janch

"about half of them are just renting from the bank." Not only that but the bank doesn't do any maintenance or improvements and all the risk of HPC (or gain of HPI to be fair) is on the purchaser (renter). People must be seriously mad to even consider IO.

I don't have a credit card

Maybe it's a good idea to sell if you think prices are going down

The above sounds like my mother! Her husband (not my father) has just gone into a care home except she has "staff" to do the garden and cleaning and she has the heating turned up. She is one of the war generation house-blockers and there are great swathes of them rattling around in family homes while youngsters like my own children (with their children) are living in cramped conditions and paying through the nose for it. I think it's more the older pensioners (70s and 80s) than boomers who are selfish b*****s.

+1

Why all the gloom? The Tories can get on with getting rid of or at least reducing housing benefit and tax credits which is good for HPC. That and introducing curbs on BTL by taxing it. Also good for HPC.

Housing benefit and tax credit reductions ie the talked about Tory benefit cuts should help towards HPC Also much needed BTL regulation eg compulsory registration of LLs and BTL taxation in one form or another would also help HPC. Regulation of letting agents and legislation to curb all the dubious fees they charge would help renters and help to slow down the BTL market. We can live in hope.

Don't forget the wheezes to "help" "affordability" eg HTB etc which affect the lower end of the market and have the unintended effect of helping to push up prices at the bottom.

Near me there are several empty properties which are nearly brand new and very habitable. One is now up fior sale after a year being empty. No-one is rushing to buy it. There is no shortage of houses. They are just too expensive. Maybe people should take up squatting again as was common in the 70s. That would soon stop people leaving good housing lying empty.

LTS I love the idea of "decline in principle"

Well I'm the opposite. I lived in a 3 storey Victorian house for 14 years and it was a cold draughty money-pit in spite of spending a fortune "doing it up". I lost sight of all the "features" after a while and felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders when I moved to a more modern house where at least you knew the walls, roof and floors were all OK and not liable to require maintenance for a while. Kirsty and Phil have a lot to answer for. Victorian houses often have a host of hidden problems eg damp; dry/wet rot; rotten joists on the ground floor; problems with the drains (tree roots); holes which let in rats/mice etc etc.

I've just done my weekly check of new properties on Rightmove from SE to Cardiff via Bath and have done this check for the past few years. Seems the SE has gone completely mental and 2 bed terraces suddenly on at approx £290K in the past week yet if you go down the M4 to Cardiff you can get a 2 bed terrace for not much more than £100K. It seems to me all the government "help" has pushed up prices at the lower end ie FTB/BTL. There are no reductions in the SE or Bath and a few in Cardiff yet at the top end in each location I look at there seem to be one or two. Maybe the point of HTB etc was to push up the bottom end and get younger people deep into debt as they have time to pay it off and at the same time reduce the "spread" of asking prices from top to bottom of the market.

I recommend "Affluenza" by Oliver James which is all about the consumer society and how consumerism doesn't make you happy.

Bring back the squatters!

We have all (baring a few people on this site) been brainwashed by the likes of Sarah Beeny, Kirstie and Phil etc into thinking it's normal to have massive debts from buying property and this suits governments very nicely as people are then virtual slaves which keeps them quiet as they're too knackered after their working day to so anything other than fall into bed. It also stops them thinking. When/if reality bites and they wake up in a cold sweat wondering how they're going to pay it off if they lose their job or interest rates rise etc it's too late. People are not financially literate on the whole and very much into "keeping up with the Joneses". We all need to stop and think and teach the financial facts of life to our kids so they don't fall into the same trap.

TI’s report, titled Corruption On Your Doorstep, used data from the Land Registry, available for the first time, to show that 40,725 London properties are held by foreign companies, exempt from capital gains tax, succession taxes and stamp duty. The City of Westminster had the highest number at 11,457, It wants to see a change to Money Laundering Regulations in the UK to require estate agents to undertake due diligence checks on sellers and not just buyers of property, as required currently. That's good work there and interesting to see the numbers. What a good idea to do some checks on vendors. Not sure if the average EA would be up to it though and could probably be persuaded to turn a blind eye by a dodgy vendor.

I also watched and couldn't believe the LL bought the place without at least a cursory glance at it first. If he'd bothered to visit he would have seen it was in a terrible area and liable to become a complete headache. HuH and similar progs have brainwashed people into thinking BTL is easy money when often it's a nightmare. The letting agents featured were mostly bending over backwards to keep the tenants in situ yet in the end it took months to evict the ones they couldn't help.

The 16 were more likely to be properties taken off the market. I'm sure people often have a go at selling and then realise when no-one comes to view that they're wasting their time and if they're not in a hurry to sell they try again at a later date (maybe at a more realistic price). For some though who may be under water they're unable to sell at a lower price because they have a large mortgage which they won't be able to pay back if they sell too low.

Yes. If you include the price of housing then we are far from zero inflation.

2) Liquidity Whilst you can advertise your investment for sale to other Property Partner users at any point, there may not be anyone willing to buy your investment at a price that you deem reasonable (or buy it at all). In that event you will be required to wait until the next five year anniversary of that property's listing on the Property Partner platform. Even at this point, the timing and ability to exit will depend on completion of a transaction to sell the underlying property. This transaction could take several months. This risk is ridiculous. If you can't sell you wait 5 years and then you might not be able to sell.....anything can happen in 5 years!

Student debt is the killer. It didn't really exist before and for a lot of people it will be hanging over their heads for ages without much hope of ever being paid back but it's still in the figures even if for many it's something they never think about as they know it won't be paid back and they're waiting until it's wiped clean. If they never pay it back presumeably that adds to the public debt when the debt is wiped from the former student's account.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head.

I also have a new build with this arrangement and pay approx £15 per month for which the grass in front of the properties is regularly mown plus rubbish removed and shrubs pruned etc. My house is freehold but a carport which has a "coach-house" flat above is leasehold. There are also leasehold flats on the same development. I was under the impression that the management company manages the leasehold bits of the development so that is why all the freehold houses have some element of their property as leasehold....but I could be wrong. So far (6years) it's been OK and luckily the annual management fee hasn't risen although it could in the future.

Hilarious! Serves you all right if mumsnet find this thread! They will undoubtedly enjoy tearing you all to shreds in response to all the rude things which have been said by HPCers about them. However I'm still on the HPC side in spite of being female.

Let's not worry about it as there will soon be a monstrous crash in asset prices and those of us who don't have very much at present will be the winners ie we will lose the least.