nightrider Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Who was that MP who recently said that people should not buy a property to use it as a future pension pot, but to buy a property as a home in order to keep the price of property down, what an idiot, my house was bought specifically to sell on in my dotage and downsize to a smaller cheaper property and hopefully have a wad of money left over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Idiot Mp?..................I think your be spoilt for choice (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 knight of the road - 2010-10-18 6:07 PM Who was that MP who recently said that people should not buy a property to use it as a future pension pot, but to buy a property as a home in order to keep the price of property down. It was Housing Minister, Grant Shapps Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob b Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 He has all the confidence of somebody who's pension is taken care of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyrider Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 bob b - 2010-10-18 6:52 PM He has all the confidence of somebody who's pension is taken care of. sounds about right 8o| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted October 18, 2010 Author Share Posted October 18, 2010 I live in an old methodist manse, 6 bedrooms, large utility room and an office down stairs with a very large garden. Two workshops down the bottom of the garden, two sheds and a greenhouse with two big lawns, not overlooked and with a wooded valley to the rear and plenty of parking space. The house and garden is now becoming a bit of a handfull, dont know what it would be worth today but was valued at £350.000 about five years ago, my idea is to sell it, buy something smaller and cheaper that would suit our particular needs and hopefully have a fair amount left that would eke out our pensions and then just drive off into the sunset in our motorhome, I've spoken to lots of pensioners who have done exactly the same, downsized made a packet and bought a nice motorhome, why not I ask myself, I dont want to spend all my time maintaining a big house and garden, spent enough time working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 That's exactly why we bought our last house,now sold and downsized to Linc's last Oct'. Just in time it seems, we were very lucky and our house sold in 2 weeks. The MP is a gold plated knob head of the first order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
602 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Hi, If you own a house, you want prices to rise. If you don't own a house, then you want houses to be cheap. But what is a cheap house? HMG want affordable housing, but even the prices they consider affordable are out of reach of somebody not already on the property ladder. How is it somebody can afford to rent a house when they are not able to buy it ...... and still the landlord (presumably) makes a profit? How about this? UK is in a sorry state, threats of strikes. Strikes are crippling France. We buy electricity from France (EDF). Winter is almost upon us, and they probably won't grit the roads. I think I should make a trip to the supermarket, buy enough tins of food to last me and wife for a month, prederably something that can be eated without heating. Also the same for the dog. Make sure the caravan has full gas bottles, etc. But our glorious leaders would regard that as panic buying, and hoarding, and frown at me. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
602 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Hi, If you own a house, you want prices to rise. If you don't own a house, then you want houses to be cheap. But what is a cheap house? HMG want affordable housing, but even the prices they consider affordable are out of reach of somebody not already on the property ladder. How is it somebody can afford to rent a house when they are not able to buy it ...... and still the landlord (presumably) makes a profit? How about this? UK is in a sorry state, threats of strikes. Strikes are crippling France. We buy electricity from France (EDF). Winter is almost upon us, and they probably won't grit the roads. I think I should make a trip to the supermarket, buy enough tins of food to last me and wife for a month, prederably something that can be eated without heating. Also the same for the dog. Make sure the caravan has full gas bottles, etc. But our glorious leaders would regard that as panic buying, and hoarding, and frown at me. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 602 - 2010-10-19 5:21 AM preferably something that can be eaten without heating. Also the same for the dog. I think you'd find that a bit indigestible. My advice would be only to eat the dog when it's thoroughly cooked. Now I'll run away quick before Mel and Janine read this! :-( No, let's be serious for a moment. I declare in "interest," as I'm in a tied cottage, but I'm a bit bothered about this (mainly UK/US) idea of houses as an investment, rather than just as somewhere to live. Let me explain. The economies of both the UK and the US are built on the assumption that house prices (and therefore rents) will always keep rising in real terms (barring temporary glitches in the market). Shelter, along with food, water, and oxygen, are basic essentials for everyone. So I wonder how sustainable it is, to assume that one of those essentials will ALWAYS keep gettting more expensive in real terms (ie its price will continually rise faster than other prices, OR EARNINGS)? I'm not talking morality here, just economics. Surely the bubble will one day burst, in a way that makes recent (and previous) house price "crashes" seem tame by comparison. Or am I missing something obvious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 602 - 2010-10-19 5:21 AM Hi, If you own a house, you want prices to rise. I own my own house and would be better off if house prices dropped by 80%. I only own one and can't sell it because I need it to live in. If house prices fell my insurance would be less. Less people would be trapped on benefits because the price of the cheapest available housing (currently paid by me the Taxpayer) is less than they could earn. More people could afford to move nearer their work, reducing all the congestion and cost of commuting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Tony Jones - 2010-10-19 9:05 AM Surely the bubble will one day burst, in a way that makes recent (and previous) house price "crashes" seem tame by comparison. Or am I missing something obvious? The bubble isn't going to burst anytime soon because vested interests are still strangling the supply of housing by planning constraints. But I agree it can't carry on rising like it has been. Apart from anything else we can't afford to keep paying ever increasing housing benefit to those who can't earn enough to pay for their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Move before the Torys start taxing the proceeds...You think it wont happen? well the glorious Margret T wanted to do it! and needed to be persuaded that it would put them out of goverment...... It is a massive cash cow and they will dig into it eventually *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob b Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Tony Jones - 2010-10-19 9:05 AM 602 - 2010-10-19 5:21 AM preferably something that can be eaten without heating. Also the same for the dog. I think you'd find that a bit indigestible. My advice would be only to eat the dog when it's thoroughly cooked. Now I'll run away quick before Mel and Janine read this! :-( No, let's be serious for a moment. I declare in "interest," as I'm in a tied cottage, but I'm a bit bothered about this (mainly UK/US) idea of houses as an investment, rather than just as somewhere to live. Let me explain. The economies of both the UK and the US are built on the assumption that house prices (and therefore rents) will always keep rising in real terms (barring temporary glitches in the market). Shelter, along with food, water, and oxygen, are basic essentials for everyone. So I wonder how sustainable it is, to assume that one of those essentials will ALWAYS keep gettting more expensive in real terms (ie its price will continually rise faster than other prices, OR EARNINGS)? I'm not talking morality here, just economics. Surely the bubble will one day burst, in a way that makes recent (and previous) house price "crashes" seem tame by comparison. Or am I missing something obvious? What about the laws of Supply and Demand ? House prices may go up and down, but while we have too many people and not enough houses, the prices will surely edge steadily upwards.....Barring accidents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porky Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 We live in a capitalist society so the price of any commodity will be subject to the pressures of supply and demand. That of course includes housing to own or rent. In the rest of europe it is much more common to rent and young people do not have the same pressures to buy. In my view (and I have been boring people with it for years) is that the price of housing has been, and to a certain extent still is, unsupportable. However, as the cost of the land is a high percentage of the cost of the finished product this is one area where government could intervene and peg the value of residential land to just above prime agricultural land. Oh no I hear the poor farmers/land owners cry that would be terrible>:-) Taxing the increase developement value has been tried before and it did not work, it merely pushed the cost of land up. Of course the govenment would loose all that lovely capital gains tax, and I wonder if anyone has done the calculation to see if there would be a net gain or loss from capping the cost of residential land?*-) Roy Fuller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 knight of the road - 2010-10-18 9:18 PM I live in an old methodist manse, 6 bedrooms, large utility room and an office down stairs with a very large garden....not overlooked and with a wooded valley to the rear and plenty of parking space. The house and garden is now becoming a bit of a handfull, dont know what it would be worth today but was valued at £350.000 about five years ago..... Be prepared for a shock. A lot less than that if being realistic about selling as opposed to marketing. Property prices in my area have dropped by around 30%. A neighbour stuck his property on the market just before it all went belly up but was slow to drop his price choosing instead to reduce it by just a few grand each time. As a result it took over two years to sell. By comparison another neighbour opposite me put their property up for sale early this year below it's actual value. It was sold within a matter of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 602 - 2010-10-19 5:21 AM How is it somebody can afford to rent a house when they are not able to buy it ...... and still the landlord (presumably) makes a profit? Good question which has sometimes baffled me. My only knowledge of renting is from people I work with. Apparently Council rents are much less than private and of course much has to do with the area the property is in. As an example a guy I work with lives in a 2 bed Council house and pays £240 a month rent (thats the figure hes told me). A privately owned property opposite me was being rented by a young couple until early this year at £750 per month. Quite why they could not get a mortgage, ive no idea as both appeared to be in full time employment. The downside to living in private of course is lose your job and you could lose your house. Live in rented and that won't happen because it can't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted October 19, 2010 Author Share Posted October 19, 2010 My house costs an arm and a leg to heat, we have no option as my 91 year old mother in law lives with us and she has to be kept warm. I have often thought of overwintering in the van where it is parked up at the back of the house, beautiful and warm, hooked up to the leccy and if I had a 47kg propane bottle connected we would be as warm as toast thoughout the winter. My cousin lives in a private block of flats and has his designated spot where he parks his motorhome, he stayed it it for a couple of weeks while he had the builders and decorators in he said it was great, just like being away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted October 19, 2010 Author Share Posted October 19, 2010 Not going back to the welfare benefit cheats thread, my next door neighbour has always worked and never been on the dole but he used to annoy me no end when he was always slagging off benefit claimants. Well what goes around comes around, much to his shock and surprise he himself was made reduntant when the company he worked for went belly up. He is aged 50 and is now signing on and of course to make ends meet he is doing whatever cash in hand jobs he can get, he owes a lot on the house due to taking out a second mortgage for an extention. Due to some unexpected bills last month he missed a mortgage payment intending to catch up the next month, he got rather a nasty shock when he got a snotty letter from his mortgage provider making dire threats, lose your job and you risk losing your house, at least you have a degree of protection in a council property? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 knight of the road - 2010-10-19 1:28 PM My house costs an arm and a leg to heat, we have no option as my 91 year old mother in law lives with us and she has to be kept warm. I have often thought of overwintering in the van where it is parked up at the back of the house, beautiful and warm, hooked up to the leccy and if I had a 47kg propane bottle connected we would be as warm as toast thoughout the winter. Sell up and downsize while you still can. Owning a large property may sound pretty grand and impressive to some but big properties come with big costs.....on everything. Heating, lighting, decorating, carpets etc, not to mention rates and insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Bulletguy - 2010-10-19 1:26 PM A privately owned property opposite me was being rented by a young couple until early this year at £750 per month. Quite why they could not get a mortgage, ive no idea as both appeared to be in full time employment. BG, I assume you don't know that they couldn't get a mortgage? I suspect my tenants could easily get mortgages in that they are in well paid relatively secure employment. But... Before I became a Landlord I often wondered why folk rented. Ok, there's the obvious, like relationship breakdown, job change etc but some just don't seem to "fit" the rental picture. Perhaps like the folk near you. A few years down the line and I'm a little more informed, (but not much). I think it's the fear factor, one example is a friend who will never buy again after his marriage failed and he ended up having his house repossessed. One tenant bought a property with a sibling and ended up having to leave as a partner came along and drove him out. This left him with the "fear" factor. An ex colleague who sold a property, had about £20k left afterwards vowed never to buy again, and hasn't either. She happily, (and I mean that), coughs up £600pm for a rented property. We discussed this many times but she just said and maintains that she was happy to get OFF the property ladder. Madness to me but... Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 knight of the road at least you have a degree of protection in a council property? Degree being the word Malc after todays musings around no more guaranteed for life tenancies. Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted October 19, 2010 Author Share Posted October 19, 2010 Bulletguy - 2010-10-19 1:48 PM knight of the road - 2010-10-19 1:28 PM My house costs an arm and a leg to heat, we have no option as my 91 year old mother in law lives with us and she has to be kept warm. I have often thought of overwintering in the van where it is parked up at the back of the house, beautiful and warm, hooked up to the leccy and if I had a 47kg propane bottle connected we would be as warm as toast thoughout the winter. Sell up and downsize while you still can. Owning a large property may sound pretty grand and impressive to some but big properties come with big costs.....on everything. Heating, lighting, decorating, carpets etc, not to mention rates and insurance. I would sell up and downsize tomorrow, but not possible while mum in law is still with us, and she will not be shuffling off this mortal coil for a good time, she comes from a family of long livers, her brother was 101 when he died a couple of years ago, and my mum in law eats like a horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 LordThornber - 2010-10-19 1:49 PM Bulletguy - 2010-10-19 1:26 PM A privately owned property opposite me was being rented by a young couple until early this year at £750 per month. Quite why they could not get a mortgage, ive no idea as both appeared to be in full time employment. BG, I assume you don't know that they couldn't get a mortgage? I suspect my tenants could easily get mortgages in that they are in well paid relatively secure employment. But... Everyones 'circs' vary and yes i've no idea why this couple paid such a high rent instead of a mortgage. But as you say some simply don't 'fit' the rental picture. If young'ish' as this couple were then it makes sense to at least try and get on the property ladder. If on the other hand you are an old fart like me it's questionable as to whether it's economically logical to even think about taking out a mortgage. And certainly when retired, as I will be by the end of this year, a mortgage is the very last thing you should be paying out on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightrider Posted October 19, 2010 Author Share Posted October 19, 2010 I think it would be totally wrong if the council said to a long standing tenant, now that your kids have fled the nest we want to move you into a smaller property, that would be destroying the community spirit built up over years, ok if the tenant is in favour, but not being forced to move. When I was in my 20's there were thousands of terraced houses that were built by the mill and factory owners to house their workers. When the mills closed down those properties were sold off to various companies and were managed by estate agents, it was quite easy for a young couple getting married to get one for rent usually by paying "key" money to the rent collector, a bit of a fiddle you might say, but you got your house. Then came the mass demolition of slum houses, the councils knocked down more houses than they built thereby forcing people to buy hence the steady rise in house prices over the years, today there are no jobs so very few young folk can get on the housing ladder and that is why thousands of people in their 30's are still living with mum and dad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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