House builders whining about their subsidy being removed.

[Simon Taylor]

Excellent article in the Pink 'Un about just how the big builders have milked HTB.  Osborne's Brownite moment has been a boon for shareholders, bad news for taxpayers and really bad news for the deluded who bought the badly built hovels this scheme has subsidised.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/86640f38-3023-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a

[Wayward]

I managed to get passed the pay wall by googling news "house builders financial times".  the comments are scathing.  We really should be banging on more about the evils of this scheme and poisonous culture in government that it grew out of.

[Simon Taylor]

8 minutes ago, Wayward said:

I managed to get passed the pay wall by googling news "house builders financial times".  the comments are scathing.  We really should be banging on more about the evils of this scheme and poisonous culture in government that it grew out of.

Indeed.

The current line from the housebuilders lobby is something like 'bung us some more HTB and we'll sort out the pisspoor quality and perhaps stop ripping people off with leasehold title'

This is where state intervention leads to;  a small number of dominant companies hooked up to the drip of taxpayer cash.  HTB is a scandal and it needs to be ended.  A May government with a big majority might decide that it has the balls to do the right things.

 

 

 

[Nabby81]

Confirms that the major builders all raised prices on back of this so buyers didn't benefit at all ...

[billybong]

One of the main justifications for the scheme was that it would increase the number of new homes being built but they're still at record lows and nowhere near the numbers being built before the start of the economic collapse and nowhere near the numbers needed to be built to meet the tories promised target for 2020,

In that regard it's been an abject failure.  

HtoB should be discarded immediately.

The builders are always full of excuses - if it's not enough brickies then it's planning permissions are too slow or they can't make a profit or any other excuse they can conjure up for the tame media to publish.  All the time hoarding their land banks waiting for the next QE subsidy etc from the BoE or some other crazy scheme from the government.

Edited May 5, 2017 by billybong

[Sour Mash]

18 minutes ago, Nabby81 said:

Confirms that the major builders all raised prices on back of this so buyers didn't benefit at all ...

Worse than that, the buyers are ultimately on the hook for the entire amount of the loan so they've ended up having to take on even more debt than they otherwise would have done.  If they default (a distinct possibility) then the taxpayer will end up paying part of the loan.

Really, anyone capable of critical thinking could see through the sham in about 10 seconds flat:  "We see you aren't credit-worthy enough to borrow  £xxxxxxxx to buy an overpriced house, so we're going to loan you the difference between the most that you could sensibly expect to borrow/repay and what you actually want to borrow."

How TF does that amount to 'helping' would be home buyers?  It's clearly an asset price supporting scam.  No-one in the mainstream media interested in pointing this out at the time though.

 

Edited May 5, 2017 by Sour Mash

[Democorruptcy]

From the article:

Quote

Housebuilders warn that a “cliff-edge” conclusion to the scheme would damage output — and their businesses. They are calling for a continuation beyond 2021, or at least a gradual reduction.

The taper....

 

[billybong]

23 minutes ago, Sour Mash said:

Worse than that, the buyers are ultimately on the hook for the entire amount of the loan so they've ended up having to take on even more debt than they otherwise would have done.  If they default (a distinct possibility) then the taxpayer will end up paying part of the loan.

Really, anyone capable of critical thinking could see through the sham in about 10 seconds flat:  "We see you aren't credit-worthy enough to borrow  £xxxxxxxx to buy an overpriced house, so we're going to loan you the difference between the most that you could sensibly expect to borrow/repay and what you actually want to borrow."

How TF does that amount to 'helping' would be home buyers?  It's clearly an asset price supporting scam.  No-one in the mainstream media interested in pointing this out at the time though.

 

+1

Some people expressed concerns (concerns which were reported) that it would create a bubble but they neutralised those concerns by saying that it would help more new homes to be built (which they misleadingly claimed were needed for house prices to come down).

Britain got the bubble - but record low numbers of new homes continued to be built. 

Edited May 5, 2017 by billybong

[Funn3r]

2 hours ago, Sour Mash said:

"We see you aren't credit-worthy enough to borrow  £xxxxxxxx to buy an overpriced house, so we're going to loan you the difference between the most that you could sensibly expect to borrow/repay and what you actually want to borrow."

You jest but that was exactly what happened with my first house purchase in the 1980s. I was too green to understand and I just signed what they told me to sign, but the actual deal was an endowment policy, an IO mortgage to top it up, which still wasn't quite enough so an additional personal loan from the builder (Heron.)  In those days it was all out front not sneakily disguised as HTB. I got tax relief on all three loans though

[mrtickle]

4 hours ago, Democorruptcy said:

From the article:

"Housebuilders warn that a “cliff-edge” conclusion to the scheme would damage output — and their businesses. They are calling for a continuation beyond 2021, or at least a gradual reduction."

The taper....

 

Ok fine then, we'll have a taper starting NOW which ends with zero on Jan 1st, 2021. They should be careful what they ask for.

 

[Conquistador]

Friend of mine bought a new flat in Manchester under HTB, knowing that it was stupid policy. She will grow out of the place within a few years. When I asked her how she would sell when the scheme would not be available to her buyer, she admitted that it was a good question. Awful short term ******** by Osborne.

[zugzwang]

16 hours ago, mrtickle said:

Ok fine then, we'll have a taper starting NOW which ends with zero on Jan 1st, 2021. They should be careful what they ask for.

 

HtB is just one insane vendor-directed subsidy introduced by the Tories to push up house prices. There's at least a dozen. Rent to Buy, Shared Ownershp, Regional Equity Loans, Starter Homes, Intermediate Rent, OPSO (Older People's Shared Ownership) etc. And then there's the various hand outs and incentives that the house builders receive as an encouragement to start work including the Home Bulding Fund, Housing Infrastructure Fund, Estate Regeneration Fund, Build to Rent etc. And of course, beyond that, the rolling bailout and profiteering opportunity that the City of London continues to enjoy via FLS and the Term Funding Scheme.

Strong and stable leadership, or the greatest act of economic mismanagement this country has ever seen?

[billybong]

Strong and stable one sided rewards to the detriment of the country as a whole.  It only works by people falling for the same old tricks at election time over and over again and accepting living in the tiniest homes in europe and even then all those in a household having to work to pay off the mortgage - etc etc etc etc.

Off thread topic but on a similar theme one suspects that the reason for the acceptance upto now of the referendum decision even upto the implementation of Article 50 is specifically to garner popularity to increase their majority and once they have the "strong and stable" leadership there'll quite possibly be the most blatant reneging on the leave vote since records began.

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by billybong

[steve99]

was looking at new houses in East Anglia this week, what a crock!  I had no intention of buying from these devils but was trying to gauge the difference between new build price and second hand stuff built in the area within the last few years.  You could add about £40k+ compared to a recent new build coming back onto the market by the time you have laid carpet etc and they seemed to be disinterested in even speaking to me as I was not the typical HTB or FTBuyer nob with subsidies they are used to dealing with.  They are also drip feeding the market at a painfully slow pace, choice was about 10 houses over the next 6 months in an estate in which they would maybe get 100 houses in the long run.   No wonder they say they cant get brickies, if they only get employed ad hoc for a few days at at time they will cease to exist at all, like blacksmiths.   It does not take an idiot to realise that the government has no intention of fixing the housing market and like things exactly as they are. Time for punishment re not using the land supplies, not demand side incentives which have proved to do nothing other than push prices up.