Ray Boulger Is Not Happy.

[Bruce Banner]

Lenders are facing a regulatory crackdown as the Bank of England prepares to pop the London housing bubble, with Barclays and Santander among those that could see lending curbed, according to a leading mortgage market expert. Speculation is also mounting that Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 80 per cent owned by the State, will be next to announce voluntary curbs after Lloyds Banking Group last week toughened its lending terms in London. Lloyds, which is 25 per cent State-owned, said that it would restrict London borrowers looking for loans of more than £500,000 to four times their salary. Lloyds insists the move was based on deep research and suspicions of a bubble in prices, but Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol said the Lloyds announcement had ‘all the signs of being political’, adding fuel to speculation that RBS, which owns NatWest, would also take voluntary steps before any action is imposed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2638196/Royal-Bank-Scotland-expected-cut-London-lending.html

"All the signs of being political"........ Hmmm, perhaps they are starting to realise why many are turning to UKIP.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Bruce Banner

[Blod]

Good. If it makes him unhappy then its got to be good for the country.

I'm not hopeful that RBS will suddenly become logical but it would be good.

[Bloo Loo]

overvaluation by ponzi lending, self feeding the crime with more crime.

People just cant see it..The housing market is indeed, the perfect crime.

[Venger]

[Fully Detached]

It's all gone a bit wrong in your world, hasn't it Ray?

[slacker]

It is political.

It is exactly what Carney and Osborne have been threatening to do to bring down HPI.

They have said repeatedly that raising IR risks retarding business investment growth (but they obv. also worry about risk to consumer spending which is already fragile).

Constraints on lending growth are a good first move.

Rolling back H2B, making BTL less attractive and building more houses would also help.

I think the next move will be a big home building announcement before election - maybe some time-restricted tax break to force people sitting on land to build on it or pressuring pension funds to build more.

[Bruce Banner]

It is political.

It is exactly what Carney and Osborne have been threatening to do to bring down HPI.

They have said repeatedly that raising IR risks retarding business investment growth (but they obv. also worry about risk to consumer spending which is already fragile).

Constraints on lending growth are a good first move.

Rolling back H2B, making BTL less attractive and building more houses would also help.

I think the next move will be a big home building announcement before election - maybe some time-restricted tax break to force people sitting on land to build on it or pressuring pension funds to build more.

So why is Osborne resisting scrapping Help to Buy?

Come to think of it, why did he introduce it in the first place? Same goes for Funding for Lending and all the other daft schemes to re-inflate Labour's housing bubble in the vain hope that it will get the Tories elected next year!

The price of housing is the main problem, not lack of housing.

[Democorruptcy]

They have said repeatedly that raising IR risks retarding business investment growth (but they obv. also worry about risk to consumer spending which is already fragile).

What about the consumer spending from savers? £11bn a year of interest income has been wiped out by low rates. Lower pension annuities due to low rates, also reduces consumer spending. Consumers could spend more if their main living cost i.e. housing was cheaper.

[dances with sheeple]

The historic UKIP victory should be focusing a few political minds today. Popping the housing bubble and getting a grip on the numbers of un-skilled workers coming into the country would be a good starting point to claw back some votes IMO.

[Dorkins]

The price of housing is the main problem, not lack of housing.

Every time I come back from visiting another developed country I am shocked by how small and run-down most UK housing looks. Much of it would benefit from knocking down and rebuilding to a decent specification. I think British people have just become accustomed to cr4p housing.

[btl_hater]

Every time I come back from visiting another developed country I am shocked by how small and run-down most UK housing looks. Much of it would benefit from knocking down and rebuilding to a decent specification. I think British people have just become accustomed to cr4p housing.

+1 Compared to all other european nations that I am sure most of the population think we are on par with (i.e., Netherlands, Denmark, Germany etc) then our housing stock is laughable. The symptom of selfishness and greed that is manifest in UK society.

[billybong]

Mr Boulger is vice-chairman of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI).

A senior lobbyist for mortgage brokers - so the Mail should at least mention that fact when quoting him - rather than just referring to him as a leading mortgage market expert/of mortgage broker John Charcol.

From the AMI web site:

About AMI Our Role

AMI has a pro-active, campaigning mandate and is the voice of the mortgage intermediary profession. We are here to lobby the Government, policymakers, regulators, the media and consumer groups both in the UK and in Brussels, to better represent the needs of mortgage brokers across the country

Edited May 26, 2014 by billybong

[wonderpup]

There is a strange blindness that afflicts many UK businessmen - they can only see the bits of state intervention they don't like... the other bits seem invisible to them.

Yes- I must have missed the part where Boulger protested against Help to Buy because it was state interference in the housing market.

[stuckmojo]

Ray not happy = I'm happy.

[slacker]

So why is Osborne resisting scrapping Help to Buy?

Come to think of it, why did he introduce it in the first place? Same goes for Funding for Lending and all the other daft schemes to re-inflate Labour's housing bubble in the vain hope that it will get the Tories elected next year!

The price of housing is the main problem, not lack of housing.

The Tories love the past.

They want to repeat the heady 80s days they knew as kids - docklands being built, Golf GTIs, champagne parties on the Thames, privatisations and booming markets.

H2B is just the 2014 equivalent of Right To Buy. There is no doubt they wanted a bit of HPI but they've got a bit more than they anticipated - and they haven't got as much increase in business investment off the back of it (yet).

So they're stuck with a policy that is having unintended consequences - just as with every other decision every other previous chancellor has ever made.

The test, for me, is how they recover the issue - and the cap on multiples is a good start - but it's too little too late. However the law of unintended consequences probably means they'll wait a while to see what happens from that before changing anything else.

I think they'll hold of pulling back H2B for as long as possible - getting more under 30s on to mortgages is a big thing for Tories - more important than whether the market corrects I suspect.

[Bruce Banner]

The Tories love the past.

They want to repeat the heady 80s days they knew as kids - docklands being built, Golf GTIs, champagne parties on the Thames, privatisations and booming markets.

H2B is just the 2014 equivalent of Right To Buy. There is no doubt they wanted a bit of HPI but they've got a bit more than they anticipated - and they haven't got as much increase in business investment off the back of it (yet).

So they're stuck with a policy that is having unintended consequences - just as with every other decision every other previous chancellor has ever made.

The test, for me, is how they recover the issue - and the cap on multiples is a good start - but it's too little too late. However the law of unintended consequences probably means they'll wait a while to see what happens from that before changing anything else.

I think they'll hold of pulling back H2B for as long as possible - getting more under 30s on to mortgages is a big thing for Tories - more important than whether the market corrects I suspect.

The difference between the 80s Tories and today's Tories is the leader, one knew what she was doing, the other doesn't!

Or to put it another way. One was a proper Tory, the other isn't.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Bruce Banner

[Liquid Goldfish]

It is political.

It is exactly what Carney and Osborne have been threatening to do to bring down HPI.

They have said repeatedly that raising IR risks retarding business investment growth (but they obv. also worry about risk to consumer spending which is already fragile).

Constraints on lending growth are a good first move.

Rolling back H2B, making BTL less attractive and building more houses would also help.

I think the next move will be a big home building announcement before election - maybe some time-restricted tax break to force people sitting on land to build on it or pressuring pension funds to build more.

I think it's political too but for pretty much the opposite reasons you state.

It allows Osborne and Carney to say that the banks are being responsible by dealing with the problems in London (even though it probably won't make a difference). It also lets Osborne attack Miliband in a general sense by saying there is no need for state interference in markets.

Osborne can then say he wants to take further measures (irony overload!) to "help" the "housing market" in the rest of the country "recover" - so I think the next move will be suspending stamp duty below 250K.

Osborne apparently believes HTB2 is his second most successful policy after the £26K benefits cap - he is more than happy with how it is going - and we heard yesterday from Danny Alexander that they're not going to rein it in.

Edited May 26, 2014 by oldsport

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

Every time I come back from visiting another developed country I am shocked by how small and run-down most UK housing looks. Much of it would benefit from knocking down and rebuilding to a decent specification. I think British people have just become accustomed to cr4p housing.

+1,000,000

After returning from Ireland I am shocked at the state of UK property, people in the UK are told that Ireland is a poor country but the average person is far better off than in the UK. It's truly shocking how this country is run and while people can look out of their window and see someone worse off than them they are perfectly happy. That's why the nasty party thought that punishing the poor would work so well.

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

I often wonder if were now at a point where the older property owners whom the majority are have gained so much from house price inflation that adding to it's meaningless to them. More meaningless than watching their kids struggling every day.

[billybong]

+1 Compared to all other european nations that I am sure most of the population think we are on par with (i.e., Netherlands, Denmark, Germany etc) then our housing stock is laughable. The symptom of selfishness and greed that is manifest in UK society.

Even in terms of GDP/capita the UK is right at the bottom of that particular league.

The CIA puts the UK next to Andorra with the likes of the Netherlands and Germany well above.

http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

(UK GDP - that overestimated construct of manipulated stats, imputed rent, debt and QE etc etc etc - and some say that they underestimate the current UK population)

Edited May 26, 2014 by billybong

[1929crash]

I often wonder if were now at a point where the older property owners whom the majority are have gained so much from house price inflation that adding to it's meaningless to them. More meaningless than watching their kids struggling every day.

While I was in a local shop last week, the elections came up, and somone objected to UKIP on the grounds that older people had every right to buy second properties or main homes in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

I told the old cow that I was more concerned about younger people with families in this country and abroad getting decent homes than I was about her selfish generation's right to have a holiday home.

Actually, I am of the same generation - but maybe I'm the Boomer exception who proves the rule that Boomers couldn't give a toss about anyone but themselves.

Edited May 27, 2014 by 1929crash

[Eddie_George]

Ray not happy = I'm happy.

[FreeTrader]

The BBA released April data for the main high street banks this morning, and the numbers reveal a fairly sharp drop in mortgage approvals last month (seasonally adjusted).

The figure of 42,173 is the lowest for the last eight months, and well down on the 48,314 we saw in January.

No surprise that Ray is becoming unhappy.

https://www.bba.org.uk/news/statistics/high-street-banking/april-2014-figures-for-the-high-street-banks/#.U4RdSSj1fhQ

[Killer Bunny]

The difference between the 80s Tories and today's Tories is the leader, one knew what she was doing, the other doesn't!

Or to put it another way. One was a proper Tory, the other isn't.

Yes Cameron is a proper Tory. Thatcher wasn't

[Bruce Banner]

Yes Cameron is a proper Tory. Thatcher wasn't

It's got nothing to do with a private education. MHT upheld Conservative values, free market capitalism etc. Cameron does whatever he thinks will get him re-elected.