More from the economist on uk housing

kabayiri

BobQ wrote: »

Fair point. But anything that drives down property/rental prices in London is surely going to benefit the average Londoner apart from those with plans to downsize and leave London.

Wasn't there talk the other day of encouraging older people to move out of larger properties?

If they extended the definition to cover not only larger but higher value property, then they might be able to encourage people to cash in on their London property and free up the home to younger working familes?

Round here a lot of properties have recently come onto the market. The reason for this is easy to see. The residents of these properties mostly bought the house new 50+ years ago, and have lived in the same house all their lives.

I wonder if this is too slow a property turnover rate. It will become a greater issue as life expectancy increases too.

CLAPTON

Graham_Devon wrote: »

And in some parts of London, the top level of council tax is cheaper than band B council tax in more rural areas.

council tax covers the cost of providing local services
council tax bands mere distribute the tax between the people of that area.


there is no correlation between different parts of the country.

princeofpounds

there is no correlation between different parts of the country.

Indeed there is a huge variation even within cities, like London. It has some of the lowest council tax areas in the UK and some of the highest. A lot of it relates to things like the level of unemployment and in particular how well or badly a particular council has been managed over time.

the_flying_pig

if [per this article] there are at least seven big demand-side issues (foreign buyers, population growth, falling household size, ZIRP, HTB, relaxed income multiple lending, growth of BTL) and at least six big supply-side issues (ZIRP again, caps on council borrowing, planning applications, the green belt, builders' profit motives, stamp duty) I'm strongly drawn to the conclusion is simply to start banging out 100+k units of council housing per year in the right areas & seeing what happens. the 'market' appears to be really facing an uphill challenge.

mrginge

Shock horror.
Continued disproportionate investment in one area of the country leads to it becoming disproportionately more prosperious than (and therefore being required to subsidise) those other areas.

mwpt

mrginge wrote: »

Shock horror.
Continued disproportionate investment in one area of the country leads to it becoming disproportionately more prosperious than (and therefore being required to subsidise) those other areas.

Agree. I've just been touring Germany where they have many large sufficient cities. But even they are worried that Munich is becoming a "London".

Btw, I live in London, and love it. But the country needs to divest.

ukcarper

CLAPTON wrote: »

council tax covers the cost of providing local services
council tax bands mere distribute the tax between the people of that area.


there is no correlation between different parts of the country.

About 1/4 of council funding is council tax.

CLAPTON

mrginge wrote: »

Shock horror.
Continued disproportionate investment in one area of the country leads to it becoming disproportionately more prosperious than (and therefore being required to subsidise) those other areas.

what exactly does 'disproportionate' mean in this context?


and investment doesn't necessarily lead to more prosperity


and being more prosperous doesn't necessarily mean subsidising some-one else

BobQ

CLAPTON wrote: »

what exactly does 'disproportionate' mean in this context?


and investment doesn't necessarily lead to more prosperity


and being more prosperous doesn't necessarily mean subsidising some-one else

Owners may have a stake in individual properties but the state owns the infrastructure and sets the rules within which they operate. Just because businesses and foreigners want inflate property values and rents in London does not mean that we (ie the national government) have to allow this situation to continue.

lisyloo

Wasn't there talk the other day of encouraging older people to move out of larger properties?

There was - but just asking people nicely isn't going to work.
If you are serious about wanting people to stop "overoccupying" then there are two methods - carrot and stick, but I'm not giving up my spare bedrooms just because someone says I should. Make it worth my while or tax me then I'll think about it.