Govt policies demonstrated to be helping housing shortage crisis...

michaels

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38180588

New btl taxes reduce demand for new build properties which no doubt means less will be built.

....Oops

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

As was frequently noted on this board at the time.

PasturesNew

I'm all right Jack. I've got one.

Thrugelmir

at an average of £655,000.

btl ? ..............

michaels

Thrugelmir wrote: »

btl ? ..............

Perhaps the average summarises a range? and perhaps at some points in the range, as claimed by the company in question, BTL taxes have reduced demand.

It is purely a surmise on my part that reducing demand might lead to a supply reaction.

steampowered

If you read the full article rather than just the headline, it says:

Housebuilders who operate across much of the UK are still reporting increased demand, but sales have been hit in London, where a higher proportion of buyers are investors and many come from abroad.

The article says that Berkeley's profits increased by 33% during the past 6 months.

So it looks to me like the house building market is just fine?

ruperts

If the problem is that houses are unaffordable, then any lowered demand due to BTL taxes doesn't make any difference. If you lowered the taxes and more houses were built, you'd just have more BTL landlords and houses would still be unaffordable.


The whole idea of BTL needs a major rethink. At a time of housing crisis, it's morally absurd that we allow people with means, usually baby boomers, to hoard houses for profit as if they are a commodity. Instead we should be treating houses as what they are which is a place that human beings in a country like this need in order not to die.


If we had a serious food shortage would we allow fat boomers to buy all of the food and then ramp up the prices so much that most of the population simply starved, and the rest worked themselves to death just to get a slice of bread? I'd like to think not, but that's exactly what we're allowing to happen with housing.

michaels

Very moral high ground.

But in reality rental accommodation is used more intensively (more people per property) than owner occupied. So using a financial model that shifts occupation to oo from rental just exacerbates the current shortage. Perhaps those who can get together a deposit and but benefit a fraction but those who can't lose out from higher rents covering the extra tax take.

michaels

steampowered wrote: »

If you read the full article rather than just the headline, it says:



The article says that Berkeley's profits increased by 33% during the past 6 months.

So it looks to me like the house building market is just fine?

Is that the same London where the housing crisis is most severe and price to earnings ratios are highest? Just the place where we want to see less building

Sapphire

ruperts wrote: »

a major rethink. At a time of housing crisis, it's morally absurd that we allow people with means, usually baby boomers, to hoard houses for profit as if they are a commodity. Instead we should be treating houses as what they are which is a place that human beings in a country like this need in order not to die.


If we had a serious food shortage would we allow fat boomers to buy all of the food and then ramp up the prices so much that most of the population simply starved, and the rest worked themselves to death just to get a slice of bread? I'd like to think not, but that's exactly what we're allowing to happen with housing.

What an odd thing to say. I agree that BTL needs to be controlled, or even stopped, especially while there is a housing shortage in London and other areas. However, I don't know any 'boomers' that have BTLs (I do know three people in their thirties who have BTLs, though). Property is being bought above all by foreign investors, sometimes in bulk. That practice should definitely be stopped and first option to buy property, at a truly affordable price (that is, not starting at £300,000, which is absurd), should be given to citizens who actually need property to live in. I thought that was one of the new major's promises before he was elected. :rotfl:

Nebulous2

Costs up, reservations down, people worried about uncertainty.. Sounds as though they have more to worry about than just additional stamp duty.

Most of the BTL people I know have 100 year old stone flats. That does nothing for the supply of housing. If the government took this seriously they could incentivise BTL people who added to the housing supply ie build new themselves or buy new-build to rent.