Housing: Are We Reaching A Tipping Point? - Zoe Williams

[long time lurking]

The benefits cap is all hype. Very few families are affected by it because it is very easy to circumvent. Just get on DLA/PIP/ESA with depression or get a fake self employed job and get tax credits and hey presto, you are no longer subject to the cap. I think the Tories have probably been more generous that Labour when it comes to benefits. They certainly haven't reduced them (except child benefit for working middle class families). It's all smoke and mirrors.

Is that correct for HB i thought that cap was universal apart from incapacity/dla claimants

[canbuywontbuy]

there’s this insistent perception of inferiority [about renting]; people feeling looked down upon, not just by institutions but by their friends.

There's a mawkishness about this article (well, what else from the Guardian?) - no mention that many are choosing not to buy because who the hell wants to put ALL of their wealth into a single asset that has its price bouncing like a balloon along a ceiling (outside London) - and is already vastly over-priced by 2 or 3 times? Let me be frank - what bloody idiot does that? Of course being sensible with your finances is looked down upon in the UK, because we don't "do" financial responsibility here - the UK is a country deep in public and personal debt, and it's virtually civil disobedience to decide not to take on debt.

[Trampa501]

But they are not coming to London to pay for their rent with their own money.

Reduce housing benefit, scarp tax credits and - poof! - 40% of London's population will go.

As I said, the government, whether Lib, Lab, Con or whoever, will keep the housing sector subsidised at all costs.

Is there any party bold enough to say it will slash hb?

[iamnumerate]

Is that correct for HB i thought that cap was universal apart from incapacity/dla claimants

https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap

"You’re not affected by the benefit cap if anyone in your household qualifies for Working Tax Credit or gets any of the following benefits:"

Crazy.

[Guest_growlers_*]

https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap

"Youre not affected by the benefit cap if anyone in your household qualifies for Working Tax Credit or gets any of the following benefits:"

Crazy.

The fact is, the cap seems to be having an impact. Download the spreadsheet and plot the graph of applications for London. Decline sets in month after introduction.

[Drained]

As I said, the government, whether Lib, Lab, Con or whoever, will keep the housing sector subsidised at all costs.

Is there any party bold enough to say it will slash hb?

How can they when they price out more people every year and import many hundreds of thousands whom claim this benefit to pay the rent.

I know its just an advertised price but this flat is now price £55K more than 17 months ago ridiculous sold price.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49137082.html?premiumA=true

Think i will be looking to get housing benefit soon as working really is for mugs.

[Sandwiches33]

I am always treated as renter scum by folk, it always really offends them and they often revel in delight at there "superiority" to me.

The same people always try to dig to find out how much you earn too.

I cannot imagine being a debt slave to have a fleeting moment where you feel "superior" to another human being.

I was sitting in my house the other day and thought of this, my house i rent was on the market for 200k +

its 300 mortgage payments over 25 years plus interest.

if I divided my house into 300 little cubes with a handful of bricks and piece of wood in each.

Could I honestly say each little cube was worth the 800 quid a month mortgage?

No of course not its ******ing insane and I am not even in london with the houses where each 200 year old brick is a grand.

[Eddie_George]

1. Scrap housing benefit altogether.

2. Many will end up in B&Bs temporarily.

3. House prices will plummet

4. Use money saved to build more social housing (THAT NEVER FINDS ITS WAY ONTO THE MARKET)

5. Unskilled work will now be worth working for with low house prices.

6. Further benefits can be removed.

6. Jobsagoodun.

[b w]

Think i will be looking to get housing benefit soon as working really is for mugs.

Those who dont qualify for housing benefit are at a massive disadvantage to those that do qualify, in fact the disadvantage is so big now that i see friends and family that are in receipt of housing benefit have a superior living space to reside in than i, as i have to pay my own rent.

I really dont believe you could make up a more perverse situation of housing in this country if you tried

[long time lurking]

I am beginning to believe there is only one change in policy needed to make houses fall in price for most of the country, all thats needed is a ban on I.O mortgages for BTL and make every BTL mortgage revert to a repayment mortgage

I.O BTL is not an investment it`s a bet on HPI pure and simple

[Guest_growlers_*]

I am beginning to believe there is only one change in policy needed to make houses fall in price for most of the country, all thats needed is a ban on I.O mortgages for BTL and make every BTL mortgage revert to a repayment mortgage

I.O BTL is not an investment it`s a bet on HPI pure and simple

Patience.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/buy-to-let-booms-as-boe-awaits-powers-to-curb-mortgages

[Drained]

Those who dont qualify for housing benefit are at a massive disadvantage to those that do qualify, in fact the disadvantage is so big now that i see friends and family that are in receipt of housing benefit have a superior living space to reside in than i, as i have to pay my own rent.

I really dont believe you could make up a more perverse situation of housing in this country if you tried

I'm a single parent thus could get every benefit thrown at me but if i played the game though i haven't bothered as i hate dealing with the state, but i think its time for a change of plan if the house price crash doesn't start after May.

Failing that i will move abroad for a few years.

[canbuywontbuy]

Failing that i will move abroad for a few years.

The only thing that keeps me sane here is that I have an opportunity to live abroad. I'd hate to know what I know about the UK economy, and be saddled with a fresh (or recent) new mortgage knowing I can't escape without losing a ton of cash.

[Agentimmo]

Failing that i will move abroad for a few years.

Why move abroad ? OK...apart from the sunshine possibly and superior food

There are plenty of places in the UK that are affordable. Maybe not in city centres, but not that far away. Go up to Scotland , for example. You can still buy a 2 bed flat for £50K or less in towns with good links to Edinburgh / Glasgow. The bubble is biggest in London and the SE, agreed, but when it's suggested to move elsewhere people baulk at the idea. Many generations of Northerners have moved south for work etc and uprooted their families....with this house bubble now gigantic ...the reverse can also be beneficial.

[winkie]

But they are not coming to London to pay for their rent with their own money.

Reduce housing benefit, scarp tax credits and - poof! - 40% of London's population will go.

If they can't find a job in London they surely will not find a job in other parts of the country or other countries.......most claimants are working or sick.....who will be cleaning the loos, washing the cars and packing the shelves.......most jobs in London are not particularly well paid, working Londoners did not ask for rents/housing to be manipulated by governments and banks to be so high.....we have in effect exported much of our London housing stock, helps with the balance of payments....normal working Londoners have paid the price.

[spyguy]

I am beginning to believe there is only one change in policy needed to make houses fall in price for most of the country, all thats needed is a ban on I.O mortgages for BTL and make every BTL mortgage revert to a repayment mortgage

I.O BTL is not an investment it`s a bet on HPI pure and simple

I think IO mortgages are effectively banned.

Sure, you can swap out the equity in your OO and use it as security.

The days off borrowing million$$$$ for 95 LTV BTLs are long gone.

[winkie]

I think IO mortgages are effectively banned.

Sure, you can swap out the equity in your OO and use it as security.

The days off borrowing million$$$$ for 95 LTV BTLs are long gone.

Buy to Let mortgages are interest only......first time buyers are in competition with larger deposits, investors and interest only......landlords it seems take priority in this country...they don't want your hard work they want your money...investors have an unfair advantage over owner occupiers especially in London.....whole roads that once used to be solely OO are now rented as an investment, the owners/landlords live in nicer places here and overseas, and take the money with them.

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

You never heard a murmur from the Guardian when it was the Labour party creating the bubble.

Indeed

And Blair ingeniously put some distance between himself and the inevitiable and left McRuin Broon to take the heat for wrecking the economy.

And to add insult to injury, the media palyed along with McRuin when he declared that he had "saved the world" from fiscal armageddon.

It terrifying to imagine there are people out there dumb enough to re-elect the same bunch of fiscal incontinents and repeat the whole miserable catastrophe.

Edited March 30, 2015 by UK Debt Slave

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

Oh yes i forgot how from 2002-2007 people used to look at me funny when i used to tell them it was a bubble and this is the only reason they're making money.

People seriously believed their own bullsht then.

The housing boom started pretty much right after Blair got elected in 1997

I made an offer of 100K on my house in 2000. The property was taken off the market and relisted a year later for 110K, so prices were already rising by 10% PA in 2000-2001

I was already pretty alarmed at how out of hand things had become by 2003-2004. Amazingly, the madness continued till the blow up in 2007/2008 amd has continued in the London and SE property market ever since.

I can't envisage a market correction now without a truly godzilla sized economic crash that will make 2007/2008 look like a cakewalk.

I'm sure they are engineering a total collapse of any pretence of market capitalism.

Edited March 30, 2015 by UK Debt Slave

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

Oh yes, we could go the ukip anti-foreigner route, and bring on the economic crash. Be careful what you wish for..

No - lets just keep the bubble inflated, and scare the unwashed. Bless.

What are you gibbering about?

[long time lurking]

I think IO mortgages are effectively banned.

Sure, you can swap out the equity in your OO and use it as security.

The days off borrowing million$$$$ for 95 LTV BTLs are long gone.

I.O is alive a well when it comes to BTL yes there is a need for more skin in the game 20-25% deposit and they are not to keen on allowing you to take any equity from another property with a I.O mortgage on it

I think the highly leveraged game you talk about has been water down but the problem still exist the new greater fool`s are people who now own a single places instead of multiple ,these are bailing out the multiple highly leveraged owners of a decade ago

[iamnumerate]

Why move abroad ? OK...apart from the sunshine possibly and superior food

There are plenty of places in the UK that are affordable. Maybe not in city centres, but not that far away. Go up to Scotland , for example. You can still buy a 2 bed flat for £50K or less in towns with good links to Edinburgh / Glasgow. The bubble is biggest in London and the SE, agreed, but when it's suggested to move elsewhere people baulk at the idea. Many generations of Northerners have moved south for work etc and uprooted their families....with this house bubble now gigantic ...the reverse can also be beneficial.

Don't you think that there is something wrong with people who work full time having to leave London but not people who don't?

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

Why move abroad ? OK...apart from the sunshine possibly and superior food

There are plenty of places in the UK that are affordable. Maybe not in city centres, but not that far away. Go up to Scotland , for example. You can still buy a 2 bed flat for £50K or less in towns with good links to Edinburgh / Glasgow. The bubble is biggest in London and the SE, agreed, but when it's suggested to move elsewhere people baulk at the idea. Many generations of Northerners have moved south for work etc and uprooted their families....with this house bubble now gigantic ...the reverse can also be beneficial.

Scotland? ARRRGHHHH! Land of Alec Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon! The next Trotskyite dystopia!

Thanks but no thanks mate. I break out in a cold sweat if i go further north than Finchley

Edited March 30, 2015 by UK Debt Slave

[dances with sheeple]

The housing boom started pretty much right after Blair got elected in 1997

I made an offer of 100K on my house in 2000. The property was taken off the market and relisted a year later for 110K, so prices were already rising by 10% PA in 2000-2001

I was already pretty alarmed at how out of hand things had become by 2003-2004. Amazingly, the madness continued till the blow up in 2007/2008 amd has continued in the London and SE property market ever since.

I can't envisage a market correction now without a truly godzilla sized economic crash that will make 2007/2008 look like a cakewalk.

I'm sure they are engineering a total collapse of any pretence of market capitalism.

You mean like the EZ woes, oil, Russia, middle east, China that sort of thing?

[Guest UK Debt Slave]

You mean like the EZ woes, oil, Russia, middle east, China that sort of thing?

The EZ will soldier on and it will survive for as long as the people across Europe fail to comprehend that it is a corporate socialist boondoggle that will eventually impoverish every nation in Europe and ruin the people.

I believe the biggest danger at the moment is the US and the EU interfering in the Ukraine and Crimea, poking Putin in the kidneys with a big stick and attempting to bring down the Russian economy by suppressing oil prices.

A very high stakes game!