3 ms·

If you look at the issue of 'buy to let' you will see a significant upshift in housing values that started in 1996. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ http://www

by awjr 10y ago

If you look at the issue of 'buy to let' you will see a significant upshift in housing values that started in 1996. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ The change that happened there was enabling buy to let mortgages. We're now in situation where upwards of 40% of council houses are buy-to-let owned. In fact you now have a situation where people hitting retirement, buy houses to let to ensure good income. We are now in a situation where generation X will almost not be buying a home for until their late 30s. It's go so bad that St Ives introduced a 'no second homes' clause to all new builds. I actually think there is nothing wrong with buy to let however you need strong rights for tenants as well as rent contol. Something Germany has successfully done and people are quite happy not owning houses and renting for their life knowing they have strong rights to stay with safe rent levels.

mafribe 10y ago
generation X will almost not be buying a home for until their late 30s. Why is that a problem? Assuming the usual repayment schedule of 25-30 years, that means the houses are paid off before retirement, i.e. before they stop having an income. That's exactly how it should be. Most people are too unstable (in many senses of the work) in their 20s to take on a major responsibility like a house. rent contol. This leads to massive misallocation of resources such as illegally subletting at market price. It's quite simple in fact: supply and demand of dwellings needs to be in synch. If you have immigration and/or reduction in family size, you need to build more. For various reasons the obvious solution is typically rejected ... Germany I'd argue that the reason is different, namely that big organisations such as trade unions and (the german version of) pension funds have traditionally provided rental homes at large scale, which kept supply and demand in check. Cf sozialer Wohnungsbau [1]. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau
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rbehrends 10y ago
> I actually think there is nothing wrong with buy to let however you need strong rights for tenants as well as rent contol. Something Germany has successfully done and people are quite happy not owning houses and renting for their life knowing they have strong rights to stay with safe rent levels. Germany only has "soft" rent controls. Their purpose is not to actually keep rents low, but to slow their increase so the market has time to react by building new homes. The rent index that municipalities maintain for that purpose also helps with keeping rents transparent, but that's more of a side benefit.

by awjr 10y ago

mafribe 10y ago

generation X will almost not be buying a home for until their late 30s. Why is that a problem? Assuming the usual repayment schedule of 25-30 years, that means the houses are paid off before retirement, i.e. before they stop having an income. That's exactly how it should be. Most people are too unstable (in many senses of the work) in their 20s to take on a major responsibility like a house. rent contol. This leads to massive misallocation of resources such as illegally subletting at market price. It's quite simple in fact: supply and demand of dwellings needs to be in synch. If you have immigration and/or reduction in family size, you need to build more. For various reasons the obvious solution is typically rejected ... Germany I'd argue that the reason is different, namely that big organisations such as trade unions and (the german version of) pension funds have traditionally provided rental homes at large scale, which kept supply and demand in check. Cf sozialer Wohnungsbau [1]. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

rbehrends 10y ago

> I actually think there is nothing wrong with buy to let however you need strong rights for tenants as well as rent contol. Something Germany has successfully done and people are quite happy not owning houses and renting for their life knowing they have strong rights to stay with safe rent levels. Germany only has "soft" rent controls. Their purpose is not to actually keep rents low, but to slow their increase so the market has time to react by building new homes. The rent index that municipalities maintain for that purpose also helps with keeping rents transparent, but that's more of a side benefit.