What does brexit mean for UK property?

cells

CLAPTON wrote: »

I hope you are very happy there with your partner and the three children.
I'm sure Cells will come along in a moment and explain why, taking a 1000 year view, it is a fantastic buy.

I find a lot of flats in London are good or can be made quite good. I have certainly seen many 2/3 bed houses outside of London that are smaller and worse than 2/3 bed London flats.

So long as prices dont go down a buyer always has the option to move in the future if they dont like the situation they bought into.

Personally I think London is now at a point and is becoming more and more a city for the rich. This actually exists in every region of the UK for instance Birmingham is cheap but solihull a part of brum is expensive. You can think of London (not all of it but most of it now) as becoming the nice bit of town the solihull of the midlands.

Some like yourself only see the negatives. But there are lots of positives too. Primary the higher tax allows lower taxes for every one else and the existing owners (mostly local brits) get a windfall from new owners (many foreigners be they first or second or third gen)

lisyloo

so do we conclude that people have choices?

Of course they do.
They also have a right to family life and that does include grandparents/grandchildren (I checked article 8).

If we are talking about non-ideal choices (like same gender children sharing) then I don't have any argument, but if we're talking about normal families being forced to move half way across the country away from their support network because they can't get the minimal required living space then I don't think that's a good thing.

BTW - the chagos islanders have been fighting a legal battle to be allowed "home" to Diego Garcia (that's now an American airforce base). There are 65 other islands they can go to but some have fought to the bitter end.
I think we can conclude that home and roots are very important to some (and I'd say most) people.

lisyloo

Also whats to stop the extended family moving?

Other children/grandchildren in the area that they might need to support.
Their own strong attachments to the local community e.g. local church/mosque they've been to for 60 years.
Health reasons, such as strong ties to macmillan nurses. I currently travel 100 miles to a dentist I trust but he has drilled 3 implants into my jawbone and that kind of thing is important to most people - even more so if it was in any way intimate.

If the parents are retired and their main thing is looking after and helping with the grand children they may be able to move too.

They may - yes, but there also might be reasons that they may not be able to.

I have no objection at all to families and grandchildren moving out of London but I haven't seen newspaper stories of it happening en masse.
You'd think if it was a "no brainer" then everyone would be doing it en masse wouldn't you?

mwpt

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36670075

Singapore's third largest lender UOB says it has suspended its loan programme for London properties.
The decision comes in response to uncertainty caused by the UK's decision to leave the EU, the bank said.

...

Singaporeans were the top Asian buyers of London property in 2015, according to consultancy Knight Frank.

Interesting. And what I really want to know is if these loans show up on the UK stats or if they are (as I suspected) recorded as "cash buyers"?

chucknorris

mwpt wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36670075



Interesting. And what I really want to know is if these loans show up on the UK stats or if they are (as I suspected) recorded as "cash buyers"?

I don't know, but as there would be a charge on the property, I don't think that they would be recorded as a cash purchase.

chucknorris

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Well you didn`t see the landlord tax coming, or the Brexit? So I am going to assume that we will see some sort of emergency rate rise in the UK soon. I am going to put it down as a prediction

You better have a word with Mr Carney then :rotfl: He seems to think that they might be going down!

I wish I had hinted at that, wait a minute, I did:

chucknorris wrote: »

Also I'm not convinced about interest rates going up very soon.

mwpt

Prediction from first post in this thread:

I think the Pound has more to fall over the next year or two. Short term volatility up or down but trend is down. I don't think this will prompt the government to increase rates. They were happy to sit on a 20+% fall in 2008. I feel they may try one last swing of the bat with lower interest rates in fact.

Today Carney virtually confirmed this:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/30/interest-rate-cut-likely-brexit-bank-of-england-mark-carney

Told you, central banks are slow turning ships, they are stuck on the "low interest rates to stimulate demand through debt" ideology, hoping this will create a real working economy.

mwpt

http://www.theweek.co.uk/house-prices/61987/house-prices-bank-of-england-urges-prudence-not-panic

Mark Carney:

"We are advising people to be prudent," governor Mark Carney said. "If you are taking out a mortgage, at some stage during the life of that mortgage, conditions will be difficult.

"You want to be able to ensure that you can service that mortgage even if times are tough, so think about where interest rates will go, where wages will go in the lifetime of that mortgage."

A fantastically meaningless statement. Where are interest rates going Mark? Where are wages going Mark? You expect people to use judgement but how would you expect anyone to know where interest rates or wages are going?

Sounds like the BoE are worried that their pet economy stimulator, the housing market, is in danger too now.

Thrugelmir

mwpt wrote: »

A fantastically meaningless statement. Where are interest rates going Mark? Where are wages going Mark? You expect people to use judgement but how would you expect anyone to know where interest rates or wages are going?

Sounds like the BoE are worried that their pet economy stimulator, the housing market, is in danger too now.

Has common sense gone out the window? Not that difficult to act in a financially responsible manner on a personal level. Depending upon ones circumstances.

mwpt

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Has common sense gone out the window? Not that difficult to act in a financially responsible manner on a personal level. Depending upon ones circumstances.

Is it? I thought it was common sense and responsible not to buy into the 2004-2007 bubble. But look what happened to interest rates, QE, FLS, HTB. Look where that got me. Several hundred thousand pounds worse off today as a result.

Asking people to behave responsibly when you are pumping a credit bubble yourselves is stupid.