So will the UK house prices ever come down ?

The govt also needs to allow us to build own homes.

Before anyone says this is ridiculous, let me just say it's pretty common on the continent.

In Belgium, which like the UK is densely populated and heavily urbanised, more than six in 10 homes are self-built. In the Netherlands the figure is three in 10.
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Last year only one in 10 new homes in Britain was self-built.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/nov/25/self-build-go-dutch
(top result on Google)
 
anything I don't mind said:
Only way house prices will come down

a) ukip get in and leave the eu and put a stop on mass immigration, putting a hold on increases in demand.
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2.2 million Brits live in the EU. 2.35 million Europeans live in Britain. Leaving the EU isn't going to have a massive effect if all those Brits have to return home.
 
In parts of Europe, like Holland and Norway the government take their taxes after paying interest on the mortgage payments though. Substantially reducing the costs for mortgages.

The flip-side of this is that housing is even MORE expensive. I have looked at moving to both countries in the past with work, and both are scarily priced. As well as other taxation issues, here in the UK, we actually have it ok.
 
Tunney said:
2.2 million Brits live in the EU. 2.35 million Europeans live in Britain. Leaving the EU isn't going to have a massive effect if all those Brits have to return home.
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I am guessing most Brits wont return home, a large % of Europeans living in the UK are low skilled workers, the type not likely to get a Visa. Those with the skills are very likely to get a Visa,

Most Brits in the EU are workers with a high skill set likely to get a visa, or retired people who don't take up jobs but put a lot of money into the local community so again likely to be getting a Visa, I mean can you really see Spain kicking out the British? they would be bankrupt in weeks.
 
i bought a one bed near NW1 london four and a half years ago and it's doubled in value since i got it :o

I know i got really lucky getting in at the right time (plus there were some other circumstances that made it cheaper than it should have been). I feel tremendously sorry for people I know who, despite having better incomes than I have (or having a joint income for example) would find it extremely difficult/nigh on impossible to get a place anywhere near where they want to buy...:(
 
We actually blaming immigration for housing shortages ?

Why not scrap the benefit system instead ? those that can afford to live do, the rest die. I'm sure the deaths of idle Brits will free up space ?
 
Efour said:
Its hardly a dump... unless you call 90% of suburban commuter belt a dump.
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I don't know. I wouldn't particuarly want to live there. Nor the immediate surrounding areas... Harold Wood, Collier Row, Hainult, Chadwell Heath. Hornchurch is quite nice though...

Especially come weekends.
 
anything I don't mind said:
Only way house prices will come down

a) ukip get in and leave the eu and put a stop on mass immigration, putting a hold on increases in demand.
b) have another economic recession which will lead to immigrants to go back to their home country, reducing demand on housing.
c) massive increase in supply of housing (unlikely due to the state not allowing it)
d) new laws that prevent foreign ownership on housing like in arab states, reducing demand and increasing supply.
e) have another economic recession which leads to interest rates to go up and push a lot of people in to unaffordable mortgages, increasing supply as they sell and reducing prices as supply outstrips demand.
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Wow, you blame foreigners for everything, I noticed you didn't mention 'buy-to-let' or build for demand being contributing factors - just foreigners causing the issues :eek:
 
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The Geezer said:
Wow, you blame foreigners for everything, I noticed you didn't mention 'buy-to-let' or build for demand - just foreigners causing the issues :eek:
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Buy to let is a big issue. Foreigners buy 'holiday homes' is another.
Pure supply is the biggest factor. No where near enough.
1st time buyer schemes also push up demand. (and it appears to be helping those who it wasn't designed for. e.g. 40 year olds with £40k plus jobs brand new BMW's coming out of the renters market.)
 
FoxEye said:
The arcticle argues that builders don't want to build the numbers of new houses we need - because it's in their interest to keep supply below demand, and for prices to be ever pushed upwards. Sure they want to build, but if they built in the kinds of numbers we need, their profits would go down.

Hence why it was a bad idea to stop the councils building houses themselves.]
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On an individual builder level it would be in their interest to raise house building to the right level. Therefore, for your suggestion to be true, they'd need to be a house building cartel controlling overall industry production. Possible I guess..
 
balky12 said:
Buy to let is a big issue. Foreigners buy 'holiday homes' is another.
Pure supply is the biggest factor. No where near enough.
1st time buyer schemes also push up demand. (and it appears to be helping those who it wasn't designed for. e.g. 40 year olds with £40k plus jobs brand new BMW's coming out of the renters market.)
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why wasn't it designed for 40 year olds? if they are first time buyers whats the problem?
 
The Geezer said:
Wow, you blame foreigners for everything, I noticed you didn't mention 'buy-to-let' or build for demand being contributing factors - just foreigners causing the issues :eek:
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I didn't blame foreigners at all. This was not a total list of all the contributing factors to the problem. I stated very clearly that its the way house prices would come down. I did not say that these are what caused the problem.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Yeah, people coming out of the renting market are exactly who those schemes are there for... :confused: Their age is irrelevant.
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Maybe I should be clearer, someone with a £40k job does not need a Government backed (and funded) deposit scheme (requiring just 5% deposit) to help them onto the property ladder. imo.
 
balky12 said:
I know people on less than £40k that have saved up enough money for a house who live in London / Outskirts of London, well before the age of 30, let alone 40.

And yes, without mummy or daddy.
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So? I know people who're approaching 40 on that kind of salary who've had the job for less than 5 years because they've spent most of their life working minimum wage and decided to go back into full time education in their 30s. Everyone's circumstances are different and they're all eligible for Help to Buy. Not sure what that's got to do with you or anyone else.
 
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PMKeates said:
On an individual builder level it would be in their interest to raise house building to the right level. Therefore, for your suggestion to be true, they'd need to be a house building cartel controlling overall industry production. Possible I guess..
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And yet the graph shows that as soon as house prices stopped growing, the amount of building dropped to minimal levels. Was watching a documentary the other day which basically said that during this period the large developers were laying off a lot of their staff, and waiting for prices to rebound.

Another problem I hear about often is how difficult it is for anyone other than a property developer to acquire the land that can have houses built on it. Many people who want to build their own house can't even get a look in. I guess this happens to small builders too. The kinds of houses these guys are providing in my area are the houses now being built in gardens and small patches of waste land. Which honestly doesn't amount to a drop in the ocean.

Around my way all the land for proposed development was bought up more than half a decade ago by the big national developers, and has been the subject of ongoing planning wars with the council ever since. The council have tried to block and delay some of these developments, and been over-ruled by a planning inspectorate at least once. The Council now aims to approve 4000 new houses by 2030. Tweny-freaking-thirty. And of course some people are campaigning that we don't need more houses (because isn't it nice to own a home with a nice valley view, and sod everyone else).

Bit of a rant, but basically the council are an impediment if nothing else, the developers hog the land, build small crappy cramped places for maximum profit, and the NIMBY's are endlessly campaigning against any and all new housing.
 
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