Pete95

Things really do seem to be picking up again!! crazy!!! Maybe we'll go the same way as Ireland after all! Im still convinced it will all come to a painfull end, but when is anyones guess - it may take something like war in the Middle East (and the resulting massive increase in oil prices) or a series of terrorist attacks to burst the bubble.

Doesnt look rosy around here - plenty of over-priced properties selling - even the buy-cheap, B&Q kitchen and coat of paint, then add £100k to the price lot seem to be doing very nicely Some new build 6bed detached houses (which are so crammed in they can only just be classed as detached) have mostly sold by the time the foundations have been laid, even at £1/2mil each. I think the mood on the forum is bad - a lot of people seem to have almost given up.

I dont see a crash about to happen. 1) Affordability: Ok prices are VERY high, but to be fair theres a lot of people out there who want to buy, many of whom have a resonable about of savings (£30-£50k), and fairly good salaries. This is always confirmed whenever we see a "how much do you earn, and how much savings do you have" thread on here. So prices probably dont need to fall significantly for a fairly significant number of new buyers to enter the market. 2) Immigration: Also as if often mentioned very high levels of immigration are of course having an effect - these people all have to live somewhere, and this ever increasing demand is having an effect on prices. 3) BTL: Far too many people have got BTL's, and just take a look at other forums - people are still thinking its a good investment, and in many cases I cant really argue... IMO for house prices to fall we need a combination of things - rising interest rates (but IMO they wont rise significantly), a fall in immigration - this looks unlikely under Labour - and some laws to deter BTL, again not likely to happen

Thats a hell of a lot of jobs, and comes only days after Orange announced theyre cutting 2000 It seems that not a day goes by without job loses being announced in their hundreds or thousands

I mate of mine bought his 2nd property in Ireland last year - he already has a BTL in England. Total mortage is 300,000euros over 40years!! And hes only 25!

Crikey thats a good return, youre looking at ~45% AER then, and no tax to pay

Houses seem to be shifting again in the North Somerset area. Locally another bunglow has been knocked down, and 8 "exective" houses are currently being built. Already 5 have sold, and despite having 6 bedrooms (over 3 floors) they look tiny and crammed in (rooms must be very small). And at 500k each you'd think nobody would touch them, but its not been the case Loads of stuff around here is either under-off or sold - a pokey 2bed bunglow which sold about a year ago for £175k has had the usual paint job and b&q kitchen, and I laughed recently when it came back on at £300k - but it was sold within a week Another pokey 3bed house was on for ages for £235k, and recently came on at £315k with the ususal treatment, and that appears to have sold as well???!! sign has come down anyway. I think a tax on 2nd homes/BTL's might be the only way back to sanity.

Inflation rate down?!!, what a joke! Take a look at major outgoings for most families; -Food is up overall (even if some dairy products are down a touch) -Petrol is up -Council tax is up -Gas is up significantly -Electricity up significantly -Water rates are up and forcast to rise again -taxes are up On the other hand; -Savings interest rates have been going down recently - many high interest accounts now paying below base rate. -Pensions payments are well up if you want the same pension you wouldve got a few years back Its just getting silly - its time to hit "reset" and start over with the economy.

TVR's reputation for unreliability is worse than the truth. I know 3 people with TVR's and none have ever had a serious problem or breakdown. And you can hardly compare to Porsche - for the price of a Boxster which does 0-60 in about 6 seconds and 160mph, TVR give you something which does 60 in under 4 seconds and the best part of 200mph. Recently however they have made the mistake of constantly changing the range which only confuses buyers, and damages resale values. I wouldnt be surprised to see jobs cut however, or production moved out of the UK - seems we cant make anything here anymore for a decent price - the UK's future doesnt look bright - and thats one reason why there's no way Im taking out a massive mortgage paid over 25years - whats this place going to be like when Ive paid my mortgage off? Would rather join the army of skilled workers heading for the door.

Im amazed to see that some people dont see any threat from Iran. Their president has come out with plenty of threatening statements like one of their aims is to "wipe Israel off the map" etc. I think you'd have to be pretty naive to assume they are generating nuclear power to provide electricity - of course theyre after nukes - and they are probably far more likely to use them than any country who has ever had access to them in the past. If they dont nuke Israel, they will no doubt be all to pleased to provide nukes to some islamic group with the intention of nuking cities in Western countries. Churchill was slated for pointing out that Germany was undergoing a massive military build-up before WW2, and look what happened there. Iran needs to be stopped IMO.

2300 jobs being lost directly, and surely another 1000+ will go in-directly? Not good, especially as Rover, in the same part of the country, closed its gates last year. But hey Brown will come to the rescue! He'll find some UK assets left that he hasnt already sold off, then he'll flog them to pay for some more public sector jobs with final salary pensions (which he'll not worry about, that'll be someone elses problem...)

30k - private sector IT, living at home I was previously earning 22k with a compnay car, and I hardly feel any better off on 30k - fuel costs are pretty nasty with ever increasing petrol prices, but then company car tax kept on going up... seems you cant win whatever you do - the more you make, the more they take away!

I went for A&L (5.2%) this Jan. The reasons being they allowed transfers in, and I dont think theres an early withdrawal penalty. Halifax were paying 5% at the time (and thats not a bonus rate) Edit: Just seen B&B are paying 5.1% on mini cash ISA's and the rate is fixed for a year - sounds like it might be a good bet, seeing as A&L do tend to have great introductory rates, but 6months later they slash them.

Thing that gets me with how they calculate the inflation figure is that stuff like clothes and TV's are included; but the thing is you can DECIDE how much you spend on clothes and TV's - its not really a factor. you CANT really decide how much you spend on fuel, utility bills and council tax for example. If fuel goes up in price I cant take a shorter route to work. If I want to heat my house, I cant do it using less gas - I simply have to pay more to do the same. The calculation is totally flawed, and clearly the aim is a low figure

Iran have stated that "whipping Israel off the map" is one of their goals.... pretty worrying if they announce they have nukes - which they will sooner or later. You'd have to understand if Israel took action, and struck Iranian nuclear sites. If Iran say to Israel "ok we have nukes and plan on taking you out" what would you expect Israel to do? Wait until theyve been attacked before taking action? There was speculation on some news sites earlier that the US have been looking into using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran to take out their underground nuclear facilities. Its all developing into a cold war, but the difference is the West will be up against muslim countries this time, and they are far more unpredictable and probably more willing to use weapons against 'infidels' than Russia wouldve been. All rather worrying. I think its only a matter of time until a nuclear weapon is used in anger - either by Islamic terrorists or by an Islamic country on Israel.

Instead of hardworking UK couples having kids, we have immigrants instead. And they have LOTS of kids. I would agree that high house prices are ruining the country - and its one of the reasons I'd be so cautious about taking out a 25year mortgage on a place here - whats the country going to be like when Ive finished paying it off?... dread to think.

Affordable housing will just be big building projects (probably on green-field sites) with lots of TINY little flats starting at £60k each (for a studio flat the size of the average single garage). He'll back this up by extending the shared homes scheme, because everyone wants a massive mortgage to own half a pokey house at the end of 25years :angry: If he was going to attack some of the issues which have led to the current hideously high house prices then he'd have to have a massive clamp down on immigraton and program to remove failed immigrants, along with something to deter people from buying lots of homes as investments.

Unfortunately with PC Labour at the helm its "racist" to even question immigration policy, immigrants or minority groups.

LOL!!! Listen to this guy!! You sound so bitter and angry its unreal!! I assume you fall into one of the following catagories; - extreme leftie - angry minority group - asylum seeker who's case has just been rejected (yep, apparently its been known to happen )

Immigrants like these in your examples arent the ones which are a problem. Educated and skilled Russians, Poles etc are more often than not a benefit to this country. I think in general they work hard, fit in with the culture and dont make demands that we change things to suit them better. Poles especially have an extremely good reputation for being hard workers. These people are contributing to the country, and not taking much - IMO this is more important than the fact you were born here or not. The problem immigrants are the ones who are unskilled, dont speak our langauge, dont fit in with our culture and often refuse to, and want things to be changed here to better suit them or their religious 'needs'. In general people from Islamic countries. I know thats a generalisation, but lets face it its true.

Yeah shocking isnt it. Issues like that should be quietly brushed under the carpet because its just not politically correct to print stuff like that is it? FFS. I getting seriously fcuked off with the immigration issue in this country - its quite clear the majority of the British public dont want these people here, yet still our democratically elected government allows them in their thousands?? The government tell us that these people are needed to do jobs that "we wont do", but then they moan that they cant get good enough jobs, so we get positive discrimination where they are overly promoted. I dread to think whats the UK's going to be like in 25years.

In some cases its ok to rent, but its not in many. If you want some stability, and to start a family, then really you need to buy. Imagine putting kids into a local school, then your landlord saying hes decided to sell the house youre renting for an amount you cant afford? You'd be forced to try and get somewhere in that area to rent because its near the school your kids in. If theres no crash I'll do what a few mates have already done - move abroad. A couple have got to Oz, and one to New Zealand. It just annoys me so much that the UK could be such a great place, its just being ruined by immigration and a government engineered asset bubble to fuel consumer spending, and hence keep the economy on song.

A total ban is probably not the answer - and would never be workable, but measures introduced to make having property as an investment far less attractive would be a great idea. It seems FTB's are increasingly seeing BTL as whats stopping them from being able to buy a house, and thus start a family in a stable environment etc - and there seems to be increasing frustration aimed at BTL'ers - and not just on this forum.

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jsp...=20060322091951 Please all sign in and recommend comments such as this one (currently 7th in the recommended list)

Great to see this thread! Things really do NEED to change to stop BTL being such a viable investment. This site should have a petition which can be signed, and sent to the government, suggesting tax relief on interest on BTL's should be abolished, or something to that effect.