Help to Buy is nothing but an election ploy....

Graham_Devon

Just (yet another) article slamming help to buy.

I post this one as I simply agree with everything within it, if applied to HTB2.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/10471564/Help-to-Buy-is-nothing-but-an-election-ploy.html

To others though, it will of course be just yet another bit of nonsense not worthy of even being used as tomorrows toilet paper.

There is, I'm sure, an opposite article from a building company or a government spin doctor stating HTB is great.

blinko

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/10471564/Help-to-Buy-is-nothing-but-an-election-ploy.html

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HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

There is, I'm sure, an opposite article from a building company or a government spin doctor stating HTB is great.

I'm sure there is.

However there are also opposite articles from independent economists, analysts and think tanks and non-partisan agencies noting that help to buy is the right policy and rising prices do not equal a bubble.

Like this...

Describing the Government’s controversial Help to Buy subsidised mortgage scheme as “well-timed and targeted”, the EY ITEM Club said there was little risk of a housing bubble and that recovering prices would boost spending and drive GDP growth.

And this...

Stephen Nickell, a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, rejected the idea of a bubble but suggested that demand for homes in Britain was rising faster than their stock.

Quizzed by a lawmaker on his previous comment that Help to Buy could increase prices rather than supply, he replied: "I pretty much said that, and I don't think my colleagues on the (OBR's) Budget Responsibility Committee would be moving up and down to disagree with me."

"You've got a fixed stock of houses... The price has to rise to ration the stock of houses across the people who want to buy.

It's genuine demand," he added.

Nickell expressed little concern about the risk of a housing bubble so far.

"My feeling is that there's quite a long way to go in the housing market before the FPC decides that they want to introduce some sort of restrictions," he said.

(Text removed by MSE forum Team)

Even more interestingly, none of these people make a living from espousing overly dramatic right wing economic views on Sky News.:)

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Just (yet another) article slamming help to buy.

I post this one as I simply agree with everything within it, if applied to HTB2.

Have you bought a house on HTB1 or something? Why the sudden focus on HTB2 and softening on HTB1?

the_flying_pig

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I'm sure there is.

However there are also opposite articles from independent economists, analysts and think tanks and non-partisan agencies noting that help to buy is the right policy and rising prices do not equal a bubble.

Like this...



And this...



And this...



Even more interestingly, none of these people make a living from espousing overly dramatic right wing economic views on Sky News.:)

hamish, i take it you do understand what would actually constitute 'praise' for HTB, right? saying that HTB is good?

the E&Y quote, the one that you always trot out, sounds like fair game, but the other two, jesus, i mean the second one even in your post [:(] says that of John Kay that "he was critical of government policies such as Help to Buy".
if that constitutes someone who's pro-HTB then, crikey.

a fuller quote from stephen nickel is: "The key is: is it just going to drive up house prices? By and large, in the short run the answer to that is yes. But in the medium term will the increased house prices stimulate more housebuilding, and our general answer to that would probably be: a bit. But the historical evidence suggests not very much." http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/mar/26/help-to-buy-house-prices-obr. i've more than once read him described as a [perhaps not very strident] critic of HTB

so of your three supposedly pro-HTB sources, one seems to be pro, one seems to be fairly obviously anti, and one seems to be sitting on the fence at the very best.

whereas i could very quickly & easily find, rather than three, thirty three [or whatever] fairly vehemently anti HTB quotes.

i'm afraid that [e.g.] saying that there's not obviously [yet] a bubble in HPs falls rather a long way short of saying that HTB is good.

blinko

Hamish has bought lots of houses hoping that they go up, so he is pretending that they will continue to go up by posting lots of bias short sighted articles .

Although as mentioned above it will eventually come crashing down as interest rates rise and the highly unpopular help to buy is withdrawn. Those that have overpaid and are stretched will eventually default and also of course as new supply comes online

blinko

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/10469954/Boris-aide-Gerard-Lyons-says-Help-to-Buy-is-lethal.html

The Help to Buy scheme is helping to create a “lethal combination” of cheap money and expectations among householders that ever-rising house prices are a “one way bet”, Boris Johnson’s chief economic adviser has warned.

CLAPTON

One of the few certainties in life is that government always intervenes after the problem is resolved.

We needs changes to the planning rules and the tax burdens and regulation on new builds to stimulate the supply side

ukcarper

Just out of interest what is your solution to the problem of people being forced to rent because they can't save deposit.

cells

CLAPTON wrote: »

One of the few certainties in life is that government always intervenes after the problem is resolved.

We needs changes to the planning rules and the tax burdens and regulation on new builds to stimulate the supply side

We probably have two more elections before the outrage is stronger than the save the newts and our views alliance is overcome

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

Just out of interest what is your solution to the problem of people being forced to rent because they can't save deposit.

Well, what's your solution to people being "forced" to buy Ford Fiesta's because they can't afford an Audi Q7?