Dingleberry

Sky News now reporting GAME is to go into administration.

Use here is the building's legal class of use, not the use to which a company might put it. A building classed as a dwellinghouse is residential no matter who buys it or why.

I imagine that's simply a reference to the building's class of use, as defined by planning law. The class of use isn't affected by what you do with the building; a dwellinghouse is still legally a dwellinghouse, even if it is let out as part of a business. http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/changeofuse/ Technically - and this is a stretch - I suppose corporations could buy up suitable business class property and convert it for residential use (assuming they got planning permission) but this would be a costly and inconvenient process, and given that it would probably take more than a year, the corporations would still be liable for the proposed annual tax that comes in in 2013 anyway.

Ignore, out of caffiene error.

'The property ladder is a simple concept. You pay your mortgage and year by year you go up the ladder, then after 25 years you reach the top and own the house.' *facepalm*

'Lets spell out very clearly why the myth of homeownership became religion in the United States. Its because corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes. So they can’t move away and get new jobs. Job salaries is a function of supply and demand. If you can’t move, then your supply of jobs is low. You can’t argue the reverse, since new adults are always competing with you.' Huh. Not seen it put quite that way before.

This was the New Statesman's cover story last week. It's now gone online. Probably not especially new to anyone here, but still good to see this stuff out there, I think. 'The myth spun about Britain is that land is scarce. It is not – landowners are paid to keep it off the market.'

Radio 4 discussion about HB changes featuring Christine Whitehead http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9141000/9141514.stm Another Radio 4 discussion on the same topic, featuring Labour's Siobhain McDonagh, Conservative Bob Blackman and Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vkl40

Tangentially relevant: looks like the Child Benefit cut is unenforceable. http://blogs.wsj.com/iainmartin/2010/10/28/child-benefit-cut-unenforceable-treasury-in-a-flap/

BTL alone cannot keep the market from dropping. In addition, the spectre of margin calls makes BTL a very bad idea in a falling market.

Autumn winds blow cold Empty EA, heating on, Still they're shivering Three point six per cent? oh em eff eff eff eff gee Bounce no more, dead cat

From the look if it, it's simply a matter of Santander being unwilling to lend the asking price, because their own valuation doesn't match it. I'm not sure how this equates to her wanting to pay more than she has to. It's more that she wants to get a mortgage that will cover the actual asking price of the house. The builder isn't obliged to accept Santander's valuation as somehow definitive. That defines what they are willing to lend her, not what the builder must accept for the property. Naturally, us lot would probably urge her to haggle the price down based on the Santander valuation, but let's not call her an idiot.

By saying 'just trying to buy a family home' you imply that what you are doing is normal, sensible, what everyone else does. But 'everyone else is doing it' is exactly what people say while they're busily inflating a bubble of any kind, whether it's tulips, beanie babies or house prices. So, rather than making out that what you are trying to do is normal and therefore right, why not explain why it's the right thing for you personally, right now, in the current economic climate?

Pardon me, but from what you say here, you appear to be reading the graph incorrectly. The part you have apparently taken for reliable prediction, i.e. the dotted line with squares on it, is not Spline's prediciton at all. It is, as Spline explains, 'the house price trajectory implied by the currrent buy & sell prices from financial spreadbetting (Cantor Spreadfair, house price spreadbetting) and residential property derivatives trading (Tradition, Future HPI).' So that curve may be what some people are betting on, but it's not the prediction you apparently think it is. Again, sorry if I've misread you here. The predictions Spline makes using an extended Kalman filter only envision the period six months from now. Here's the actual prediction part: Note how the blue line has not yet been filled in as far as the Kalman line has. This is because the Kalman line is the prediction. As you can see, the predicted direction for YoY HPI is downwards. Still, it's only a short term prediction, and a lot can happen in six months.

'How many drops is this for you, Lieutenant?' 'Thirty-eight... simulated.'