House Price Rant

Thrugelmir

The demand for new homes remains strong, but with only six lenders now covering over 90% of the lending market, the mortgages to meet that demand are not available.

Something for which there's no quick fix.

macaque_2

Generali wrote: »

From Steve Morgan, chairman of Redrow via the excellent FT Alphaville blog:
It continues here:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/11/04/394276/house-price-rant/
and I very much recommend that you give it a read.
Enjoy!

FTAlphville, Aha, it must be respectable. Have a read of this:

In recent months there has been much scaremongering in the media about the state of the housing market. Although the market has undoubtedly been affected by the current economic climate, underlying demand remains strong as there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people wanting to buy their first home. Private sector rents are rising as first time buyers are being stifled by the chronic shortage and affordability of mortgages. Most people are left with little choice but to go into the private rented sector or live with their parents. Every week we are forced to turn away potential purchasers simply because they do not have a deposit of 25% or more; people with excellent jobs who under normal circumstances would easily qualify for a mortgage.

Sounds familiar? Well yes indeed; it is a cut and paste job from Redrow's interim statement to investors. Like all other UK builders, Redrow have enjoyed selling houses to [STRIKE]suckers[/STRIKE] er customers at prices that no other country in the world would tolerate.

I also suspect they did not show their investors this:

http://www.snagging.org/tag/redrow/

The BBC received complaints from homeowners on 26 Redrow estates.

Residents on a Lancashire estate have slammed house builders Redrow, saying roof tiles have fallen off homes they built for the third time in two years.

A FIFE couple have told how their dream of owning a brand new home in Dunfermline turned into a nightmare thanks to shoddy workmanship by builders Redrow Homes.

2. At present we still have no floor coverings upstairs due to unlevel
floors. We are facing a bill of ?3000 to pay for someone else to fix
the floors. Redrow are ignoring our phone calls and are refusing to pay [...]

I moved into a new Redrow home in December 2004 and laid a laminate floor in the living room through to the dining room. In February I noticed. the laminate floor was starting to warp and small bubbles were appearing just under the surface of the laminate. I called in the floor company who....

My property nightmare: flawed new house.

The 70% Club : Shoving spin back where it comes from (with rubber gloves)

Generali

macaque wrote: »

FTAlphville, Aha, it must be respectable. Have a read of this:



Sounds familiar? Well yes indeed; it is a cut and paste job from Redrow's interim statement to investors. Like all other UK builders, Redrow have enjoyed selling houses to [STRIKE]suckers[/STRIKE] er customers at prices that no other country in the world would tolerate.

I also suspect they did not show their investors this:

http://www.snagging.org/tag/redrow/



The 70% Club : Shoving spin back where it comes from (with rubber gloves)

The point of the piece from FTAlphaville's pov I think was, here is a great rant. It is a very different beast to the main part of the paper - they tend to stick up things that are interesting rather than things they necessarily agree with.

For example, they regularly link to some of the more mainstream doomster blogs like zerohedge. I doubt that fits into the central part of the thinking of either the FT staff or readers but people like that throw up some interesting stuff from time-to-time and it's certainly worth being aware of them.

lemonjelly

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2010/11/11/school-nets-windfall-from-wolves-owner-steve-morgan/

The defence rests, M'lud!;)