9 thoughts on “‘Horrendous’ housing trends slam door on first-time buyers”

• sibley's b'stard child says:

  January 2, 2011 at 12:19 am

  So MW, is Shapps still the great white hope for HPC as i’m not convinced that his rhetoric is anything more than that. Let’s face it, the recent falls (in my opinion) are in spite of and not because of anything the gov have effected thus far.

• str 2007 says:

  January 2, 2011 at 7:42 am

  There’s an article on BBC website under Politics (which I can’t post from my phone) but it’s Shapps sending out sa warning shot looking for ‘price ‘stability’. By this is wants wages to rise more quickly than house prices.

  There are some good words in there about a house being a home and not relying on property for pensions.

  The threat is they’ll build more houses to keep a lid on prices, this is however traditionally quite a slow way to kern price rises and will only work if they build houses in areas of demand.

  Not much use building houses up North if prices there are falling but rising ahead of wage inflation in the South East.

  So we’ll see if these are just words.

  Not sure how the bonus for building to local authorities will pan out but I haven’t seen any increase in Plots down here in Hampshire yet.

• peter says:

  January 2, 2011 at 8:38 am

  If Shapps was that bothered he could take a walk down to the treasury and get his mates there to put interest rates back up to a sane level – and not print any more money.

  But of course he won’t.

• alan says:

  January 2, 2011 at 9:04 am

  @Peter,
  I agree. It’s just words from a government pretending they are in charge and know what’s happening. He takes some platitudes out of the air and defends them righteously…. his party mates all have their own BtL properties anyway.

  If he had any political clout he would be increasing IRs to give a better deal to savers and bring down the affordability of a new home. I think the BoE (MPC) are waiting for the Fed to signal when to do it.

• miken says:

  January 2, 2011 at 11:12 am

  @1. The government hasn’t really done enough yet to substantially affect house prices. But this year (and the next 5-10!) it will all change.

  In relation to the the article it states “It has recently emerged that it would take 14 years for an average earner to save for a first-time deposit.”
  I bet that doesn’t even consider the huge debt that many young people may have when leaving university (27k + 3 years of living costs). No wonder there were riots. If I was just starting university I would also be very angry at the prospect of this huge debt.

• taffee says:

  January 2, 2011 at 11:39 am

  good point….the riots were about more than tuition fees

• Crunchy says:

  January 2, 2011 at 10:10 pm

  4. alan

  Yes, it’s all about the Fed. Always was.

• Mrmagooisagovteconomist says:

  January 2, 2011 at 10:10 pm

  The answer is simple:- when you have a business interest i.e a buy to let then the gain that you make on it should be collected via a yearly valuation, the cost of this could be mitagated by having an initial rental valuation carried out by the L authourity and the gain being calculated off that, any deviation in the value could be recouped over a three year period and only in the positive after all it is a business. Rent controls and standards would reduce the immediate attractiveness of BTL removing the equity removal crowd who rely interest only loans and contribute massively to the negative balance sheets and replacing it with more stable larger concerns (after all someone has to provide housing, just not the small cowboys of late).

• Crunchy says:

  January 2, 2011 at 11:59 pm

  Housing, a “simple basic human need” so are pensions, social harmony, education and a decent unsubsidized wage in a balanced

  economy………..

  Quick, let’s hijack them and dominate.

Add a comment