little or no equity available to secure a good mortgage deal.

Not really a "base rate tracker" then if the bank can change it at a whim - might as well just be a SVR-type mortgage when the bank has freedom to set the rates as they see fit? I was always under the impression that base rate tracker mortgages where either for a fixed period (e.g. 1st 5 years, then SVR) or for the lifetime of the mortgage? Obviously not.

If the mortgage is a "base rate tracker" then I can only assume if the rate is going up it's because his initial introductory rate has expired and he's reverted to their SVR? Can't imagine the bank has any grounds to unilaterally move him from a BR tracker to a higher rate? Unless of course he's broken the terms of his mortgage agreement?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21349165 Ulster Bank takes control of sites in Dundalk and Dublin