Why are we building flats for foreigners?

chewmylegoff

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

What rule is it that pays more HB to people with a Malaysian landlord, rather than with a 'British' landlord [probably with an Indian passport]?

As this is the Internet I feel compelled to point out the fact that a British landlord couldn't possibly have an Indian passport as India doesn't recognise the concept of dual nationality so any Indian becoming a British citizen has to surrender their Indian passport.

Loughton_Monkey

chewmylegoff wrote: »

As this is the Internet I feel compelled to point out the fact that a British landlord couldn't possibly have an Indian passport as India doesn't recognise the concept of dual nationality so any Indian becoming a British citizen has to surrender their Indian passport.

I bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps I should have said "Indian landlord [with right of abode in UK]", instead of British with Indian Passport.

leveller2911

wotsthat wrote: »

Out of interest what do you think about that site in Devon? I can't believe it's possible for me as an individual to undercut the big builders (by some margin) whilst still making more profit per house.

I think the estimated sale price is more than fair. Either you've underestimated your building costs or the total costs (and tax) associated with funding, building and marketing a site. There would surely be a queue to buy this site otherwise.

I had a look and without digging deeper its difficult to judge. Something that does concern me is that planning permission was granted in 2009 and yet still no sale. Planning permission will need to be re submitted next year if the development hasn't begun.Why hasn't the site been snapped up in 4 years? something must be putting the developers off.Could it be that the site need piling due to poor ground?.


In the old days the land represented 1/3rd of the total cost, now its 1/2. If anyone (you,me,builder) has a site for 13 houses when your purchasing 13 kitchens,bathrooms, lorry loads of Cellotex insulation etc you can get some serious discounts.

The 1-2 bedroom houses on the plan were around 680 sq feet which is roughly 18 feet sq for each floor so a bit small. That said its a liveable size.

My build costs for a 3 bed I mentioned has been built by a friend and it wasn't a self build as such he just project managed it.I honestly believe that if we built cheap,affordable,decent quality starter homes they would market themselves. If your selling 13 you probably wouldn't need an estate agent for a start. Have a look at some of the self build magazines such as "Self build" and "Home building & Renovating". With affordable housing you can't use green energy products such as Geo Thermal,wind turbines etc as its far too expensive. One of the problems self builders have is that the mortgage money is released in stages so they release the money after each stage has been completed and signed off so financing the build can be a problem.Biggest problem I'm having is finding affordable plots and I've been looking for over 10 years now.

As Kevin Costner was told in the movie FIELD OF DREAMS "If you build it, they will come":D

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

Leveller can knock them up for £90k so that works out as £130k per house.

£90k build cost for for a 4 bed detached, seems understated.

£525k for 0.9 acre isn't cheap.

leveller2911

Thrugelmir wrote: »

£90k build cost for for a 4 bed detached, seems understated.

£525k for 0.9 acre isn't cheap.

I never said £90k build cost for a 4 bedroom detatched... I said £90k build cost for a 3 bed semi so I think Whatsthat was generalising. Land price of decent arable land without PP is worth about £6-8k per acre so £525k for less than an acre solely because it has PP is part of the problem.

Depending on soil conditions a 4 bedroom detatched house can be built for under £175k. You can spend an awful lot of money just getting out of the ground if the ground is poor or tree roots etc. You can go from having 1 metre deep foundations to 3metres at the drop of a hat with the increase in budget.I doesn't really matter what the product is building/making in volume can bring huge savings/profit.

Thrugelmir

BobQ wrote: »

The problem is that local people are not being given the opportunity to buy them at all. The flats are just being marketed in Asia and its just driving up prices.

Correspondingly also boosts GDP. Better that foreigners invest money in the UK. Than suck it out like the large American Corporates.

Perhaps they could redevelop Blackburn or Burnley as well?

grizzly1911

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Correspondingly also boosts GDP. Better that foreigners invest money in the UK. Than suck it out like the large American Corporates.

Perhaps they could redevelop Blackburn or Burnley as well?

Could they just borrow the money here from a "Malaysian" subsidiary bank?

I read that was one of the reasons for certain Asian banks giving higher than average interest rates for UK savers to attract deposits for UK property funding.

Might bust GDP but it is just the same money going round.

wotsthat

leveller2911 wrote: »

My build costs for a 3 bed I mentioned has been built by a friend and it wasn't a self build as such he just project managed it.I honestly believe that if we built cheap,affordable,decent quality starter homes they would market themselves. If your selling 13 you probably wouldn't need an estate agent for a start. Have a look at some of the self build magazines such as "Self build" and "Home building & Renovating". With affordable housing you can't use green energy products such as Geo Thermal,wind turbines etc as its far too expensive. One of the problems self builders have is that the mortgage money is released in stages so they release the money after each stage has been completed and signed off so financing the build can be a problem.Biggest problem I'm having is finding affordable plots and I've been looking for over 10 years now.

It's probably fair to say that it's not as easy to make money building houses as is often assumed. A large builder will have economies of scale and better financing but will have added costs. A long term site near me has a list of local projects they've funded whilst they've been building (these are effectively bribes). They've also got the costs of keeping residents from earlier phases happy so disgruntled buyers don't spoil the marketing of later phases.

I've been looking for a plot for a while too. Anyone that splits the garden in half thinks they're sat on a fortune. It's where companies have a big advantage - they can buy large plots and design sites accordingly. Single plots are rare and expensive.

grizzly1911

wotsthat wrote: »

A long term site near me has a list of local projects they've funded whilst they've been building (these are effectively bribes). They've also got the costs of keeping residents from earlier phases happy so disgruntled buyers don't spoil the marketing of later phases.

I've been looking for a plot for a while too. Anyone that splits the garden in half thinks they're sat on a fortune. It's where companies have a big advantage - they can buy large plots and design sites accordingly. Single plots are rare and expensive.

It was interesting that the particular details, you posted for discussion, only showed £10k as the payment to the council or less than £500 per plot. If that is all the cost it doesn't seem that onerous in this case.

I wonder if the land slopes as much as the road, that might be an issue.

You are right it isn't an easy task I am sure.

Having land isn't easy for private individuals either to work their way through to obtain either planning independently or cheap/risk free to engage specialist help.

gazter

BobQ wrote: »

The problem is that local people are not being given the opportunity to buy them at all. The flats are just being marketed in Asia and its just driving up prices.

We tend to have a pretty open economy, and in most cases hold to the notion that two entities can form a free contract between themselves without price control. Nothing wrong with that.