Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

OK we know the problem, what is the solution? No one living in a sought after house is going to sell at £200.000 when they can get £600,000.

If the extra amount didn't end up in their pocket as profit and there were things in place to control the pool of prospective buyers (or bias it towards other factors) then maybe sale price wouldn't be the main focus it currently is.

For me, I would start with a combination of tax, planning and other legislative reform. We need to shift the balance from finance-only consideratons onto other things that are less easy to deal with in cash terms.

1. Tax on gains to control the exorbitant profits being extracted from property transactions. The rewards seem to outstrip the risk being taken for those fortunate enough to be able to 'trade', so the market has become a such a cash cow that it needs to be regulated somehow. I would also break the hard and fast rules about lending (multiples of gross income, LTV limits etc) but this would also need some review/adjustment of risk issues and mechanisms for both lenders and borrowers.

2. Planning reform to disincentivise/prevent disproportionate non-resident use. E.g. holiday lets and rental propeties are a commercial/business use so numbers should be subject to local planning control - one shouldn't be able to just buy a house and start renting it out. (Though while I'm on the planning rules subject I'd address high-density land use for housing and mass produced housing estates. Domestic space outside houses needs to be valued more - i.e. more space for gardens/yards/outbuildings/parking/playing - and so does variety of architecture and ownership/developer diversity.)

3. Other legislative change of the Housing Act (and others) so that tenants can have long term security of tenure and are allowed to live in the property like a home (e.g. it shouldn't be such a big deal to hang a picture or re-paint to taste and leaving the property should generally be tenants' choice, with eviction reserved for gross breach of contract/duty.) This might need to include introducing some sort of rent control mechanism to deal with the gap between property 'market values' and typical earnings.

I accept I haven't thought everything through and clearly there will be some adjustment effects, including unintended consequences. It will all need structuring in such a way that those at 'the top' feel the most pain from the market adjustment

But, ultimately, this country is space constrained so we must find a way to favour 'providing homes' over simply making money. Open market is not adequate with the supply restrictions we have.

[embee]

You always have to keep in the back of your mind that rented property is still owned by someone, whether it's privateers, businesses or state.
It's invariably a case of supply and demand. The demand has been outstripping supply for decades for a host of reasons and excuses.

[redtrummy]

I agree with both points. I have for years believed that we cannot keep building houses, we have a finite amount of land and nearly every new house is another patch of farmland gone. As an aside I am appalled by 'boring' modern estates . However since Governments (especially this one) are bank rolled by construction companies nothing will likely change .


Back to Owen Jones book 'The Establishment'

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by embee

You always have to keep in the back of your mind that rented property is still owned by someone, whether it's privateers, businesses or state.
It's invariably a case of supply and demand. The demand has been outstripping supply for decades for a host of reasons and excuses.

Yes, and not ignored. But I just think it's inappropriate that owners seem to be able to make huge amounts of money simply due to the fact that they own and without taking much risk - where's the downside that usually goes with such rewards?

I think the root of the issue is the control of land - rebuild cost for the houses (i.e. what insurers underwrite on buildings policies) is often massively less than the purchase cost nowadays. Supply of land is so heavily controlled that it's surely wrong to think the property market is fair.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

... I am appalled by 'boring' modern estates ...

I see you spotted another of my big-time gripes.

Yet I thought I'd suppressed my dislike reasonably well in the earlier post!

[Bibio]

the right to buy in Scotland ended but i managed to buy mine about a week before hand as i made the decision that i dont want too move. reasons i bought mine is so i dont have to pay rent on a property that i dont own, cowboy council workers and not being able to "do what i want" to the insides.

farrr tooo many restriction renting be it council or private.

[Bibio]

dbl post

[ethariel]

Have chatted with friends in both councils and local Government, there is absolutely no incentive for any council in England or Wales to ever build another council house as whomever gets one ends up with the right to buy at a discount after 5 years. What council in thier right mind will will go through the hassle of building properties just so people can buy them at below the market rate half a decade later?

What some do is go into a 'Partnership' with a housing agency where the homes 'belong to the agency' rather than the council to get round the right to buy but apparently that's 'Frowned Upon' and they end up not receiving any .gov grants to help in that situation.

the only way to 'Fix' the council housing issue is to revoke the right to buy, then the councils will happily start building again.

[ethariel]

double posted for some odd reason

[embee]

Originally Posted by ethariel

.........the only way to 'Fix' the council housing issue is ............

... for the government (any government) to get real and sort out the rules. It's only stupid political dogma and idiocy that stops these things getting put right. They need to stop blaming everyone else for the s**t show and do the right thing. They could do it if they wanted to, but for some reason they just don't. As long as they can blame someone else they can pretend they are doing a good job and keep on riding the gravy train.