Brits invest too much in housing.

[iamnumerate]

On 18/12/2016 at 10:51 PM, Funn3r said:

Trains in the SE are not that wonderful. The lines radiate out from London so if you are in the SE and want to go to London you are sorted. If you want to go to anywhere else though it is not so good - takes me ages to get from Bracknell to Slough which is 25 minutes in a car, bar traffic.

Very true and if your local train goes to the wrong terminus you can have a long journey across london

[MrXxx]

Yes Mr Hammond, people in the UK do spend a lot more of their income to buy their house, especially when compoared to the Germans...but perhaps it has something to do with security of tenure, for which our German bretheren are much better supported by their housing laws?!

[Will!]

On 18/12/2016 at 3:08 PM, Bland Unsight said:

It's a misconception that Basel is voluntary from the point of view of the banks. The BIS comes up with proposals and then the relevant authorities in the member nations states (e.g. the Bank of England in the UK) voluntarily introduce rules. However the Bank of England is likely to introduce rules via mechanisms which UK banks have no option but to follow, up to and including the introduction of statute law, if necessary.

This is why the implementation of Basel 3 is such an unknown quantity. It could take a final form which leans heavily against BTL. Some of the the EU might then implement those rules in a watered-down form but the BoE might use the same rules to force UK BTL lender to raise a lot of capital, forcing up BTL lending rates and prompting the big lenders to back out of the BTL lending market. 

The European banks are certainly fighting Basel III:

Global Bank Capital-Rule Revamp Postponed as Europe Digs In