The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 http://www.gogwatch.com/2011/03/15/come-home-to-a-real-fire-%E2%80%93-buy-a-house-in-wales/ Those poor souls saving in vain for a deposit have been holding onto the hope that the Welsh housing bubble will burst.They have been disappointed. Since the peak of the market in 2007 there has been only a slight correction in Welsh prices. Cash buyers now account for 40% of all house sales. Often those cash buyers come from outside of Wales. They drive up the cost of housing for everyone. Banking bonuses are the dream of Welsh estate agents and Welsh house sellers. Welsh families are being asked to pay 8, 9 and even 10 times their yearly salary just to afford a mortgage on what are considered starter-homes. With all that cash tied up in property, it is also doing no favours for the Welsh economy. Just posted my tuppence in response to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erranta Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 http://www.gogwatch....house-in-wales/ Just posted my tuppence in response to it. What's funny is it's Welshmen (Traitors) selling out for a fast buck. Maybe you let a few of them 'roast on the coals' first as a warning to others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 (edited) What's funny is it's Welshmen (Traitors) selling out for a fast buck. Maybe you let a few of them 'roast on the coals' first as a warning to others? That post by that Yachydda man/woman is fascinating. It reads like a Hollywood movie. I remember the jokes and the arson, together with slogans painted on walls in the dead of night, I remember the Welsh nationalists blowing up pipelines to stop England using our water. It reminds me of Monty Python. "Bl**dy English coming here and nicking our water. We'll show them. Blow up the dam! Doh!" Edited March 16, 2011 by The Masked Tulip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swansea Estate Agent Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 That post by that Yachydda man/woman is fascinating. It reads like a Hollywood movie. It reminds me of Monty Python. "Bl**dy English coming here and nicking our water. We'll show them. Blow up the dam! Doh!" It's not just in Wales though. Many of my friends back home in Lancashire say similar especially those further North towards the Lakes. Property was being snapped up by people jumping on the BTL wagon. 5 years ago renting a 2 bed house would be about £45 per week. It's more than double now yet the wages on average in Lancashire are about as low as anywhere in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erranta Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 That post by that Yachydda man/woman is fascinating. It reads like a Hollywood movie. It reminds me of Monty Python. "Bl**dy English coming here and nicking our water. We'll show them. Blow up the dam! Doh!" It's the lodges I have a problem with - the dammed are a secondary bunch of 'dames' Puppets the lot of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 But who are these people that are supposedly buying up the stock.....buying to live in or buying to rent out, buying as a OO home or buying as an investment, a tangible asset to add to their growing collection? You could say that about many areas around the UK, just because you are born in a certain area no longer now means you have a right to buy a place and continue to live there......choices for the indigenous population are getting fewer, people are being forced to do things differently against their will.....sometimes it works out to be to their advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 It's not just in Wales though. Many of my friends back home in Lancashire say similar especially those further North towards the Lakes. Property was being snapped up by people jumping on the BTL wagon. 5 years ago renting a 2 bed house would be about £45 per week. It's more than double now yet the wages on average in Lancashire are about as low as anywhere in the UK. Yes, I have firends in that part of the world who say the same. I also know a hospital consultant near Manchester who had 5 BTLs in Swansea and the Lake district - has sold them all bar one for a profit in recent months. Lovely person but has absolutely no idea of what the repercussions of her BTL portfolio has been for people on average wages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepista Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 It's the lodges I have a problem with - the dammed are a secondary bunch of 'dames' Puppets the lot of them! It's not like Wales is densley populated - all they need to do is build more housing, then everybody is happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 But who are these people that are supposedly buying up the stock.....buying to live in or buying to rent out, buying as a OO home or buying as an investment, a tangible asset to add to their growing collection? You could say that about many areas around the UK, just because you are born in a certain area no longer now means you have a right to buy a place and continue to live there......choices for the indigenous population are getting fewer, people are being forced to do things differently against their will.....sometimes it works out to be to their advantage. I think a crisis is approaching in Welsh 'executive' housing in the country areas. It is true that from about 2001 to 2007 second homes were being bought all over Wales. It picked up a pace around 2005. The prices soared as a result. I could probably show you a hundred such houses on the market now, all for asking prices of over 500K, which are just sitting there. Those are just the ones I know of. The locals can't afford them and those who bought them as holiday homes or rentals can't or won't reduce their price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 It's the lodges I have a problem with - the dammed are a secondary bunch of 'dames' Puppets the lot of them! Are you talking about wooden cabins or freemasons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I think a crisis is approaching in Welsh 'executive' housing in the country areas. It is true that from about 2001 to 2007 second homes were being bought all over Wales. It picked up a pace around 2005. The prices soared as a result. I could probably show you a hundred such houses on the market now, all for asking prices of over 500K, which are just sitting there. Those are just the ones I know of. The locals can't afford them and those who bought them as holiday homes or rentals can't or won't reduce their price. But you have to ask yourself are these properties really for sale? it costs an owner nothing to put a property on the market and sit back and wait for the bigger fool to buy at an inflated price...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Cash buyers now account for 40% of all house sales I STR'd in 2005 and am now trying to buy a detached family house in Lymington, Hampshire. As a cash buyer I thought it would be pretty straightforward. I asked the EA what percentage of detached houses went to cash buyers? She looked a bit surprised at the question, "virtually all of course". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 But you have to ask yourself are these properties really for sale? it costs an owner nothing to put a property on the market and sit back and wait for the bigger fool to buy at an inflated price...... There are plenty of those testing the market for a bigger mug. A mile down the road from me a house came on the market in a cul-de-sac for just under 800K asking. Staggering price. Within a fortnight the other 4 or 5 houses in the cul-de-sac had come on for 700K to the same price. But there are plenty of empty 500K to a few million pound houses in Wales now. The Gower has loads as does Pembs and people tell me that Powys is the same. What these s*ds have done though is to drag up all the other property prices so you end up with a 2 up 2 down terrace in Wales costing 150K to 200K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicestersq Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 It is a problem, rich people can in theory outbid poorer people and buy all the housing. The only solution to this issue is for a highly progressive tax on property. Second homes should attract a vastly higher council tax than a single property, making the costs of ownership much higher for second home owners. To get around fraud, it would make sense to have a register of all UK citizens. All properties would attract a very high rate of tax. You can get a discount against the tax by letting them know your citizens number (NI no perhaps). You get a bigger discount if you are a couple living in said property. Get the numbers right, and you can put all of this tax on to the shoulders of people that buy larger properties and more than one property, giving people with less means more power in the housing market, at the expense of richer people. At the moment, the tax system in housing is very regressive, meaning the richer pay less, and as a result are pricing out poorer people, part of what this website is trying to oppose. That has to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I STR'd in 2005 and am now trying to buy a detached family house in Lymington, Hampshire. As a cash buyer I thought it would be pretty straightforward. I asked the EA what percentage of detached houses went to cash buyers? She looked a bit surprised at the question, "virtually all of course". ....all sales are to cash buyers surely, an agreed mortgage subject to survey is exactly the same as cash....a strong reliable chain if you have one helps also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Knimbies who say No Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 It's easy to look for the enemy without, it's much harder to accept that it is ordinary folks in your own towns doing the damage. I know someone who lives in Wales and is hoovering up BTL in Wales as fast as he can to provide a retirement.(says he needs 15 or so properties). It's a national disease that trancends borders, class etc. I'm from the northern province and it's exactly the same there- people shafting their neighbours, day after day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 ....all sales are to cash buyers surely, an agreed mortgage subject to survey is exactly the same as cash....a strong reliable chain if you have one helps also. Two very big "ifs" there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7clubs Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I am currently in Wales - at The Celtic Manor, for those who know it. First time back in 9 years, the restaurant was rammed last night and it ain't cheap. I also went back to my alma mater in Swansea, boy has the housing landscape of that place changed in the last 15 or so years. Funny thing is, as TMT observes, the average Joe there has as little cash as he did 20 years ago, so where is all the money coming from? I also had a conspiratorial thought about the Wales situation. If it is true that most of the Welsh have a huge disdain for the English (and, based on my experience as an English student in Wales, that is an understatement) and if it is true that the majority of the population rely on the public purse for income, either via benefits or public sector employment, surely they are merely milking the (English-dominated and funded) system for all they can before it goes down and/or are helping to bring down that same (English) system from within? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rantnrave Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I also had a conspiratorial thought about the Wales situation. If it is true that most of the Welsh have a huge disdain for the English (and, based on my experience as an English student in Wales, that is an understatement)... Considered studying at Aberystwyth Uni. At the open day, the student showing us round told us to make sure that if we didn't want to live in a Welsh speaking hall of residence that we state that on our application form. My enthusiasm to study there melted away at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 You didn't think that may be a brazen lie to stop you thinking you had any negotiating power for being a cash buyer? Good point, except this particular EA is dense to the point of pathological honesty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 It is a problem, rich people can in theory outbid poorer people and buy all the housing. The only solution to this issue is for a highly progressive tax on property. Second homes should attract a vastly higher council tax than a single property, making the costs of ownership much higher for second home owners. To get around fraud, it would make sense to have a register of all UK citizens. All properties would attract a very high rate of tax. You can get a discount against the tax by letting them know your citizens number (NI no perhaps). You get a bigger discount if you are a couple living in said property. Get the numbers right, and you can put all of this tax on to the shoulders of people that buy larger properties and more than one property, giving people with less means more power in the housing market, at the expense of richer people. At the moment, the tax system in housing is very regressive, meaning the richer pay less, and as a result are pricing out poorer people, part of what this website is trying to oppose. That has to change. Yes, that has to change......but the powerful and rich will resist that change......the 'squeezed middle' and the young will soon see it for what it is....resentment is slowly building up...the cushioned and comfy will soon have to both listen AND act. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomandlu Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Good point, except this particular EA is dense to the point of pathological honesty! Maybe they misunderstood the question and thought you meant people bartering live stock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Beware the cunning of stupidity! I'll BEAR it in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Not stupid. Just good at acting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 That post by that Yachydda man/woman is fascinating. It reads like a Hollywood movie. It reminds me of Monty Python. "Bl**dy English coming here and nicking our water. We'll show them. Blow up the dam! Doh!" Well, I remember me uncle standing with a cudgel near Sennybridge to stop them flooding his valley with water - it was as much to do with eviction as anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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