Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:11 pm  

dr_feelgood wrote:

London needs more houses to be built,

I guess you don't live in London. Where would you build these houses? There really is no room.

both private and council and the buy to let landlords need bringing to heel. Maybe a higher rate of tax should be imposed on earnings from property rental or capital gains from investing in property. This would make property investment less lucrative and hopefully result in people buying houses for a home for themselves rather than an investment.

Landlords are supposed to declare their rent as income and pay tax on it. I suspect many don't.

I am in danger of adopting a left-leaning policy, but I would support 60 or even 70% tax on rental income. Too many people are using houses as investments and it is depriving others of places to live and put down roots.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:26 am  

The Video Ref wrote:

Too many people are using houses as investments and it is depriving others of places to live and put down roots.

Especially many of our newly adopted immigrants.
They deserve the chance to get their feet on the first rungs of the property ladder to integrate, invigorate and diversivy our proud multi-cultural 21st century society.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:10 am  

I live in London and was looking into moving out into one of the surrounding counties (Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire) I had a few estate agents around to value my house. They've valued it between 215k and 225k.

My house is tiny, in fact it must be on the very limit of the definition of 'house'.
It's a back to back terrace with 10sqft front garden, downstairs is open plan front room/kitchen with a bathroom (en suite size) and a bedroom big enough for a double bed and wardrobe.
This apparently is a first time buyers property, 215k is a first time buyers? In the area I'm from in the north a ftb property is 40k for 215k I can get a 5 bedroom detached house with front and rear garden and garage.

London is scandalous, for working class/lower middle class people will be working 35 years to pay off a house. I'm fortunate and only have 8 years currently but I feel for ftb now. My house has dropped and risen in 7 years by 40k.
40k in 7 years and you feel for those saving money for a deposit, it's rising quicker than they can save.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:05 am  

The Video Ref wrote:

I guess you don't live in London. Where would you build these houses? There really is no room.

Introduce Land Value Taxation and you'd be surprised at how much land suddenly became available

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:19 am  

Back on the old social housing debate again eh ?

Said it before and I'll keep on saying it - when I was in the building trade from '74 to '84 the company I worked for were involved in the construction and refurbishments of tens of thousands of council or housing association properties the vast majority of which were central government funded - have a look if you can't recall or aren't old enough to know, at which colour of government were in power during those years, the answer is both Red and Blue governments and the Red government were far, far more left than they are now and the Blue government was, well, somewhere like where Tony Blair ended up, but still...

You might also check what the economy was like during those years, it was up and down and when it was down it was on its knees, you kiddies may not know about three day working weeks (and three days pay) because there wasn't enough electricity to run the country, but there were rough old times in that decade.

All of which begs the question - how the hell could we afford to build hundreds of thousands of local authority and housing association rental properties and MOST IMPORTANT, rent them out at rates that didn't feel like you were having your wisdom teeth pulled out when you signed the lease ?

The answer is of course, political will and public attitude.

As we know from Standee and his experience in this line of work in recent years, social housing for rent is now looked upon as short term and emergency housing, at some point in the preceeding 40 years we as a society have changed our attitudes to social housing in a massive 180 degree swing, it is now just not the done thing for a young couple to think about putting their name on a council list even if their council had properties for them, not only that we are now happy to stigmatise social housing tenants as non-workers, scroungers and cheats for having too many bedrooms and leaching from the rest of us to pay for their luxurious mansion style extra bedroom houses.


I'm fairly sure its not me thats gone mad but sometimes I doubt myself.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:35 pm  

Wire Yed wrote:

I live in London and was looking into moving out into one of the surrounding counties (Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire) I had a few estate agents around to value my house. They've valued it between 215k and 225k.

My house is tiny, in fact it must be on the very limit of the definition of 'house'.
It's a back to back terrace with 10sqft front garden, downstairs is open plan front room/kitchen with a bathroom (en suite size) and a bedroom big enough for a double bed and wardrobe.
This apparently is a first time buyers property, 215k is a first time buyers? In the area I'm from in the north a ftb property is 40k for 215k I can get a 5 bedroom detached house with front and rear garden and garage.

London is scandalous, for working class/lower middle class people will be working 35 years to pay off a house. I'm fortunate and only have 8 years currently but I feel for ftb now. My house has dropped and risen in 7 years by 40k.
40k in 7 years and you feel for those saving money for a deposit, it's rising quicker than they can save.

Most of Herts (except say Watford is very expensive). Beds. maybe a good bet but commuting is more expensive.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:05 pm  

Something in The Sunday Times today about how the UK is, or will shortly be, the fastest growing Western economy.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:30 pm  

The Video Ref wrote:

Something in The Sunday Times today about how the UK is, or will shortly be, the fastest growing Western economy.

Growth built on a housing bubble and consumer debt?

Where have we heard that one before?

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:00 pm  

Dally wrote:

Most of Herts (except say Watford is very expensive). Beds. maybe a good bet but commuting is more expensive.

I actually wanted to move back up North but the wife vetoed it, I'd lined work up and everything. This is a kind of compromise the areas I've earmarked are Letchworth,Tring and Hitchen but keeping my options open. I shop in Watford(Harlequin)...no thanks to living there.

The prices are rising at a silly rate though, I don't know what can be done though, it's getting silly that all the service workers, nurses...basically your normal average wage worker can't afford to live in London, rich foreigners buying central properties they only stay in probably 3 weeks a year is turning it in to a giant ghost city.

Re: No More Arguments: Austerity is Working! : Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:06 pm  

Wire Yed wrote:

your normal average wage worker can't afford to live in London, rich foreigners buying central properties they only stay in probably 3 weeks a year is turning it in to a giant ghost city.

Oh the irony, welcome to the South West of the last ten years.

Rich Londoners buying 2nd homes and cottages, driving out the local population and leaving whole villages with hardly a light shining from Sunday to Thursday nights but everything illuminated on Fridays and Saturdays. Then the leary bastads complain that the local pub and village shop have closed.