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From Help to Buy in England - Terms and Conditions, as set out by Harlequin Homes (h/t long time lurking): I hadn't realised previously that HTB is apparently both an equity loan and non-recourse lending. This means that if the property reduces in value by x% the borrower has the choice of repaying the HTB loan minus x%, or selling the property and paying whatever they can towards the HTB loan minus x% from the proceeds of the sale less their outstanding mortgage (which may be nothing at all). This seems to set up a sweet spot between being in negative equity with regards to HTB and being in negative equity with regards to their mortgage, wherein, in a falling market, the borrower is incentivised to sell because this will reduce the amount owing on their HTB loan, and has no interest in holding out for any price above their outstanding mortgage amount because they gain no direct benefit for doing so. Help to Fire Sale?

How far would the Selfservatives go to bail out HTBers if interest rates ticked up along with unemployment? Looking at several articles on people's finances recently, they could ill afford mortgage rates even hitting Irish/US levels, and that's without the HTB repayments that start kicking in. I think the government will offer substantial forbearance, but not sure what form that will take. A kind of permanent shared ownership with a future "right to buy" sounds plausible? Maybe kick the can down the road with an extended repayment holiday?

Looks like the Chinese have been buying up prime London Real estate. /sarcasm http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=58676429&sale=87856050&country=england

Link to BBC article with the fundamentally staggering quote "Overall the proportion of sales accounted for by Help to Buy is 40% and on some building sites it is reaching 70%," said Ray Boulger of John Charcol mortgages. Now two points given this is the equity loan and therefore ends in Wales and Scotland in 2016 are we going to see as much as an 70% reduction in new build houses being started in those locations? And secondly as this is going to carry on in England until 2020 at least (I think it will never be withdrawn unless a radical government comes to power) will we see a greater divergence in english and welsh house prices? TBH This is a staggering amount of state subsidy to builders, paying this back could be difficult for many and I thinks shows how much control the government can have over housing and prices. Not sure given the Daves new (or perhaps old beefed up) prop relaxing rules around shared ownership, we wont see props continuer for a long time yet. That said my Mum who is a big HPI accepter (doesn't celebrate HPI but tells me that "they will never let house prices correct because people like your grandma vote") finally said out of the blue that HTB seems a bit of a con!? So understanding of what is going on is starting to get out there.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38330552 So people put down a deposit and then still lend 50k to live in bloody Bedford !!! FYI some new builds there from 2008 are only selling for the same or less than they were brought for then so good luck with the equity increase

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/kezia-dugdale-6k-home-help-7118731 Apparently if Labour win in Scotland they'll help people to bid up prices further by giving people with 3k in their HTB ISA an extra 3k on top. Have politicians just forgotten what a functioning housing market looks like? When did it become politically acceptable to buy votes by promising to just hand voters thousands of pounds of taxpayer's money? Aren't our leaders supposed to be careful stewards of the economy? Why should some couples get a free 6k to allow them to irresponsibly borrow too much on a mortgage they couldn't otherwise afford and outbid me?