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Leaseholds banned on new build homes
Can only say good in response to this one. I started a thread a while back showing how people using HTB had now found themselves stung by massive leasehold charges meaning they could not move. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42439155 Builders have responded angrily, insisting they will simply reduce the number of houses…
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Equal is Unfair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtJwAYJ9B08 Play at 1.5 x speed to save time
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Future direction for the economy: food for thought
An interesting way of looking at things: not sure whether I am convinced. https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2017/dec/17/why-industry-leader-have-no-need-to-panic-over-jeremy-corbyn-john-mcdonnell
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Paradise Papers
A huge new leak of financial documents has revealed how the powerful and ultra-wealthy, including the Queen's private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41876942 The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, has got hold of a shed load of documents (as in 13.4m of…
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Borrowing putting UK at risk of collapse
http://www.insider.co.uk/news/government-borrowing-uk-crisis-venezuela-11618542 An interesting article, but more importantly, it's who is saying these things that stood out to me. The very people with the control - but the very people that continue to do absolutely nothing about anything other than continual warnings.…
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2025 - the US of E
If what we are hearing about there being an in or out decision on the United states of Europes thing in 7 years, is the whole Brexit thing a big waste of time? Will there another referendum at that point for another in or out? and how will the Brexit negotiations affect that? If thats the way the EU want to go, then I cant…
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Unemployment Down, Wages up - any explanations?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42337659 Unemployment down, wage growth up. What could have caused it? Can't be the reduction in inward migration as we have been assured by businesses on multiple occasions that this is having no impact at all on wages or productivity.....
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London Has Peaked
i'm calling April as the peak of the london property price bubble. i was actively looking to buy a house in tottenham late 2013 early 2014 during which time asking prices for a victorian terrace rocketed from around £250-275k to over £400k in around 6 months. classic bubble territory. people were buying on spec saying "you…
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Fed lifts interest rates, keeps 2018 policy outlook unchanged
The US continues to lead the return to normalisation. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-fed/fed-lifts-interest-rates-keeps-2018-policy-outlook-unchanged-idUKKBN1E70IH
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Are renters responsible for the high price of property?
It occurs to me that they may be. Traditionally, if you think the value of something is too high, you short it. That is, you borrow it so you can sell it at the high now-price and buy it back later at a cheaper price, pocketing the difference. This has been done since the year dot in equities. If you think Unilever's going…
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What if you couldn't go to Uni till you were 19?
I was talking to my partner about his daughter’s university application process when an off-the-wall idea occurred to me to reduce the student loan problem. What if there was a compulsory one- or two-year gap between leaving school and applying for university? IF we enforced a time gap between school and university the…
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Stamp duty cut
Crashtrolls, whatever you do - DON'T BUY A HOUSE ! It's a trap!
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Buying Property - is it worth bothering?
My parents...... Bought a large 3 bed house in 1984: £65,000 £5,000 deposit. Joint annual salary of £10,000 in 1984. (Both teachers). Joint annual salary of £60,000 at the end of their careers. (The value of they paid for the house). Current house value: £450,000 Say a couple of teachers purchased that house today....…
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Has an extra year been inserted into pre university schooling?
I did my A Levels at 17 and had I gone straight to university in October I'd still have been 17 when I started there. Others in my A Level year were 17 as late as April or May, i.e. 2 months before their As, so they were 18 towards the end of their first year at university. This was nothing unusual. It seems this is…
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London 2nd most competitive city in the world after New York
"...after considering their talent pool, economic vitality, environmental quality and business environment....New York tops this ...index, followed by London in second and Tokyo in third...The competitiveness of Hong Kong, the planet’s most expensive urban centre for owning a home, had been undermined by its property cost,…
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Use 'student loans' to fix the housing problem?
Currently we (via the student loans company) give out loans of about £60-80k for young adults to buy themselves a university education. £9.25k tuition & upto £11k maintenance per year. The loans are then payed off slowly as 9% on earnings over £21,000 . About 60% of the loans are not fully repaid because many students…
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Gvment to announce new desperate measures to help poor people afford expensive houses
Lots of speculation about this, last time they said they will give 40% interest free for five years in London. Now they are talking to do away with stamp duty for ftbers, What’s next they will give 50% interest free for ten years and you only need 2.5% deposite?
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The forthcoming budget
Any thoughts on what Hammond might do. I can see him making stamp duty a fee the seller pays.
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Budget 2017: Part deux
BBC annoucer on 1 o'clock news said Labour had called for 'an end to equality'....exactly. More serriously, we can only grow through productivity increases going forward rather than by increasing the size of the labour force as a result of brexit....
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Article about Crashy in the DT today
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/12/population-silver-renters-set-hit-million-people-leaving-late/ According to analysis carried out by campaign group Generation Rent, the number of private renter households in England headed by someone aged 65 or older is set to increase from 370,000 in 2015-16 to 995,000 by…
