Labour attack tories on housing starts

the_flying_pig

chewmylegoff wrote: »

of course housebuilders have a vested interest in mortgage finance becoming more readily available - any business has an interest in being able to sell more stuff.

but why are their comments just dismissed as being "VI" and therefore irrelevant.

housebuilders are in it to make a profit. if they could build more houses and make more money then they would - that's the point of them existing. if the CEOs of basically all of the housebuilders are saying that it's not worth their while building more houses until more people can get mortgages then i would say that is worth listening to [at least, if you want more houses to be build that is - if you want housebuilding to continue at current rates then the right thing to do is ignore them].

do people think that the housebuilders are just lying and that they could just build a load more houses and make larger profits for their shareholders (whilst getting bigger bonuses for themselves), but for some unstated reason they're just being a bit awkward and going on about the government needing to sort out lending for the sake of it?

Well, er, oh, crikey

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

the_flying_pig wrote: »

Well, er, oh, crikey

Superb comeback.

Really, just, razor sharp wit....

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

chewmylegoff wrote: »

do people think that the housebuilders are just lying and that they could just build a load more houses and make larger profits for their shareholders (whilst getting bigger bonuses for themselves), but for some unstated reason they're just being a bit awkward and going on about the government needing to sort out lending for the sake of it?

Well you are dealing with Piglet and Muddles....

God only knows what they actually believe, the only thing you can be sure of is they'll argue for anything which obstructs a housing market recovery.

No matter how little sense it makes.

homelessskilledworker

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Well you are dealing with Piglet and Muddles....

God only knows what they actually believe, the only thing you can be sure of is they'll argue for anything which obstructs a housing market recovery.

No matter how little sense it makes.

Well tell us where the sence of predicting a rocketing house inflation boom in a zero GDP/growth economy after austerity cuts and all the other negative stuff in the last 5 years, and with no growth in sight

Hows that work then Hamish?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

Well tell us where the sence of predicting a rocketing house inflation boom in a zero GDP/growth economy after austerity cuts and all the other negative stuff in the last 5 years, and with no growth in sight

Hows that work then Hamish?

No idea.

And nobody has predicted a rocketing house inflation boom in the near future, so it's of no relevance anyway.

My prediction for this year is that the various indices will be in a range of 0% to 5% HPI, so slightly positive, hardly a boom.

Last year I predicted a range of -2% to +3%. Essentially flat. Which turned out to be a little bit pessimistic as the final result was a range of -1% to +3.2%.

luvpump

Lets be frank , it was LABOUR who did more to create a Housing bubble in there tenure than anyone, they also embarked on an Opendoor policy on Migration & Built Fxxk all in the way of social housing during there 13 yrs in office... But hey, it is just so easy for the Myopic "Left" to moan about the Tories ..

the_flying_pig

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Superb comeback.

Really, just, razor sharp wit....

i'd hoped it was obvious what i was getting at. in brief:

1 - increasing the supply would indeed lead to benefits in the form of an increase in housebuilding, but this would be modest [see the peak of the housing bubble, when credit was at 'once in a lifetime' levels, but housebuilding was at historically very modest levels] and only at a cost of various disbenefits, primarily more household debt & more inflation.
2 - the only sensible solution would be to tackle the supply side. if that means government building the houses itself then so be it.

ukcarper

Can someone tell me what the Tories would have done to prevent housing boom.

　

MacMickster

The major housebuilding firms bought in to the property boom as much as their customers did. Consequently they bought huge tracts of land suitable for development, way in advance of when they would actually have the resources to develop them. There was no risk in doing so as, after all, land and property prices can only ever go up.

Now, having paid high prices for this banked land, they are unwilling to crystalise losses by building on it. If it were not for the high price paid for this land, the actual cost of building materials and labour would allow them to make a profit whilst selling houses at significantly lower prices.

It is time for the introduction of an annual tax on land. Make it equally bad for these companies, or anyone else, to hold on to land without putting it to productive use. We are an island with a limited resource of land suitable for either development or agriculture. It should not be an option for anyone to just sit on this resource.

the_flying_pig

MacMickster wrote: »

The major housebuilding firms bought in to the property boom as much as their customers did. Consequently they bought huge tracts of land suitable for development, way in advance of when they would actually have the resources to develop them. There was no risk in doing so as, after all, land and property prices can only ever go up.

Now, having paid high prices for this banked land, they are unwilling to crystalise losses by building on it. If it were not for the high price paid for this land, the actual cost of building materials and labour would allow them to make a profit whilst selling houses at significantly lower prices.

It is time for the introduction of an annual tax on land. Make it equally bad for these companies, or anyone else, to hold on to land without putting it to productive use. We are an island with a limited resource of land suitable for either development or agriculture. It should not be an option for anyone to just sit on this resource.

agree with all of this but i won't hold my breath. the building companies are big tory party funders.