Mortgage Rate Rises

[slinxy]

I've written extensively on this in the past but to me this is the biggest hurdle to effective hybrid working.

Making office-only work effectively isn't hard.
Making remote-only work effectively isn't hard.
Making hybrid work effectively is hard and needs focus beyond just saying "yeah we come in the office X days per week and use Teams/Zoom for remote people innit, best of both worlds". No, that's the worst of both worlds if you don't have a proper strategy for it, focus on optimising working patterns, have training on how to accomodate a mix of office based and remote workers etc.

I agreed... I'm the only member of my team that comes in to work on a certain site; one or two days a week.
My office equipment at home is better than the equipment at work even thou the work equipment is far better than most places I've seen...

My team are based all over the world and most of them do go to their respective offices.. two of them are based at the same office.

When I do go in, I do the same things as I do when working at home, jump onto the same meetings via VoIP.
I get pested a lot by non-team members, waiting for me to come in onsite to do stuff, or mainly how do they do something. They could have asked about at any point which delays the process and they expect me to do it for them, rather than they doing it themselves.

One of my team, tries to queue stuff up for me to do; which they are fully capable of doing themselves when they come into the office. It's frustrating as hell.. it's not like my dairy is all of a sudden free'd up as I'm in the office.

One chap in a totally different team, expected me to do his "on call" visits for him.. He's role which he recently agreed on and came with a pay boost included physical visits to a server room and is officially in based in the NW, he used to live down south but decided to move to some part of Scotland. He thought he could just palm of that part of his role to me, even thou we are in different teams, different divisions of the company as I lived closer. I told him where to go and if he didn't like it; go speak to his boss.

Anyway, I don't mind doing either working from an office or working from home, with the flexibility of doing the other one when it is required, This is what I used to do working at other places before lock down.

 

[HangTime]

The part that you aren't addressing are the personal relationships that get built from meeting people in person.

My point is that doesn't happen without adequate planning. If I come in the office on Monday and Tuesday, and the person I need to build a relationship with comes in on Wednesday and Thursday, hybrid working has failed to achieve what you are describing.

Basically hybrid working is quite inefficient in many organisations ag building in-person relationships, especially in orgs with matrix like structures (i.e. you frequently engage with people in other teams).

The post above mine is a case in point, you come in the office, then you sit on VOIP calls. Many of the benefits from being in the office are lost.

 

[Doughnut007]

I was the same but when I moved job it was home based. This threw me for months, it's only after 4 or 5 months my brain seemed to adjust from 25 years being an office/site worker. I occassionally go into an office now and it seems odd, noisy and distracting. I'm that use to working in either music I choose or complete silence now.

I have a friend who never managed to adjust and ended up changing jobs back to an office based one, I totally get why it can be difficult though.

I can work from home and do when it suits but I prefer the office. I find it much easier to create a healthy work life Ballance.

 

[sigma]

A 10 year old told me yesterday that he's saving for a house he's got a plan to get to £44,000.

 

[MatsyLR]

Will need a good amount of paper routes!

 

[slinxy]

UK Government Web Archive

This Page is [ARCHIVED CONTENT] and shows what the site page http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/a-century-of-home-ownership-and-renting-in-england-and-wales/short-story-on-housing.html looked like on 5 Jan 2016 at 16:07:09

www.ons.gov.uk

coming from an immigrate background, my generation is the first to buy our own houses and I still believe it's a luxury and privilege, one of which we have treated as the "norm" in this country. In other countries like Germany; the majority still rent compared to the 46.7% of house owners.

It was Thatchers Housing Act 1980 that won her the election and made home ownership possible to many of the working class, before that it was the "norm" to rent rather than to buy. The issue is that the council houses sold hasn't been replaced, forcing many to rent from the private selector. Council ran housing has now been replaced been replaced by social housing ran by companies, so there's no "market" pressure to reduce renting prices in the private selector.

Maybe the new capital gains tax rates will cause more people to sell of their second+ homes, to first time buyers, one of my friend's dad has just sold of his entire property portfolio back to the council. But it's more likely that second+ homes will be sold to existing property renters, making the rich; richer.

 

[BUDFORCE]

The part that you aren't addressing are the personal relationships that get built from meeting people in person.

Oh god no.

I've worked from home 100% full time over 5 years I don't miss it at all.

Maybe I am not the typical office worker type, but i find me at office workers to be back stabbing, gossip drama queens I can't be doing with them.

I work from home and on top of that try as much as possible not to talk to anyone at work and it suits me perfectly.

 

[EdGey]

Right to buy, the biggest joke of the century.

 

[413x]

Oh god no.

I've worked from home 100% full time over 5 years I don't miss it at all.

Maybe I am not the typical office worker type, but i find me at office workers to be back stabbing, gossip drama queens I can't be doing with them.

I work from home and on top of that try as much as possible not to talk to anyone at work and it suits me perfectly.

I adore WFH. I'd never go back unless my pay doubled. Even then I'm not sure.

 

[Kill_Phil]

Sooooo anyhow back on topic...

So it's reported 150k landlords will see their BTL rates go up significantly this year squeezing their margins (boohoo) but inevitably will pass on the buck to renters.

Just need to wait til spring to hopefully see the predicted BoE rate cut

 

[slinxy]

Sooooo anyhow back on topic...

So it's reported 150k landlords will see their BTL rates go up significantly this year squeezing their margins (boohoo) but inevitably will pass on the buck to renters.

Just need to wait til spring to hopefully see the predicted BoE rate cut

BTL mortages are normally 1% higher than normal mortages...

It's reported that 19% of households live in private rented accommodation and 45% of those accommodations are on a BTL mortage. It only makes up 9% of UK housing.

The buy-to-let sector and financial stability

Quarterly Bulletin 2023

www.bankofengland.co.uk

The main squeeze is the capital gains tax, allowance has been dropped from £6000 per year to £3000 per year and taxed at 18% so that's an extra £540 pounds of tax per year.

Also the government is said to be targeting holiday rents; Air BnB which is where most of the housing has disappeared to in recent years, the capital gains tax will have a impact on them too.

 

[SpeedFreak]

You only pay capital gains when you sell so not sure it really has that much of an affect on prices.

 

[pc-guy]

It's reported that 19% of households live in private rented accommodation and 45% of those accommodations are on a BTL mortage. It only makes up 9% of UK housing.

The majority rental properties are owned by large “social” housing providers.

Private landlord is most definitely the minority of the market. But gains the most exposure or notoriety of the main stream media.

However it feels like bigger than just 19%.

 

[Sythe79]

The majority rental properties are owned by large “social” housing providers.

Private landlord is most definitely the minority of the market. But gains the most exposure or notoriety of the main stream media.

However it feels like bigger than just 19%.

It's all much more murky than that, my other half dealt with a company recently, In name a non-profit, so social housing, but they actually owned 5% of their 700 odd properties the rest were long term sub-lets that they HMO up to the max.

Who knows where they figure in the stats, but everyone's getting screwed over, the taxpayer paying out 2k plus a month rent on a 100k house, the tenets living like sardines and probably the original property owners locked into a long term contract. not to mention where it sets the bottom of the market and the knock on effect it has.

Hey, at least the directors of the non-profit are creaming in a fat wage doing good for the community

 

[pc-guy]

It's all much more murky than that, my other half dealt with a company recently, In name a non-profit, so social housing, but they actually owned 5% of their 700 odd properties the rest were long term sub-lets that they HMO up to the max.

Who knows where they figure in the stats, but everyone's getting screwed over, the taxpayer paying out 2k plus a month rent on a 100k house, the tenets living like sardines and probably the original property owners locked into a long term contract. not to mention where it sets the bottom of the market and the knock on effect it has.

Hey, at least the directors of the non-profit are creaming in a fat wage doing good for the community

Yep corporate greed and malpractice is ok.

Someone renting out their inherited property is straight away a no-no.

I used to live in a social housing provider operated flat, any issues takes forever with non-commital statements. They don’t even try to sort out issues unless there is a collective effort from all the tenants.

The whole social housing industry needs to be reformed and all operators of multiple properties should be signed up to a charter and being held accountable and facing huge fines and prison sentences if issues continue not to be dealt with.

But hey - that would mean too many vested interests having to pay extra.

 

[slinxy]

However it feels like bigger than just 19%.

I’m not sure if that 19% includes all those landlords that have moved their properties portfolio into a limited company as that would be the recommendation from an accountant/finance advisor/youtube.

It would be an interesting to see a breakdown of accommodation into.. owned by residents, mortgaged, owned by a public company, owned by a limited company, owned by a social housing.

But depending on where you live gives an impression that may not reflect on the rest of the country.

I rented most of my life, and the places that I rented was amongst 100s of other rented apartments/buildings.. people who tend to want to houses don’t want to live in an area where their neighbours are moving in/out every other month and tend to buy into an area with high home ownership.

Like wise with the village that I live in at the moment, it’s a high social housing area.. shame as it could be considered as prime estate as one of the villages next to it is…. And everyone thinks that all the houses are social housing.

It's all much more murky than that, my other half dealt with a company recently, In name a non-profit, so social housing, but they actually owned 5% of their 700 odd properties the rest were long term sub-lets that they HMO up to the max.

….

There’s great old money monopolies involved. The lease holders of the land that my house sits on, also owns the lease holder management company, and the service management company..

so basically they get ~£27 pounds per month for service charges, the only thing that they do is cut my front lawn. £200 pounds per year for managing the lease which they do FA.. and then what ever it costs to renew my lease hold in a couple of years time.

The government is looking at changing the lease hold laws, mine was set to double at some point, I’m going to look at buying the lease hold out at that point.. if not the new laws could stop them from charging me the £200 pounds per year and make renewing the lease cheaper.

The lease hold company is a joke they wanted to charge me £150 pounds just to speak to the lease holders to see how much it would cost for me to buy the lease hold.

On top of that, the service charge of “whatever” per month will be part of the terms of the sale of the leasehold.

That’s what it’s like to live in a new build.. ‍‍

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Sooooo anyhow back on topic...

So it's reported 150k landlords will see their BTL rates go up significantly this year squeezing their margins (boohoo) but inevitably will pass on the buck to renters.

Just need to wait til spring to hopefully see the predicted BoE rate cut

A lot of the problem is that BTL landlords are a really wide spread.

Some own 10% of the city in their name with properties all owned outright.

Myself and the gf considered a single BTL flat but given the ever increasing rights of tenants who could stop paying whenever they please, 40% PAYE tax on all the rent and so on, it just is not worth the grief for what would be a monthly loss. We only wanted a BTL to bolster crappy modern pensions.

A lot of landlords really are unpleasant people, but those in the middle class trying to plan for their future are just throwing the towel in and selling up, which lowers rental stock and spikes prices.

 

[Jokester]

It’s going to get a lot worse, at least here in Scotland with the various changes in tenant rights and the forthcoming EPC requirements.

Rents have gone up about 15% the last year locally and there’s basically no properties for rent in town. Rental properties are basically being sold now rather than going out to rent. House prices aren’t exactly coming down to compensate either.

 

[Freakbro]

It’s going to get a lot worse, at least here in Scotland with the various changes in tenant rights and the forthcoming EPC requirements.

Is that still going ahead in Scotland, as the Torys scrapped that proposal a couple of months ago, not sure if it's a devolved issue.

Though Labour could/are likely to reinstate it if they win.

 

[Jokester]

Is that still going ahead in Scotland, as the Torys scrapped that proposal a couple of months ago, not sure if it's a devolved issue.

Though Labour could/are likely to reinstate it if they win.

Still in line to come in 2028. Half of properties in Scotland don’t meet the requirements.