They never learn....
17 August 2013
So, some Labour spokesman called Dromey (the bedroom doormat of Batty Hatty Harman) entirely at the behest of Labour's Union paymasters has said that a Labour government will impose rent controls.
So, some Labour spokesman called Dromey (the bedroom doormat of Batty Hatty Harman) entirely at the behest of Labour's Union paymasters has said that a Labour government will impose rent controls.
Above: madwoman and her doormat....
Well, this is one way to damage the property market, drive down the supply of rented housing throwing former rented properties onto the market, driving down house prices while creating problems for those who still cannot buy.
This is the inevitable result of such idiotic Labour interference.
You do not have to believe me - you just have to look at historical and current experience where this has been done, such as New York. Indeed in the UK it seriously damaged the supply of rental properties until it was abolished in 1980. There is a good argument that the British got their appetite for property ownership because of rent controls. Many other countries introduced rent controls and every time creating more serious problems than are solved.
Renters will not be helped either - property maintenance will suffer and many will find themselves homeless.
Far better to trust the market than trust politicians and civil servants.
- Tom - what about the impact of falling prices on those who own homes? Negative equity and so on. There has to be a balance and it is the market that reaches that balance - until government policies warp that market that is. The ill-conceived current scheme for instance. Rent controls would have a much worse impact right across the housing sector. The evidence is there if you choose to look.
- Alas, this is all too late, much too late, Barry.
I'll have to capitalise my 'M' to indicate the Market that matters to me, the actual people in search of a home;to rent or buy.
I know it took some sweat before the glittery investment advertising of Thatcher's time was forced to show the small print that investments can go down as well as up, but that is a fundamental truth.
That your head has grown into your 'Investment Managers' hat, is something that we all here have to live with. That you occasionally pop the Tory-Trilby atop your monitory wizard's cone and hope to have it all your own way is also something that all must take account of, but whether any choose to buy what it is clearly you are selling is a matter for those who attend this particular Market place.
An instance of a Government warping the M/market was the Right-to-buy. Should these properties be compulsorily purchased for the amount they were originally sold for? - Indeed Barry and let's not forget what you consider to be the small matter of HS2 and the government's energy policy. As I predicted, quite correctly, that HS2 will cost at least £100 billion (so far the newspapers put it at eighty billion which is way wide of the mark) this useless government is set to destroy our economy. Why do you bother to support them? I really do not understand your position. You keep defending the indefensible when you write about things. I'm not suggesting any particular party but would strongly suggest that by not voting you would have far more influence on the state of things than tacitly supporting this failed administration.
There really is no point in blaming the liberals. It's the current leadership and the lobby fodder in the conservative party who are the real problem. - "Lord Lamont warns boom in buy-to-let mortages could bring economic collapse"
"... Lamont, who was chancellor during the premiership of John Major, said: "The Bank and the government need to keep a careful eye on the buy-to-let market. This is expanding very rapidly at the moment and it was an over-rapid expansion of it before that caused the demise of Bradford & Bingley.".."
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/18/norman-lamont-boom-buy-to-let-mortgages - A man with an affordable roof over his nut,,
Property prices need to come down Barry ,to much money being sucked out of family budgets, starving of money supply to the bigger economy
People need to get back to investing in manufacturing and production,
Not speculating in the rental market, being kept afloat with government borrowed housing benefits and top ups - Keith - I have a vested interest in more non-property investing so I cannot disagree with your comments about investing.
But, at the end of the day it is a matter of personal choice and freedom. The market determines the price of property, supply and demand.
We have had a problem after 1997 with Labour's immigration influx, plus their attack on savings and investing - holding down interest rates, reducing the amount that could be saved in tax advantageous schemes and reducing the tax benefits. All of these factors pushed up demand for housing including buy to lets while encouraged more debt pushing the savings ratio down from around 9% in 1998 to under 1% just before the recession (it is now c. 4%). This increased demand was not met by increased supply and only when the debt bubble burst did prices fall and did so quite significantly.
We now have a conundrum - we need the feel-good factor in the economy and if people have seen their property prices fall and no sign of a recovery then you will only damage confidence and through that the economy.
We need more stable property prices, no big boom and no big falls either.
Foolish meddling by politicians just store up problems, create bubbles and shortages that always end in tears.
Luckily, nobody here can have the least justification in complaining of rabid right-wing bias, for such is a 'given'.
I'd rather push on with Land Value Tax, with an initial addition of a number of council-tax bands being added at the top end.
The folly of ever reducing wages and ever increasing house prices and rent is there for all to see.