200,000 buy-to-let investors lose up to 90% of their cash

tomstickland

Snooze wrote: »

What did they bring too late?

Rob

I just thought I'd clarify: I'm well aware that the correct word is bought. I was being ironic and suggesting that George update his phrase to bring it in line with "modern britain".

Gorgeous_George

When a gag needs explaining it loses its shine, don't you think? Maybe it was too subtle for more recent members.

Besides Tom, the correct post #30 would have been...


'a little bit of toast'



GG

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Lots of people have (at various times) put their pensions into stocks and shares, gold, commodities etc at the wrong time - why are we singling out those who chose property?

They didn't borrow on their family home, to put leveraged funds into something for other people to live in, causing disruption to good people who have paid their rent simply because they were greedy.

Buy gold, stocks, shares. Fine
Borrow against your house to buy it. Fine, but there's rarely a lot of leverage on these. People spend what they have.

But when stocks hit the wall there's not the level of bleating from the 'investors'.

HammersFan

PasturesNew wrote: »

They didn't borrow on their family home, to put leveraged funds into something for other people to live in, causing disruption to good people who have paid their rent simply because they were greedy.

Buy gold, stocks, shares. Fine
Borrow against your house to buy it. Fine, but there's rarely a lot of leverage on these. People spend what they have.

But when stocks hit the wall there's not the level of bleating from the 'investors'.

To argue that gold mining doesn't cause disruption and misery is nonsense. BTL isn't even in the same league.

Dithering_Dad

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Because it denied many people the ability to own a house when the time would otherwise have been right for them to buy.

Because many others naively made a huge financial mistake and over-borrowed to 'get on the ladder'.

Because it has lead to what is probably going to be one of the worst recessions in modern history.

That's three for starters.

Had people simply stuck to buying houses as homes and banks to lending sensibly, we'd all be a lot better off today.

Are you saying that there should not be a private rental market and that people should be forced to either buy a home or rent from the council?

Not everyone wants to own a home and are perfectly happy renting. Would you deny them the choice to rent?

dhassen

Generali wrote: »

The most annoying thing about the bubble has been that at least 50% of the people that have bought a house to live in (or even 2 or 3 to rent out to students or 'professional sharers') seem to think they're the next Warren Buffet, the Sage of Godalming or something presumably.

The most annoying thing about the bust is going to be bankrupted landlords bleating on about how hard effing done by they are, how it's all someone elses fault that they didn't realise that they were risking more than their deposit and how they want me to pay their losses.

You remember those 2 bed terraced houses in I]Northern Hell Hole[/I that were going for £5k in 1997, !!!!!! old fruit? The ones that are now selling for £90 or £100k? Yup those ones. Well guess what? They're still not worth any money because they're horrible houses in horrible places, it's just that people in their madness have bid up the price 20x. Well those same idiots are going to be clogging up the message boards and Watchdog on the TV moaning about how nobody told them that I]Northern Hell Hole[/I was a Hell Hole.

Did they never see that graffiti on the A1? A stark warning to all Southerners about what faced them.

"It's Grim Up North"

There's a northern hell hole? Which town is that then?

dopester

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Not everyone wants to own a home and are perfectly happy renting. Would you deny them the choice to rent?

People who don't own property are happier renting now than they've ever been before. [STRIKE]You[/STRIKE] landlords are doing us all a great service as we watch the market utterly collapse.

[STRIKE]You've[/STRIKE] Landlords enjoyed [STRIKE]your[/STRIKE] their rents and [STRIKE]your[/STRIKE] their staggering capital gains on [STRIKE]your[/STRIKE] their portfolios fuelled by what has proved to be artificially cheap money in vast quantities - and now [STRIKE]you[/STRIKE] they have to take everything that is coming to [STRIKE]you[/STRIKE] them.

Thank you oh gracious landlords. (which does not include DitheringDad as he is no landlord)

dopester

dhassen wrote: »

There's a northern hell hole? Which town is that then?

Salford or thereabouts I would imagine.

dhassen

dopester wrote: »

Salford or thereabouts I would imagine.

lol nah there's much grimmer than salford unfotunatley! I think the town in question was probably north-east... or east lancs..... but I just thought it was funny that Generali didn't actually say which town he was on about :rolleyes:

carolt

I don't see the huge 'need' for the expansion in BTL we've had over the last 10 years, actually. People weren't all homeless and on the streets 10 years ago before BTL began. The only difference is that 10 years ago people like myself and many, many ordinary individuals/couples/families would have bought their own home. Now they are forced to rent it, due to house prices having risen to unattainable heights, partly through the tax breaks available to landlords versus owner-occupiers (OO's pay mortgage from taxed income, landlords' mortgage interest payments are untaxed).

I can't believe that anyone can seriously argue that everyone renting now would choose renting over buying if both options were financially equivalent. I have often argued in favour of renting in the current climate because it makes overwhelming economic sense; not because that is what I would wish to do all other things being equal. The reason the average age of FTB's has gone up from about 24 to 34 (IIRC) in the last decade is not that everyone in that age group has suddenly magically gone off buying (after all - they've watched property !!!!!! too!) but that they simply couldn't afford it.

If you 'released' the million plus BTL homes bought during the last decade back into the market, I'm sure you would have no difficulty finding a million plus FTB's happy to buy them - at a reasonable price.