Sensible measures to improve the house market

WTF?_2

Forget Brown's likely desperate attempts to throw taxpayer money to reignite the burst housing bubble. What sort of measures would you implement to make a stronger, more resilient housing market in the future and make sure this doesn't happen again?

Mine:

* Mandatatory 10% deposit requirement for mortgage borrowers.

* Mandatatory 3.5x single/2.5x joint salary limit on borrowing.

* Compulsory income checks on borrowers to cut out 'lie to buy'.

* Introduce 'non recourse' laws for new mortgages where handing back the house cancels the debt (to cut out silly lending). Would also protect house buyers who know that they can just give the house back if the worst comes to the worst.

* Proper financial regulations enforced by a competent organisation (not the FSA then).

* Reduce tax relief for multiple BTL properties for individuals. Each additional property after the first becomes progressively less advantageous. (Have separate regulations for a registered property business so that people who know what they are doing can manage portfolios of rental property professionally.)

* Special tax-free savings account for deposits for FTBs to facilitate and encourage saving for a deposit.

* Reform of stamp duty laws to cut out those silly thresholds.

* Reform the laws relating to house buying to prevent gazumping/gazundering. Having a system where anyone can mess around up until the last minute exchange of contracts is a recipe for chaos.

pawpurrs

Think you have just about covered it.

!!!!!! for Goverment!:j

mr_magoo_5

Yup, that makes sense,..... so its unlikely to happen!

Pobby

Seconded. Good sound ideas!

lostinrates

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Mine:

* Mandatatory 10% deposit requirement for mortgage borrowers.
I'd rather see this higher personally.

* Mandatatory 3.5x single/2.5x joint salary limit on borrowing.

I have come to agree this is a good guidline, but not an inflexible necessity....if for example some one wants to borrow lots but on higher reparations than normal (a baked bean eater rather than a caviar eater) and is a higher income earner this is not reflecting their ability to pay.

* Compulsory income checks on borrowers to cut out 'lie to buy'.
I can't believe these have not been necessary, this really should be mandatory.

........
* Reduce tax relief for multiple BTL properties for individuals. Each additional property after the first becomes progressively less advantageous. (Have separate regulations for a registered property business so that people who know what they are doing can manage portfolios of rental property professionally.)
I think good landlords should be encouraged. I don't believe in penalising those who are doing what thy do well. Rather than do that I'd create more serious financialpenalties for poor landlords, thereby making BTL a less feasible option for the shoddy hobbist but a fair one for the decent landlord who is prepard to put time effort and work into maintaining a good service for his/her customers.

* Special tax-free savings account for deposits for FTBs to facilitate and encourage saving for a deposit.

yes please!

* Reform of stamp duty laws to cut out those silly thresholds.
Agreed
...............


I hate to say it but I think multiple ownership of residential property by foreign investment needs looking at too..pushing particularly Central London prices up......which follows on to....A lot of fuss is made in the south west about the price Londoners have pushed prices up to and they want local buyers to have first refusal at lower prices. I'm only for this if it is a nationwide scheme. DH would have claim to a low NW3 price, and I either a low SW3 price or a low price in the southern Cotswolds.:p


Also, if allowances and tax money is going to recipients and thay are 'decent people' as Hazel Blears suggests, lets build that into the system. Anti social or illegal activities, have an impact over the time of the original sentence (not the served one) or for a set period of time for non-custodial sentences, lets say 3 years, on which there is a reparation to society in which you live among, say £7.50 a week or an hour or two of voluntary work for the local council. (not diretly housing, but local society. I think enhancing local society could improve housing conditions for renters and owners)


I think boom and bust is not built into our system so much as our nature. I don't think THAT is easily surmountable.

hostman

The ISA savings threshold should be higher generally anyway. Something like £20,000 a year tax free would encourage more to save.

lostinrates

I forgot to add one of the most important things.....

a reform to tenancy regulations, making long term/life renting more feasable and secure for those who might never be best suited to buying, giving stronger security/decoration rights coupled with more responsibilty for maintaining.

videoking

and you thought of all that before breakfast what time r you applying for the job dinnertime watch out the mps wont like that there second home investments might drop and all there fiddles will be in vein.

Max_Headroom_3

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Forget Brown's likely desperate attempts to throw taxpayer money to reignite the burst housing bubble. What sort of measures would you implement to make a stronger, more resilient housing market in the future

I think your ideas are spot on, but above all else, what the government needs to do right now is leave it alone to settle down to a sensible level and stop trying to stop an avalance with matchsticks!!

LittleMissAspie

!!!!!!? wrote: »

* Introduce 'non recourse' laws for new mortgages where handing back the house cancels the debt (to cut out silly lending). Would also protect house buyers who know that they can just give the house back if the worst comes to the worst.

I disagree with this. It absolves the buyer of responsibility for their debt. Silly lending isn't 100% the banks' fault.

!!!!!!? wrote: »

* Special tax-free savings account for deposits for FTBs to facilitate and encourage saving for a deposit.

Well we've already got ISAs. The limits are bit low perhaps but with mortgages (and therefore house prices) limited to a sensible amount, it shouldn't take more than a couple of years for a single person to save 10%.

MissMoneypenny

* No interest only mortgages, unless the borrower can continually prove they have a vehicle in force to be able to repay the capital at end of term. (With endowment mortgages, the lender use to hold the endowment certificate).