AIUI Claire has upped sticks and gone off to live elsewhere, evidently she still has the place in the UK to sell.
Housing market
- Thread starter matt j
- Start date
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
The reality is that the price of a property is what someone can both afford and are willing to pay. The thing is the cost of living in the UK has been held artificially low and for too long now the piper has to be paid. This will come as a shock for younger people who have never experienced interest rates at around 8% as was fairly normal in the past.
At the moment there are a large number of people that have bought houses that they can barely afford to cover their mortgage payments at low interest rates. A large number of these are for a fixed term but when that comes to an end reality will hit home. Exactly how hard this will be will depend on interest rates and for how long they will remain high. At the moment that could mean monthly payments increasing by around 3 times e.g. £1Kpm becomes £3Kpm and pro rata. Those that can't afford this will have to sell at whatever price the market can bear and the price achieved will then become the new 'normal' unless interest rates (if ever) crash back down. Worse still if the bank forecloses it will sell the property off to recover what it is owed and if that is insufficient may leave the original borrower without a property but still have a remaining debt with the bank to service in the future.
Those that can profit from falling property prices will be cash rich buyers.
DV
claire.foxx
-⃝⃤
No, I left the UK a while back and I have a house to sell. Not the optimal time to sell, but not a bad time either — but I’m cashing out.
Curtis
pfm Member
Does that lead us to the point of irresponsible lending DV?
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
Thats a question for another topic. But at first blush I'd say no. For many years now the banks have stress tested borrowers ability to pay but then how far do you go? Who foresaw Covid and then the Russian Invasion? These two events alone have triggered profound changes in global finance and its effects and repercussions may be felt for a long time to come.
DV
I would certainly like to see the entire value chain getting their fair share and the quality of food improve. The sector's green credentials could also do with an upgrade. Possible?
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Think the BoE will be conflicted tomorrow with inflation way up, to everybody's surprise; a rest in increases was pencilled in for tomorrow. As you say, maybe the same as the Fed?
Sure, if you and everyone else wants to pay for it. You can have anything you want, at a price. What you can't have is what you would like above and a continuation of the £3 chicken and everything else. Market research says that UK consumers don't want to pay for it. They want cheap food. For proof, watch any supermarket and or the vast majority of food programmes (other than the fantasy "ooh that looks lovely" food porn.)
Agree, most people here seem to prefer convenient, cheap food that tastes good (and which is often unhealthy). Same in the US. Suspect if we had better, more nutritious food it would not only help the NHS but improve the tax base.
I'm sure that it would. I get really tired, here and elsewhere, when I hear "the food industry causes obesity" . Yeah, sure we do. We force co nsumers to buy unhealthy food, we ram pizza down their throats and wrestle carrots and celery out of their hands. Except that we don't. We make what people want to buy.
The other night I watched Jamie Oliver knocking up a meal for £1 a serving. He did a chicken and vegetable pie. It looked great. What was apparent was how skilled he is as a cook, and the fact that most people don't want to put in the effort. They want to zap something for 3 minutes, or worse, Just Eat. I don't know what the solution is to this.
dan m
pfm Member
I think you have to prove you already work in the park / area of outstanding beauty or whatever. That’s fine. But the fact someone outside can buy it to let it out is bizarre. At least that’s my reading of the listings.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Who've announced that they're laying off a lot of staff because their heyday in the pandemic is well and truly over; they're losing money.
Apart from the vary occasional Chinese, Thai or Indian curry from S'bury's, all out meals are home-produced (even some curries). It could get a bit boring for some people, but nutritional routine and reliability becomes more important with age, I feel. Freezing produce from the garden does help, t.b.h.
On another tack, I used to love corned beef; there are many ways of incorporating this 120 ish year old foodstuff. However, I have an aversion to sodium nitrate (and other additives, to be fair). Can I find corned beef without sodium nitrate? Certainly not in supermarkets. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Given that interest rate rises have been shown to be ineffective in controlling inflation caused by external factors, and given the knock on effects of the sudden ramping up of IRs on the economy, and banking, I’ll be disappointed, but not surprised, if they rise again today.
It may be the only tool in the BoE’s box, but sometimes not using a tool is better than using it. If the only tool you have is a hammer… you can still choose not to keep hitting your thumb with it.
I don't think that you will find corned beef without nitrite. It's an essential part of the cure and without it the meat goes grey and looks unappetizing.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Oh well! Wonder what they used before sodium nitrate became de rigeur as corned beef kept for donkey's years and I'm not aware of this preservative 40 or so years ago.
Incidentally, a family member (father's side) went to Argentina to raise beef and discovered/developed the corn-added advantages to beef and started the first canning factory there in the early years of King Edward V11. It was not a success and he sold out as George V came in. Then, WW1 broke out and his buyers absolutely coined it !
The food industry pumps out poor-quality food because there's a decent profit in it (and there's demand). Obviously, the food industry is not solely responsible for the obesity problem but it could do more to educate people on nutrition and good food standards. Warning labels on ultra-processed foods might also help.
kensalriser
pfm Member
Of course the food industry bears responsibility for obesity. It's not just that it creates high-calorie, low nutrition junk that's cheaper and more convenient than preparing food from fresh ingredients, it's spent decades and fortunes on political lobbying and misinformation to protect its interests just as the oil and tobacco industries have done.
Not solely though, the government has to take some of the blame as well.