Si1

so true

I don't think you have done your sums define risk adjusted return

the problem is that if real terms losses mount up to 6 figures - which is easily possible given the sums of money involved buying nice places in London/Edinburgh, it forces you to question what you mean by 'can you afford it' I could afford to buy a Porsche but it still doesn't make it a good financial move

try reading the thread (incidentally, if the private sector went on strike you'd begin to starve inside about a week; when the public sector strikes it merely counts as a bit of an inconvenience; think about that)

you do not understand society and people, that's what is untrue, your basis is unfounded Gaddafi, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, that North Korean chap, and countless others have used locks and doors as weapons of political repression (they are popular in police stations, prisons and military camps) I would no longer sell a lock and door to one of these regimes as i would a gun on the other hand selling any of these things to a free regime that does not exploit and repress its people, as a means of defence against those that would, is a power for the good, a win win this is something that you would not understand since you do not understand people

my latest anecdote is it ain't teachers and council officers anymore buying like mofo's - it's bankers: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=169709&st=0&p=3128445entry3128445

it's interesting - the lawyer is making hay owing to the amount of legal wrangling between banks over the credit crunch - apparently a novel way to spend taxpayers' money...

I have had conversations with 2 people recently who are forking out to buy houses, the only 2 mind that i know of, 'getting on the ladder' - a finance lawyer in Edinburgh, and a banker in London (last one with very significant cash from BoMaD despite haveing a very well paid job, dunno about the former, but also earns very good money) Prior to the pain in the public sector I knew plenty teachers and council workers doing the same thing up to a few years ago - having spare cash splashing on a house at a hiigh price anyway, people in similar position in private sector - the last men standing, the highly numerated finance types - are committing similar acts now with their own and family money (the best argument I ever heard on this forum for this kind of behaviour - people spontaneously buying a house when they don't need to - is boredom and spare cash; the above activity is entirely commensurate with that - just think about the situation with increasing financial regulation over the next 10 years, rebalancing the economy away from finance, and subsiding international speculation in UK property - these 2 people are dimly aware of these from conversation)

printy printy

not true defence is a fact of life, part of a functioning society of course we should aim to minimise its need but opposing the sale of weapons is morally equivalent to opposing the sale of locks and doors

schucks!

they don't know what to do any more I can see inflation getting out of control if they (which they will) respond madly

+1 put far more coolly than I could have done

you do love the sentence 'if someone else is paying it off for us' there are so many ifs and buts implicit in that that it is scary but fair play and best of luck

ah, missed this bit... well it is leveraging, and you say you can more than cover the mortgage, but with leverage strange things can happen, maintenance, voids, opportunity costs if it is just up the road for you then a lot of the costs are controlled - do you do your own maintenance?

he will have a decent MP's pension

so you're going for an uber-leveraged punt on Newcastle with one BTL and one residential mortgage... right you are then

mercsl, like a typical bull troll, extrapolates the boom years with the future, not realising how lucky they have been

is that past tense or future tense - how likely do you think forbearance or sympathy will be from a 3rd party in this instance?

he screwed his own finances he screwed the labour party's finances he screwed the nation's finances deeply tragic

+1

that's because we're still on the first dip

that's very Atlas Shrugged

straw man - I didn't say this at all, a house price crash is not oblivion common sense is often illogical, so not a problem really, try applying some logic see anything about the economic cycle, that and markets being set at the margins, all economics is ultimately empirically based, economics is by definition an empirical subject (which is the reason it is so uncertain, incidentally), and I have just quoted central economic concepts at you - ergo they are empirical

this is not unusual in any big metropolitan city, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, fancy dress happens having said that in some parts of those places you go into a local pub in fancy dress and you come out dead, but I suspect that would be similar in some dodgy no-go parts of London too?