Barratt loss on house market woes

Pssst

elaina79 wrote: »

I live opposite a barrats building site that has seen little activity for the past 6 months, but there was a lot of people in suits having their pictures taken and drinking champagne on tuesday. They clearly have something to celebrate.

Theyve probably done a deal with a HA to turn an executive development into a socially engineered ghetto.

JasonLVC

In a way, the housebuilders were just cashing on the the buyers.

How many 'new homes' do you see that are for let or for sale within days of being bought. Speculators ruined the housing market, buying off-plan and then selling at a higher price as their house was 'ready' whilst the house builder was still working on Phase II or whatever.

I tried to buy a new home 7 years ago. Persimmon said it'll cost X and we went off to seek mortgage, deposits, etc - three weeks later persimmon said costs had gone up and it would be another £10k - so we didn't buy as couldn't afford it - how does a house go up by £10k in less than a month?

So no sympathies for the housebuilders - rather than increase their prices and trying to compete with the speculators - they should have dropped their prices, forcing the flippers to lower their margins too or get out of the sector.

How much does a house/apartment really cost to build, that is the big mystery question I'd like answering?