Cost of Living Crisis

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, DA Baracus said:

House prices won't be coming down anytime soon, probably ever.

Workhouses are coming back, man. Only a matter of time before corporations start offering on-site accommodation for their employees who can't afford to keep a roof over their heads.

[BigDoddyKane]

2 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Workhouses are coming back, man. Only a matter of time before corporations start offering on-site accommodation for their employees who can't afford to keep a roof over their heads.

doesnt even sound far fetched, it will be sold like the gig economy was and working from anywhere at anytime

[welshbairn]

21 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

House prices won't be coming down anytime soon, probably ever.

They might if interest rates keep rising.

[BFTD]

Interesting. I'd have thought Oaksoft could afford to be a landlord, but clearly not.

[Soapy FFC]

17 hours ago, Left Back said:

How do you figure this out?  The national housing shortage is there because not enough homes are being built to cater for both a growing population and a changing demographic.  Whoever owns the existing homes doesn't create a shortage (although it does drive prices up).  If you nationalised all private rented homes (which we all know is fantasy land stuff) there would still be a housing shortage because people are already living in those houses.  Changing ownership does not magically create more homes for people that want them.

The shortage was created during Right to Buy back in the 80's and stopping councils building new houses.  Successive governments have done nothing to rectify that.

Although an argument against that might be AirbnB. How many homes suitable for people living in long term are now being used for AirbnB. The fact a home is being used for Airbnb is purely down to the owner of the home. Once it's used for Airbnb it reduces the housing stock. This is just one of many issues adding to the housing shortage.

[Gaz]

1 hour ago, BigDoddyKane said:

Yeah ive never understood why you would hold onto a property for a long time and not use it. I can understand you get a few cases where its maybe been a family home and theres some thought of moving into it at some later point. The majority of cases must be some other reason though.

 

I think in London its just to hold cash in a lot of cases but the rest of uk  or Scotland ive never worked out why

House prices have risen all over, not just in London.

Allowing a property to remain empty means you get the benefit of the rise in house prices with absolutely minimal maintenance costs that would otherwise be incurred if someone was living in it.

Capitalist wankers

[strichener]

2 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Empty "unused" houses are a huge issue. It wasn't a kick off 50k in Scotland at the last count despite every LA having empty homes officers whose purpose is to try to engage with owners (often deciphering ownership is the main issue) to get these properties back into occupied use. It's incredible that a house just lies unoccupied and in most cases unmaintained when we have a housing crisis.

I would be interested to know how many of those are actually LA houses as up in this neck of the woods some houses sit empty for more than 12 months which is obviously a shit state of affairs for those on the list

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by strichener

[Billy Jean King]

Yeah ive never understood why you would hold onto a property for a long time and not use it. I can understand you get a few cases where its maybe been a family home and theres some thought of moving into it at some later point. The majority of cases must be some other reason though.
 
I think in London its just to hold cash in a lot of cases but the rest of uk  or Scotland ive never worked out why

A lot of them boil down to family ownership disputes usually following a death. Most folk will know of a property in their location that has simply been left to rot usually behind a jungle of a garden. The Council empty homes officers try to engage and offer Grant's etc and in an odd occasion if ownership can be established and their us willingness to engage then Councils themselves purchase the property to bring it into their housing stock. Establishing who a last registered owner was is not a problem, tracing them can be and then getting what may be a family feuding for years to engage is always going to be difficult.

[Billy Jean King]

I would be interested to know how many of those are actually LA houses as up in this neck of the woods some houses sit empty for more than 12 months which is obviously a shit state of affairs for those on the list
 

Very few in the LAs I work with. Long term empty LA housing stock is in low double digits although it will be higher in cities. Usually this is down to blocks or streets being identified for redevelopment and it taking years to get tenants out as they cant be forced. Each time one does vacate then that property is held empty until the whole earmarked housing is vacated. Also some houses just prove very difficult to let due to location despite a huge waiting list. Even desperate people will refuse houses in certain areas.

[Left Back]

40 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

OK Let's leave renting aside for the moment.

Do you agree that BTL has taken millions of houses out of circulation for potential sale and therefore caused a housing price bubble?

If BTL was, for example, banned, all of those houses would be up for sale tomorrow and that glut of supply would cause house prices to drop. Do you agree with that?

In principle I'd think it has contributed towards rising house prices yes.  This then has a knock on effect of forcing many people to rent (as they can't afford to buy) which in turn drives up rental costs.

I don't necessarily think putting all those houses up for sale would cause a drastic drop in house prices though.  There would be a clamour to buy them so the demand would still be there.  You'd also cause other issues.  What do you do with tenants who couldn't afford to buy if you force their landlord to sell their property?   Chuck them out on the street?  If you reduced the number of houses available to rent by selling all these current BTL properties you'd also cause a further increase in rental costs.

There is no simple immediate solution to this.

 

[Left Back]

This guy has an interesting take on it.

https://www.mortgagefinancegazette.com/features/influence-buy-let-uk-housing-06-02-2017/#:~:text=Impact on housing supply&text=Unfortunately%2C once BTL became popular,any like for like situation.

[DA Baracus]

Any suggested measures won't make a difference to the real issue, that being that houses are not affordable to so many, and are rapidly becoming unaffordable to more and more.

[BigDoddyKane]

2 hours ago, Soapy FFC said:

Although an argument against that might be AirbnB. How many homes suitable for people living in long term are now being used for AirbnB. The fact a home is being used for Airbnb is purely down to the owner of the home. Once it's used for Airbnb it reduces the housing stock. This is just one of many issues adding to the housing shortage.

Thats true and must be making some impact on housing stock thats actually used for living

[welshbairn]

If interest rates rise faster than rents the business model for BTL will diminish and we could see house prices falling. 

[Brother Blades]

33 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

If interest rates rise faster than rents the business model for BTL will diminish and we could see house prices falling. 

With no rent control, landlords will simply increase rents to keep up with interest rates. 

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, Brother Blades said:

With no rent control, landlords will simply increase rents to keep up with interest rates. 

There's a limit to affordable rent, particularly in a recession as looks likely.

[gav-ffc]

45 minutes ago, Brother Blades said:

With no rent control, landlords will simply increase rents to keep up with interest rates. 

I’ve not read the last few pages but we got handed our notice to quit last September and due to covid laws up here we got 6 months to leave instead of the usual 2.

Landlord said she was selling up to invest elsewhere which is fair enough.

We go passed the house a lot and not much had happened and our old neighbours kept telling us nothing was happening with it.

Its just went back onto the rental market with and extra £150 a month on top. 

[Bairnardo]

The govt should make it so that if you own a second home for BTL, it gets managed at all times by the local authority and you get the rent based on the value of the house or how many bedrooms or whatever. Maybe on like a 10 year lease or something.

That way people can have their "investment" and the local authority get a stock of houses to assign as they see fit.

That way voluntary renters get a fair deal based on a defined cost criteria, and those in need get the security of knowing they will get a home and won't get moved for a good few years.

Maybe even a mandatory sale to the local authority if you decide to sell it.

[Billy Jean King]

The govt should make it so that if you own a second home for BTL, it gets managed at all times by the local authority and you get the rent based on the value of the house or how many bedrooms or whatever. Maybe on like a 10 year lease or something.

That way people can have their "investment" and the local authority get a stock of houses to assign as they see fit.

That way voluntary renters get a fair deal based on a defined cost criteria, and those in need get the security of knowing they will get a home and won't get moved for a good few years.

Maybe even a mandatory sale to the local authority if you decide to sell it.

That's almost exactly how the private rental market works for tenants on Housing Benefit. A notional rent figure is set for each area by the rent officer service based on the size of the property. The amount of HB paid is based on this notional figure. That said it doesn't stop some landlords settling rents above the max paid in HB. It then becomes the tenants decision if they can afford to make up any shortfall before they sign the agreement.

[Dawson Park Boy]

5 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

That's almost exactly how the private rental market works for tenants on Housing Benefit. A notional rent figure is set for each area by the rent officer service based on the size of the property. The amount of HB paid is based on this notional figure. That said it doesn't stop some landlords settling rents above the max paid in HB. It then becomes the tenants decision if they can afford to make up any shortfall before they sign the agreement.

Tell me.

Is it possible for landlords to get their tenants to mandate the council to pay the HB to them as that would give security to the landlord that he would at least get the HB portion of the rent?

Seem to recall that there was a change of the rules a few years ago.