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Housing market

I think the point is that BTL landlords are big-hearted souls who rent out properties purely as a social service, and that we should a) give them lots of tax-breaks and b) humbly thank them for their open-handed generosity.
My son particularly likes them, barely a week goes by where he’s not praising their existence, he’s very passionate about them…
 
I think the point is that BTL landlords are big-hearted souls who rent out properties purely as a social service, and that we should a) give them lots of tax-breaks and b) humbly thank them for their open-handed generosity.
On the one hand, the argument runs, there is no profit in BTL investing, no money at all; on the other, these over-leveraged landlords who are only in it for the money are the scum of the earth.
 
On the one hand, the argument runs, there is no profit in BTL investing, no money at all; on the other, these over-leveraged landlords who are only in it for the money are the scum of the earth.
And it changes. I've a friend who bought a few in the 90s when housing was cheap. It was a licence to print money until a few years ago and she no longer works. These days, less so, and fewer people will enter the market. I know of people who bought btl 10 years ago, bad move.
 
interesting idea . I recall a property next to mine run by a very well known estate agent in Birmingham [ rubery] for the expatriate owner . When we had the scaffolding up we could see this houses gutters full to the top with moss . never been emptied and water gushing down the wall causing damage. the tenanat is elderly and wouldnt have a clue. i contacted them and they cleared it out . in fact just had a call this weel to say mine is leaking again and no doubt this has happened again.

so now i would NOT leave in the hands of an agent , i am not convinced any of them are any good at all

Well I think that eventually it's possible to have a choice between selling and using a fully managed service, because you aren't able to manage the properties yourself because of age or illness. And selling isn't easy, and you have the question of what to do with the capital which has been released. My thought is that it's best to hold on to the houses for as long as possible, enjoy the income and the capital growth, even if it means using an agent.

Leasing to the local authority may not be realistic as I've said. Quite apart from the questions of how you get the property back, even today that company in Croydon offering it doesn't pick up the phone -- it would be mad to give them the rights over a house. They could disappear!

But maybe there's a third way that I haven't seen.
 
Lower yields. Some not covering costs. Add in a less favourable tax system, it's less attractive again. A conventional pension scheme has less risk and offers 8%, typically. It's where I have my money.

Interesting, and I guess the tax changes will have made a very significant difference. Where is this? It doesn't quite mesh with my experience in London where demand for lets has been pretty consistently high for years, and rents seem high too, but I should say, I have no debt.
 
Interesting, and I guess the tax changes will have made a very significant difference. Where is this? It doesn't quite mesh with my experience in London where demand for lets has been pretty consistently high for years, and rents seem high too, but I should say, I have no debt.
London is its own special case. I don't know what on earth is happening there, it's a different country with its own rules.
 
I think the point is that BTL landlords are big-hearted souls who rent out properties purely as a social service, and that we should a) give them lots of tax-breaks and b) humbly thank them for their open-handed generosity.

yes sadly not the case for many . One neighbouring house rented out via a agent is just decaying . render falling off , mortar falling out . seems the practice here for many . another neighbour who renrted had wires poking out of sockets , sellotape holding broken windows together . many live in badly maintained houses . I wonder if any have filled in the decent homes consultation currently going on

https://www.gov.uk/government/consu...ard-in-the-private-rented-sector-consultation
 
yes sadly not the case for many . One neighbouring house rented out via a agent is just decaying . render falling off , mortar falling out . seems the practice here for many . another neighbour who renrted had wires poking out of sockets , sellotape holding broken windows together . many live in badly maintained houses . I wonder if any have filled in the decent homes consultation currently going on

https://www.gov.uk/government/consu...ard-in-the-private-rented-sector-consultation

All too common. Got a landlord living next door to me. He lives a very comfortable retirement. Just bought himself another new caravan. You should see the state of the three terraced houses he rents out.
 
Ken McEwan, of McEwan Fraser Legal estate agents, told The Telegraph: “Landlords are selling up and moving into commercial property, or they are just getting out altogether.

“Landlords are in tears on the phone to us regularly because they can’t get their tenants out.”

If landlords have grounds for eviction the creaking court system means it can take them 12 months to get possession of a property because there is such a court backlog.

McEwan added: “Demand outstrips supply by five to one. This has been the case since the Scottish government changed the legislation.

“They killed the market. I am seeing a massive exodus of Scottish landlords.”

sounds bad
 
I’m hearing noises about a stamp duty cut on Friday. Anything to keep the plates spinning.
Help to buy (2013). Stamp duty holiday (2020). Mortgage Guarantee Scheme (2021). Stamp duty cut (2022). This is what the Tories do when the economy is facing a downturn (especially if an election is on the horizon) - stimulate the housing market, because GDP goes up and it looks like growth. Look Ma, no recession!

Blame yourself if you don't like it. You keep voting for it.
 
Help to buy (2013). Stamp duty holiday (2021). Stamp duty cut (2022). This is what the Tories do when the economy is facing a downturn - stimulate the housing market, because GDP goes up and it looks like growth. Look Ma, no recession!

Blame yourself if you don't like it. You keep voting for it.

I agree. All it will do is increase prices, or prevent a price slide. On the flip side, IR’s are increasing which will reduce affordability. Still mega cheap money though. Trouble is, there is no one else I can bring myself to vote for.
 
I agree. All it will do is increase prices, or prevent a price slide. On the flip side, IR’s are increasing which will reduce affordability. Still mega cheap money though. Trouble is, there is no one else I can bring myself to vote for.
Which is odd because the things you seem most upset by (over-indebtedness, an economy that discourages saving and encourages BTL investing) are the core policy outcomes of the modern Conservatives. Their trajectory is to shrink the middle class until we are back to the 1780s, where the role of the middle classes is constrained and social mobility is almost non-existent. Everything is financialized, if you don't have your wealth offshore you can't compete, and the vehicles of this globally mobile wealth are multi-national corporations.

The Tories are waging class war and even your side - the small 'c' conservative middle-class - is getting hammered. And, because you are scared of 'socialism' (a nineteenth century fad that had limited success in moderating old-style capitalism and since the 1940s has barely existed in mainstream politics), you still think that mixed-market social democracy is a threat to you, rather than a lifeboat.
 


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