Government money propping up the housing bubble.

Landofwood

MaxTheCat wrote: »

Yes of course housing is in a bubble and yes it won't end well BUT having lived in Australia and seen the inventive ways the Aussies are managing to keep their bubble inflated and indeed expanding the bubble could last for a lot longer and get much bigger than it is. Housing in London for example is actually cheap in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne both of which are tiny in population terms to London. The government here could do things like allow negative gearing which would allow BTL investors to offset losses against their total tax bill, a first home buyers grant could be introduced, allowing your pension to take out what is effectively a mortgage to directly invest in property.

You are confusing 'cost of living' with 'house prices'.

The average house price in London far exceeds Melbourne.

MaxTheCat

Landofwood wrote: »

You are confusing 'cost of living' with 'house prices'.

The average house price in London far exceeds Melbourne.

I'm not as familiar with Melbourne as with Sydney so I won't argue your point. The general point though is that the government can and listening to the pre election comments will do much more in the UK than they are to pump up prices. I disagree with it myself and think it is pushing the collapse further into the future at the expense of making it much worse.

Landofwood

MaxTheCat wrote: »

I'm not as familiar with Melbourne as with Sydney so I won't argue your point. The general point though is that the government can and listening to the pre election comments will do much more in the UK than they are to pump up prices. I disagree with it myself and think it is pushing the collapse further into the future at the expense of making it much worse.

Sydney's average house price is also lower than London's, although much closer.

Cost of living, which factors in more than house prices, is considered higher in Melbourne and Sydney.