The Election and First Tume Buyers

Landofwood

The reality is that there is no right to home ownership and there will always be large amounts of people that cannot afford to buy houses. However, telling people that they are too stupid or too poor to afford a house does not keep the masses happy and does not win votes. So instead they invent stupid schemes to "help" people buy a house.

If you're serious about home ownership work hard and save a big enough deposit like everyone else.

mayonnaise

omariqy wrote: »

I have seen many parties come out and say they will look to help FTBs get on the property ladder but I have not seen much substance to these claims.

You're kidding right?
- Help to Buy
- Right to Buy
- 20% off starter homes
- Help to Buy ISAS
And that's just the Tories.
There's never been a better time to be a FTB than right now.

vivatifosi

There's only one way to properly address this and that's to build more houses and increase the supply side of the equation. Everything else is window dressing.

The sad truth is that every party that has been in power for the last twenty years plus has failed to address this. The minor parties won't get enough influence to change this, even if they want to.

Hence if the next parliament actually manages to last its fixed term, this question will be asked again then. This board will still exist and we'll still be asking the same questions. It's like Groundhog Day.

Chocolatefund

There NEEDS to be more housing if all theses FTB schemes take place. More and more people will be looking to get their first home. I can't see enough homes being built quickly enough....

I'm looking to buy at the end of this year. If there is a scheme I can use to do that....then great. But I can see MANY more people doing it too.

Doesn't fill me with confidence that prices won't keep going up.

:-(

CLAPTON

Chocolatefund wrote: »

There NEEDS to be more housing if all theses FTB schemes take place. More and more people will be looking to get their first home. I can't see enough homes being built quickly enough....

I'm looking to buy at the end of this year. If there is a scheme I can use to do that....then great. But I can see MANY more people doing it too.

Doesn't fill me with confidence that prices won't keep going up.

:-(

subsidises to buyers increase the price and so helps the sellers

ShAnE

mayonnaise wrote: »

You're kidding right?
- Help to Buy
- Right to Buy
- 20% off starter homes
- Help to Buy ISAS
And that's just the Tories.
There's never been a better time to be a FTB than right now.

I would much rather be buying 20-30 years a go when a home could be purchased with one blue collar salary instead of requiring 2 white collar salaries but getting a 20% "discount".

I'm still not decided on which party to vote on, as no one seems to want to directly address the issue of housing as it is doing a fine job of propping the market up.

omariqy

mayonnaise wrote: »

You're kidding right?
- Help to Buy
- Right to Buy
- 20% off starter homes
- Help to Buy ISAS
And that's just the Tories.
There's never been a better time to be a FTB than right now.

Have you seen the HTB scheme in London. Lots of new build flats but none that FTBs can afford. For example there are new build flats in Stratford on the scheme. A 3 bed is £785k. ISAs will take you about 4 years to get some decent out of it. They are all ok schemes but it doesn't solve the issue.

Landofwood

omariqy wrote: »

Have you seen the HTB scheme in London. Lots of new build flats but none that FTBs can afford. For example there are new build flats in Stratford on the scheme. A 3 bed is £785k. ISAs will take you about 4 years to get some decent out of it. They are all ok schemes but it doesn't solve the issue.

House prices are determined by supply and demand.

Just because a lot of people can't afford to buy houses, doesn't make it an "issue" that needs to be solved. There is not a significant homelessness problem in the UK.

All of the schemes outlined above are political massaging of the underlings.

CLAPTON

omariqy wrote: »

Have you seen the HTB scheme in London. Lots of new build flats but none that FTBs can afford. For example there are new build flats in Stratford on the scheme. A 3 bed is £785k. ISAs will take you about 4 years to get some decent out of it. They are all ok schemes but it doesn't solve the issue.

all scheme that make it easier to buy simply raise the price : they are no use at all ; in fact a handicap.

the only schemes are are any good are ones that encourage new building : like making planning permission easier and reduce the levies and social housing commitment

princeofpounds

I find it fascinating that so many people on this thread think that the conservatives are somehow more anti-building than labour.


The reality has been very much the opposite. The coalition have done three really important structural things, which have only just started to pay off.


1. The biggest thing by *far* was the reform of the national planning framework, the basis of judgments under the planning system. The presumption in favour of sustainable development - and the removal of dozens of pages of bureaucracy - was backed up by linking council funding to hitting housing targets.


It could, and should, have gone further. But it was possibly the most radical thing done to housing development policy for two decades. And it was done in the face of the nimby arm of their own party - quite courageous politics actually.


Labour did nothing, zilch, on this area, despite the fact that getting sufficient land through the planning process is probably one of the best things they ever could have done for the ordinary person. They keep saying they will build more social housing, but they simply didn't last time they were in power.


2. Stamp duty reforms. It has been made more sensible. It has been lowered the most for modest ordinary housing. A properly structural solution which met any definition of 'fair' you might want to use. And unlike 'schemes' that often just boost developer profit in specific developments, it really does lower the cost of housing.


Again, Labour did nothing, nada, like this. Why? It was such a simple thing to do.


3. Pursuing a tight fiscal policy. As every economically-literate person knows, controlling your budget means less inflation pressures and permits lower interest rates. This meant that the builders, almost driven bankrupt by 2008/9, were able to heal their balance sheets and finance new building, whilst borrowers were able to access mortgages again.


Now, there is a flipside to that last point; it also sustained high house prices due to those cheap mortgages. But in terms of actually getting stuff built, it was a big tailwind.


Ironically, this would probably be the one area Labour would be better for house price falls, short term. Running a silly budget would pump up interest rates and kill demand for housing. But it would be detrimental to encouraging investment.


Ignore all the nonsense about FTB schemes, help to buy etc. on both sides. They are a drop in the ocean and largely done for political posturing.


The sad fact is that because all these issues are proper matters of economic and development policy, they basically have little popular understanding or coverage (apart perhaps from stamp duty).