The housing is going to slow down they say and prices could fall.
This is going to affect the `buy to let` market as people may panic and try to off load their properties.
I personally, not being one of them, think this is great. These so called property investors are pricing 1st time buyers out of the market and not giving them a chance.
It about time houses went back to being homes for people to live in not investments.
Another down side to rental market is what we have experienced near us. We live in what would or should I say was considered a decent surban neighbourhood. When people decide to rent out their property and not sell it, some of the undesirables that get put in there make life hell for the people living round about. The owners of course are laughing, they don't have to put up with them, they are living elsewhere.
Indeed, it will be a relief to first time buyers. The reason why people bought them is because (as I mentioned elsewhere, I think) there won't be a pension... because the undesirables are taking the money from the government pot...
because the undesirables are taking the money from the government pot...
I think that's a pretty inflammatory statement, Darren. Would you care to define your terms? (eg who are the undesirables? What is the government pot?)
I am assuming that orangeblossom means the sort who enjoy making trouble and don't like to work.
I too would have thought that undesirables are anyone who makes life miserable for other people by acting selfishly and without consideration for their neighbours or neighbourhood.
The house next door to me is a buy-to-let. The family that rents it are really nice and we couldn't wish for nicer neighbours, and I think that we are fortunate that they live there.
A house over the road which is also a buy-to-let had a couple who let their kids run riot and played loud music late at night, not the sort of behavior you would expect from people who perhaps intended to put down permanent roots in the area.
I think that there are good and bad neighbours and it depends on how they relate to people rather than how they relate to a property.
I think that there are good and bad neighbours and it depends on how they relate to people rather than how they relate to a property.
As you say there are good and bad. Unfortunately the problems seems to occur when home owners rent out their property to a council.
One thankfully not too near us have done just that. The council put in people who are the absolute pits. One family wrecked the house, it always had at least one broken window. In all my time on this planet I have never ever had one broken window let alone a succession of them. The children ran wild, when they left there was cat mess all over the place apparently and the house had to be thoroughly cleaned out.
The next lot where extremely quiet and kept themselves to themselves that was until the landlord turned up many times and couldn't get in the police where called and the cannabis factory was discovered. By this time they had done a bunk.
Someone said theres no such thing as slum houses just slum people.....I agree with that.
Someone said theres no such thing as slum houses just slum people.....I agree with that.
I think that there are good and bad neighbours and it depends on how they relate to people rather than how they relate to a property.
I think we are both singing from the same hymnbook really. I didn't realise that private landlords could let property to local authorities.
I think we are both singing from the same hymnbook really. I didn't realise that private landlords could let property to local authorities.
Oh yes.
Going back to when my dad was alive in the late eighties and the recession just beginning to bite.
He lived in a private block of 6 flats, very nice, well maintained. He was good friends with his neighbour across the hall. The flat above hers was purchase by two young sisters, then one got married and the other couldn't afford to live there so she rented out to Tower Hamlets Council (not his council I hasten to add). Above her, his friend then had a succession of awful people.
The council just gave the tenants the key and left them to get on with it. One lot filled the fridge up with rubbish and threw used toilet paper out of the window. Another one was quiet all day but came alive at night with comings and goings of lots of different people and items being moved out of the flat. Lastly the next lot came in and flooded my dad's neighbours flat with water. When she complained to the council they said the problem `was her` not the tenants despite the fact she was a pensioner alone. Absolutely disgusting.
She had to move in the end and in some ways thankfully my dad passed on as he was getting very stressed out by it all.
Hi orangeblossom,
No one should have to end their days putting up with stress caused by inconsiderate neighbours.
An elderly couple who once lived across the street from my house had previously moved away from London for the same reason. The block of flats they had lived in for years had a number of Tennant's who were noisy and cared little for the effect they had on the lives of others.
I have lived in the same house for 20 years and love our estate. We are close to shops and a leisure centre, library and various other amenities there is a country park just a short walk away. There is also access to the country side within a few minutes cycle ride.
I can never understand why a small number of people feel the need to spray graffiti on every available wall or fence as though we live in some sort of inner city slum. Why spoil an otherwise nice area with this junk?
Buy-to-let investors always claim they are not affecting the housing market or stopping first-time buyers, but a development that is going up near me surely proves them wrong. The site of an old pub and filling station is being turned into a development of 52 flats. And a sign went up saying they had all been sold even before this site was a hole in the ground!
I can't believe that any young couples or families came and admired the demolition site, thinking "mm, our dream home". These flats were surely bought in bulk by people who have no intention of ever living in them.
As far as I'm concerned (and I speak as someone whose mortgage should finally be paid off in the next year or two, so I'm not some embittered non-property owner), a property price crash is something to be welcomed. Rising prices benefit no one except those with more than one property or those who inherit unearned wealth. Lower prices benefit first-time buyers AND anyone seeking to move on to a bigger home, for example as their children grow up. A colleague of mine has been stuck in her two-bedroom home with a teenage son and daughter because the gulf between what she has and what she needs to move into has grown so wide that she can no longer afford it. If prices fell significantly, a bigger house might come within her reach again. So it is not just first-time buyers who are hit by rising prices that are partly fuelled by greedy people buying up homes they don't intend to live in.
I agree with everyone who is bemoaning the state of the property market in UK (I presume it's all over and not just Southern England?) I take people through the whole country and often take the opportunity of looking at property prices in various towns and cities and, while there are still cheap prices, they are invariably in places where there are very few employment prospects (and usually bins for collecting used hypodermic needles in the public toilets, such as Caernarvon in Wales.) In the villages, all the quaint thatched cottages have been sold to wealthy incomers, often as weekend homes. While it's true that these kinds of people have the funds available for (often) much needed restoration, it also means that all the young people, whose families may have lived in the area for generations, can no longer afford to own property in their own village. With all the council properties (OK maybe not all, but a large proportion of them) having been sold - and sold on - under the Right to Buy, I just can't imagine what young couples go through nowadays to find affordable housing. (No wonder so many British people are emigrating to other countries.
New figures show the number of people leaving the country to start a new life abroad has reached record levels, with almost 600 emigrating every day.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3166418.ece )
a property price crash is something to be welcomed
says Supersub, but this too would bring misery to thousands and in any case, I can't see prices dropping to the level where it would make a real difference to first time buyers. If only this situation had never been allowed to develop (no, I don't know how!) And it is all down to greed, isn't it?
Love
Sunanda xxx
Buy-to-let investors always claim they are not affecting the housing market or stopping first-time buyers, but a development that is going up near me surely proves them wrong. The site of an old pub and filling station is being turned into a development of 52 flats. And a sign went up saying they had all been sold even before this site was a hole in the ground!
Yes this happens a lot, it's the old saying "it's not what you know but who you know"
says Supersub, but this too would bring misery to thousands and in any case, I can't see prices dropping to the level where it would make a real difference to first time buyers. If only this situation had never been allowed to develop (no, I don't know how!) And it is all down to greed, isn't it?
Love
Sunanda xxx
It could be but!
The problem is from a sellers point of view, is that if you had two buyers wanting your house and the first time buyer offered you £xxxx less that the asking price, as that was all they could afford and the second home owner offered the full asking price who would you sell to? Is that greed or good practice?
Hi,
while I agree that the buy-to-let market has some adverse effects on the housing market I don't feel it is fair to label all buy-to-let landlords as greedy.
The people who own the house next door to me are a decent young couple who once lived there and now let the house to a family who wanted to rent rather than buy. This seems to me a fair arrangement.
The collapse of the private pensions market due to the governments fiscal policies is a factor that has helped to fuel this sector because people have seen making an investment in property as a means of providing for their old age.
Perhaps if pensions were made more attractive then the buy-to let market would cool down and relieve some of the problems.
Yes, you're right, dunkirk, I've got no argument with people like your former neighbours - it's the ones who snap up a so-called portfolio of homes they have never lived in and never intend to live in. Fair enough, some people prefer to rent, but how about making all new developments available first to those who don't own a home already?