How we can fix the 'housing crisis'?

Crashy_Time

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/more-than-a-million-homes-currently-lie-empty-in-britain-9456263.html


The current direction of taxing BTL and raising interest rates will go a good way to solving the "problem", which is simply that too many people own multiple property, there is no physical shortage of property which is why you will never ever see a "mass building program", that would devastate the housing market causing a bigger crash than the one that is already taking shape.

Cornucopia

Crashy_Time wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/more-than-a-million-homes-currently-lie-empty-in-britain-9456263.html

Between 16 and 7 years ago. And... "most are in coastal areas such as North Norfolk, Scarborough and Pembrokeshire and “likely to be linked to holiday homes” says the report".

The current direction of taxing BTL and raising interest rates will go a good way to solving the "problem", which is simply that too many people own multiple property, there is no physical shortage of property...

How does that actually work? The properties that owned by LLs are mostly let out and have people living in them, in addition to which there are several hundred thousand who are technically homeless (depending on which figures you use).

...raising interest rates...

Huh?

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

Is there a demand there, and if so, what is the demographic?

The government's national plan says 16,500 new homes for Herefordshire by 2031.

To put that in scale, Hereford's current population is closing on 60,000, out of a total in the county of 180,000 - of whom 40,000 are of retirement age - in less than 80,000 households. There's a grand total of one city (Hereford) and five towns (Leominster (11,500 population), Ross (10,500), Ledbury (9.600), Bromyard (4,500) and Kington (3,200)) in the county - the rest of the population is in and around villages.

Powys has a population of 130,000, nearly 60% rural, despite being a quarter of the landmass of Wales.

So I'm not entirely sure the current infrastructure and demographic are terribly relevant to where you're going to put these new towns.

Dird

If you want property prices to drop then just penalise LLs. Outlaw a bunch of things from being classed as expenses/tax deductibles so it's seen as a less profitable investment for existing LLs. Some of these will then sell up to invest elsewhere. The swing to a buyer's market will knock the prices down, those then in negative equity may also choose to default. Supply issue resolved

Wouldn't happen though as MPs & families/friends are all LLs

Cornucopia

Dird wrote: »

If you want property prices to drop then just penalise LLs. Outlaw a bunch of things from being classed as expenses/tax deductibles so it's seen as a less profitable investment for existing LLs. Some of these will then sell up to invest elsewhere. The swing to a buyer's market will knock the prices down, those then in negative equity may also choose to default. Supply issue resolved

Wouldn't happen though as MPs & families/friends are all LLs

There are still only physically the same number of homes, and not any real reason to believe that the overall occupation rate may increase.

In fact, there are some factors that may cause a decrease in occupation rates:

- People are less likely to share a purchased property than a rented one.

- HMOs may see conversion back to single households.

- People (ex LLs) with spare cash may buy second homes instead. Or ex-rental properties may become second homes without ever making it on to the resale market.

In addition, rents may well increase on the remaining rental stock as a consequence of shortage of supply and increased LL costs.

always_sunny

Dird wrote: »

If you want property prices to drop then just penalise LLs. Outlaw a bunch of things from being classed as expenses/tax deductibles so it's seen as a less profitable investment for existing LLs. Some of these will then sell up to invest elsewhere. The swing to a buyer's market will knock the prices down, those then in negative equity may also choose to default. Supply issue resolved

Wouldn't happen though as MPs & families/friends are all LLs

But does anyone really want the prices to drop? Even a 10% drop, suddenly will be a pretty hard blow to many, many people.
As soon as that was to happen, something else would follow!

Cornucopia

AdrianC wrote: »

The government's national plan says 16,500 new homes for Herefordshire by 2031...

Is there a plan as to where to put them, or what type of housing they will be? Is there demand in the area, and what does the homeless/population growth demographic look like?

9% growth doesn't sound particularly difficult, though it's made harder because not all of the towns have a rail connection.

The current infrastructure is relevant to the extent that in the UK we do not build many new roads or railways. Transport will always be important to the success of new housing development.

lincroft1710

Cornucopia wrote: »

Another example location would be north of Cambridge, between the A10 and the rail line near Waterbeach. It looks like there is a disused airfield there, which could also be the basis of a brownfield development site. Cambridge is a good example of a local housing hot-spot away from London.

There are already plans for a third "new village" near Cambridge (the first two being Bar Hill and Cambourne). Interestingly a planning application for 110 new homes on a greenfield site on the edge of a South Cambs village was turned down on appeal last month

In the town of my birth, 70 homes are being built on a former football ground, yet permission has been refused for 50 homes opposite on greenfield. In this town every brownfield site has had housing built upon it or has had pp applied for. Houses are built in back gardens

lincroft1710

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Thinking of the two locations I know best:
- last area - too many offices that no-one wants
- this location - firms want them but the language factor prevents firms coming here and taking them up (Welsh).

Either way - the offices are available.

In my hometown 8 office blocks have been or are being converted to apartments including 2 very large ones. A new village is being built about 3 miles to the south on a former MOD site and another nearby former MOD site has been developed as housing

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

9% growth doesn't sound particularly difficult

9% growth?

16,500 new homes - currently 80,000 households.

I make that just over 20% increase...

At an average household currently of about 2.25, that's 37,000 people - or a new town three times the size of the county's second largest conurbation, 2/3 the size of the county's city, and about the same size as all the other towns put together...