Patient FTB

No. You're being chided for being too stupid to argue with. Your argument that only applied research should be funded is deeply flawed. Basic scientific research leads to discoveries that are exploited by scientists carrying out applied research further down the line. Commercial organisations cannot promote basic scientific research on a significant scale since they have a responsibility to their financial stakeholders to generate a return on capital employed. Government funding of science should not be subject to the same constraints, hence its importance. Other posters legitimately asked what your previous positions were as you claimed to have insight into both public and private sector science. A valid question which you could have answered pretty easily without compromising your anonymity. The fact you can't answer the question suggests you don't know your a**e from your elbow.

RBS was lending money to all and sundry. They were significant players in lending to russian businesses (eg. Rusal, but others also). No doubt these loans are also now backed by the taxpayer guarantee. The lawyers at RBS obviously didn't do their due diligence very well if they believed that any of the assets being used as security could ever be called in and that mssrs Putin and Medvedev would allow strategic russian assets to pass into the ownership of western banks. Doh. ABN Amro was also a key player in this market and was often an equally large participant in debt syndicates that also inluded RBS. Double Doh. Where was the risk management? RBS seem to have been active in all of the riskiest markets. What is most amazing is that the margins on many of the deals in no way took into account the risks surrounding the transactions. The assertion by many commentators that the problems at RBS were caused by a few rogue departments is wrong. Excessive risk was being taken right across the bank. We are told that bankers with no part in this will leave in their droves due to lack of bonuses. If they had done their jobs properly we would not be where we are. It seems to me that too many key decision makers at the bank had insufficient experience of operating in more testing times. Drunk on the success of operating in a bubble economy. The stress-testing of models was clearly not agressive enough. Worrying because the mother of bubbles that is UK residential property has not even burst yet! Worrying times ahead for RBS, I feel.

Sevenoaks has fantastic rail links into the City and the West End. It is near some excellent state schools, however the ones in Sevenoaks itself are lousy. It is surrounded by some lovely countryside. That is all. The high street is a rag-tag collection of estate agents and out-dated retailers. Food shopping is dominated by the large out of town Sainsburys and Tesco. I have been amazed at the lack of high quality independent retailers in the town, though I do like the bookshop. For me Sevenoaks represents the best compromise with access to London and some lovely countryside. Further down the trainline into Kent (Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells etc.) feels considerably more provincial and detached from the cultural offerings of London. If i had sufficient cash to live in a desirable part of London, I would. If I was able to secure well paid work in a more attractive rural part of the UK (or world), I would. Hopefully one day soon I will.

Good luck with that approach. Sometimes the cost of the advice does outweigh the benefits, but relying on the web for accounting advice is a sure way to cause yourself problems long-term. There can be a misconception held by business owners that accounting is straightforward. It isn't and mistakes can be very costly. I don't know the Manchester market, but London seems to be slowly picking up. I am sitting tight in my current job and many seem to be doing the same. There is a fair amount of consolidation with few IPOs coming to the market in my sector. Until this reverses the senior end of the market will remain tight. Unfortunately this might take some time. I can't see anyone having a problem with 19 months out of accountancy, particularly if you added to your general skill-set in that time. Fluency in a second language would more than compensate.

Wow - big budget. I can understand why you would be nervous playing with that kind of money. It could be very easy to buy a place and realise you could have got it for £200k less if the market slips back. You shouldn't have too much of a problem getting what you want within your budget when properties are put back on the market over the next 6-12 months. Over the past year or so I've seen plenty of places fitting your description - just don't seem to be many around at the moment. Sevenoaks is fine, but I'd look a few miles outside personally. Some nice countryside around these parts (particularly nice in the autumn), but Sevenoaks itself is pretty unremarkable. Anywhere else in the country (without a 30 min train ride to London) and you wouldn't give it a second look.

Depending on your budget, you may have to compromise just as much if you are buying. I have been surprised at how little £500k gets you in this area. We are in the process of agreeing rental terms on a 3 bed detached cottage with large garden on a quiet lane with the nearest house 200 metres away. Just what we were looking for and it is going to cost us far less to rent than it would to buy the place. From where I am it feels like we would have compromised on the house far more had we bought. What are you in the market for?

Was looking to pay up to £400k for a 3/4 bedroom place with a bit of a garden. Wanted more for my money than is available so have opted to rent instead. You are absolutely right with your assessment of the quality of rental stock at the moment. Unless you are willing to overpay many of the places are not up to much. I think we got lucky with the place we have found but it took us a couple of months watching the market to get it. Nice family houses aren't on the rental market for long in this area.

Very good. Bankeroo - you all get to wear silver wigs and comedy black eyebrows and take turns to pile as much cash as possible onto a plastic banker. Occasionally it all goes t*ts up and the money is scattered everywhere. You then start again with more piles of cash!

I can only assume the vendor had been smoking copious amounts of crack when they bought that beauty for £463k.

I've lived in the area for a couple of years now and many of the houses on the market when I moved to the area have been on and off a couple of times with different agents, different asking prices. No takers because the asking prices are a joke. 3 bed house in our village came onto the market at over £600k. Been on the market ages and has now been reduced to the bargain price of £599k. 4 bed bungalow just up the road on the market for £630k. The above are not exceptions. These are pretty average asking prices in this area. Hence nothing is selling. A serious reality check is needed.

My wife and I were looking to rent or buy in the Sevenoaks area but the quantity and quality of available houses seems to be really low at present. Following a couple of months spent viewing houses we have made an offer on a rental place which is currently proceeding. The quality of rental places we saw was shocking and nice places in this part of the world seem to be snapped up very quickly. If you are interested in renting you need to check the market frequently and be prepared to move very quickly. Similar to the London market in that respect. In relation to houses for sale, people in this area seem to be in complete denial and houses are typically on the market at 2007 peak prices or higher. Some of the valuations are absolutely laughable. Where does it go from here? Not sure, but I decided that I'm out of the game for the time being. If houses come down in price I will consider buying in this area. If not, I'm perfectly happy to rent the house we have found for the next 10-15 years. I always expected to leave the UK and buy a place overseas at some point. Had expected to own a place in the UK first, but I'm getting used to the idea of skipping that step and never owning a house in the UK. C'est la vie.

Didn't get as far as making the offer. Sounded out the EA and it was clear that any offer I was prepared to make would fall significantly short of what the vendor would entertain. Vendor would find it impossible to accept such a low offer apparently. My wife and I have been keeping an eye on the rental and sales markets because our current place is not going to cut it - feels claustrophobic with just the two of us living there! We have made an offer on a new rented place, which is currently being processed. Detached 3 bed cottage with large garden and outbuildings in a rural location near Sevenoaks for ca. £1,200 pcm. More than we are paying at present, but it will be well worth it for the difference it will make to our quality of life. My wife and I (and other(s)) will quite happily stay renting there until the insanity ends. Just need to keep the £120k deposit safe and add to it over the next couple of years in anticipation of a more realistic market.

The only people getting ripped off are the customers of Barclays. Like it or not, the board of Barclays has done a good job keeping the bank away from government intervention. Unlike RBS and Lloyds they will face little pressure to increase lending against UK residential property. Check their best mortgage offerings against Natwest and it's clear that they are not remotely competitive at the moment. Add in the acquisition of Lehman assets at a ludicrously low value and Barclays are likely to emerge reasonably well. All of the additional money sloshing around the system will give Barclays a real windfall. The real question is whether the shareholders will see the full benefit or whether it will be handed out as bumper bonuses. As for the Qataris - all in all a fantastic piece of business for them. They recognised a distressed company and correctly called that the turnaround would be fast given a capital injection. Why would they not take some of the profit now and look to utilise it elsewhere?

Absolutely. Low interest rates will not be with us forever. QE will come to an end. All we're doing is buying some time for those in trouble. The underlying problems remain and the crash will be inevitable until they are resolved. Dangerous times.

[quote name='Confounded' date='09 October 2009 - 03:25 PM' timestamp='1255098312' post='2187567' The point you make is correct, this market is about wealth preservation. I am up by about 10% in 2 years (5%) per year but this was over my entire fund which I am not too bother about making stella returns on I just want to protect it. This still stands up well against a passive investor with their retirement fund in equities 2 years ago at the peak, they still have a lot of ground to make. History tells us that they will be forever chasing to make up losses, but hey this time it may be different. Agreed. I'm up about 20% over the past year and up 100% over the year on my pension fund. Earlier this afternoon took a large proportion of my equity portfolio and most of my pension into cash. Got lucky piling into Barclays when it took a dive and have been long on Barclays and commodities through this rally. Just feels a little volatile at the moment for my liking. I felt the companies I invested in were significantly over-sold, but they've rallied too far too soon. I still believe the general trend for commodities is positive, but I feel a pull-back is necessary. Just my hunch. Far too much bad news to come.

Ever feel like everyone else knows something you don't? You save up, spend within your budget and keep out of debt only to get the value of your savings inflated away by the actions of the feckless government. At what point does the BOE have to take action to safeguard the long-term sustainability of the economy? £250 billion QE? £300 billion? How much debt is too much?

Think this has already been implemented in a number of northern towns and cities. Buy up areas of run-down terraces at 'market value', level them and build shed-loads of housing association properties in their place rather than spending a bit of cash on improving the, generally sound, victorian terraces. I suppose there is more scope for bungs to be had by those in relevant positions by implementing grand regeneration schemes rather than throwing a smaller amount of cash at just bring existing housing stock up to a reasonable standard.

Why stop at TVs? Perhaps more people would be able to afford to move home if the government magicked up some money to buy you a new kitchen, bathroom suite, home entertainment system etc. for your new home. We would only be talking £25k per house and it would generate a few thousand jobs (ok, the jobs created would principally be in China, but you can't have it all). Like a John Lewis list for the whole country. The Stationary Office could produce a nice laminated book for us all to choose from. Financed from the slush fund that Gordon is using at the moment and all to be repaid by those nasty tories who will destroy the lives of Hard-working FamiliesTM by cutting jobs. Got to keep the illusion going for a few more months.

Yes the argument was debunked succinctly enough, but the impact on the average viewer would have been somewhat diminished by the attitudes of the BBC interviewer/presenters. They pretty much skimmed over what the 'doomsayer' had to say and carried on the general theme of house prices rising being fantastic news for all. I almost felt they were taking pity on the loony doomsayer by giving him 30 seconds or so to give his view before moving on with more of the same deluded smugness they constantly spout. They really don't get it!

Absolutely agree. Russian winters are not for wussy western cars. On several trips over to Moscow, St Petersburg and surrounding areas I've been surprised by the sheer number of decades old Ladas still running. Look terrible, but they start in the cold and they are indestructible because they're built like tanks.

The rates being offered by the banks are poor compared to those available in the recent past for FTBs, but can you blame the banks? Lending to FTBs with small deposits is a mugs game at the moment. Everyone knows prices are going to fall. The jury is out on the quantum of falls. It is (uncharacteristically) prudent of the banks to factor in this risk premium into their lending rates. The banks' unwillingness to lend will bring down the prices of houses. We all know it, they know it, only Nulabour and the fools buying at current market prices can't see this.

Cheers. Early days for us and it doesn't feel quite real yet. We'll manage where we are. We're just frustrated because living where we are when we have a child didn't really fit the life plan. You can get your own finances in place but you can't legislate for a nation full of f**kwits inflating the price of pretty average family homes to insane levels. My wife and I both have reasonably mobile jobs so if things don't turn around in the next few years we'll more likely than not take junior off to a country that isn't quite so screwed up.

Seeing much the same thing around Sevenoaks area in Kent. Many of the properties that had been on the market for months on end seem to have been pulled. Are we going to see a huge number of places re-listed over the next 6 months as vendors chase the higher prices the media has been spouting about recently? You really have to feel for the estate agents. Not much selling. It gets even worse for them when the cash-rich "bargain-chasers" are exhausted and they need to pitch to "normal" buyers again.

I tend to agree with you. Shame because the house was pretty nice. Supply is really tight round here at the moment but I'm sure that will change over the next year. I fear the vendors of this place may be staying where they are unless they have some equity in the house they are prepared to walk away from. It's a shame you don't get to do some due diligence on vendors to find out how leveraged they are. Maybe we could have a statement of borrowing added to the HIP to assist buyers in screwing over vendors.

We're just into that 9 month countdown. I'm fine with continuing to rent for the next couple of years while we wait for sanity to return to the market. The place we currently have is a (admittedly very nice) 2 bedroom cottage in a village just outside Sevenoaks. The place is quite small for the two of us, but of course we can manage because the nipper will share our room. I'm just a little disappointed that the available 3 bed rentals are a bit shoddy (or ridiculously over-priced) at present. Not looking to buy unless it suits us. The budget will be up to ca. £350k with an approx. 25% deposit, based on my salary only so my wife can take as much time off work as she wants. We should be in a great position, but the small bounce in prices over the summer seems to have given vendors some strange notions of the boom times returning in these parts. We really need to wait for reality and depression to sink into all concerned over the winter before vendors in these parts start to consider realistic offers again. Not sure if this house will be the one for us. It is one thing for a vendor to write off a portion of their paper profit on a sale, but it is another to crystallise a £60k (20%) nominal loss. The vendors are resonably motivated and are apparently prepared to sell and move back in with parents in order to complete (they had a chain fall through earlier in the year). Given they bought in 2007 they probably financed the purchase with a Northern Rock 125% special and cannot sell for less than they paid. Either way - don't think the time is right for the low offer. Things need to get much scarier financially in the South East before sanity returns.