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> HTB is a disastrous policy that did nothing but to increase the prices of properties. It let me buy a property which I wouldn't be able to without HTB, ther

> HTB is a disastrous policy that did nothing but to increase the prices of properties. It let me buy a property which I wouldn't be able to without HTB, therefore your statement is objectively wrong. > And commuting towns aren’t that cheaper either Plenty of 2 bed houses in daily commuting distance for £250k - easily affordable on a London wage.

lurgburg 5y ago
> It let me buy a property which I wouldn't be able to without HTB Possibly you're taking the wrong counterfactual here? "If I hadn't HTB but everyone else did" vs "If no-one had HTB". It's possible you're quite right about the first, but it tells us little about the second. Possibly in the presence of HTB, prices just rise again until they reach their equilibrium of just-barely-affordable.
- iso1210 5y ago
  House price doesn't matter, it's the deposit. HTB may have pushed up the house price by say 30%, but it meant the deposit was lower (12k rather than 18k) and the repayments were lower for the first 5 years.
  - fennecfoxy 5y ago
    House price does matter. End of the day with the bump-ed up H2B house prices...sure you can afford it w/ lower deposit thanks to gov assistance...but it's not free money. You still have to pay it back, so the seller is making an extra 30% of our backs bc they bumped the prices thanks to this scheme that was meant to "help" people.
    - dogma1138 5y ago
      People don’t pay them back no one can pay back 40% after 5 years assuming they bought in London. If they do pay it back they do it by remortgaging so the builders win, the banks win, the tax payer pays for any HTB loans that aren’t repaid and the tax payer gets shafted with higher housing costs.
  - dogma1138 5y ago
    The deposit doesn’t matter, what matters is the total loan amount. For a £500K flat you need a £50K deposit but you also need a household income of £100K or more to be able to borrow £450K as banks cap the maximum amount they’ll loans at 4-4.5 of your annual income. So HTB didn’t only increase the prices it also pushed people to take on loans that they normally would not be able to afford.
fennecfoxy 5y ago
HTB has definitely increased the prices of HTB eligible properties because they realised that buyers could afford a bit more w/ Gov assistance and so sellers are squeezing people for it. Really, HTB should not have had a restriction on new builds. It's laughable because the restriction would make sense if the Gov was allowing anyone to actually build new properties. I think you're FYIGM'ing. Idk where you're finding these decent 2 bed "houses" (I think you mean flats) in London for "250k". Hell even a 2 bed flat is mostly around the 350-400k mark in most of London, unless you want to raise your family in Croydon or something lol
- dogma1138 5y ago
  It’s not that buyers could afford a bit more, buyers could afford essentially to pay double in London. This isn’t because of the deposit but because HTB essentially allows you to buy a property for double the price in London. Most people couldn’t afford a 500K property not because they can’t save up £50K but because they won’t have a salary north of £100K for the bank to loan them the rest as lenders cap the loan amount at 4-4.5 times your annual salary. So now people that earn £50K can buy a property that only people that earn £100-120K could regardless of their deposits.
dogma1138 5y ago
For 250K you’ll find shitty property that would require a 2-3 hours of daily commute that will cost around £5000 annually per person working in London…

lurgburg 5y ago

> It let me buy a property which I wouldn't be able to without HTB Possibly you're taking the wrong counterfactual here? "If I hadn't HTB but everyone else did" vs "If no-one had HTB". It's possible you're quite right about the first, but it tells us little about the second. Possibly in the presence of HTB, prices just rise again until they reach their equilibrium of just-barely-affordable.

iso1210 5y ago
House price doesn't matter, it's the deposit. HTB may have pushed up the house price by say 30%, but it meant the deposit was lower (12k rather than 18k) and the repayments were lower for the first 5 years.
- fennecfoxy 5y ago
  House price does matter. End of the day with the bump-ed up H2B house prices...sure you can afford it w/ lower deposit thanks to gov assistance...but it's not free money. You still have to pay it back, so the seller is making an extra 30% of our backs bc they bumped the prices thanks to this scheme that was meant to "help" people.
  - dogma1138 5y ago
    People don’t pay them back no one can pay back 40% after 5 years assuming they bought in London. If they do pay it back they do it by remortgaging so the builders win, the banks win, the tax payer pays for any HTB loans that aren’t repaid and the tax payer gets shafted with higher housing costs.
- dogma1138 5y ago
  The deposit doesn’t matter, what matters is the total loan amount. For a £500K flat you need a £50K deposit but you also need a household income of £100K or more to be able to borrow £450K as banks cap the maximum amount they’ll loans at 4-4.5 of your annual income. So HTB didn’t only increase the prices it also pushed people to take on loans that they normally would not be able to afford.

fennecfoxy 5y ago

HTB has definitely increased the prices of HTB eligible properties because they realised that buyers could afford a bit more w/ Gov assistance and so sellers are squeezing people for it. Really, HTB should not have had a restriction on new builds. It's laughable because the restriction would make sense if the Gov was allowing anyone to actually build new properties. I think you're FYIGM'ing. Idk where you're finding these decent 2 bed "houses" (I think you mean flats) in London for "250k". Hell even a 2 bed flat is mostly around the 350-400k mark in most of London, unless you want to raise your family in Croydon or something lol

dogma1138 5y ago
It’s not that buyers could afford a bit more, buyers could afford essentially to pay double in London. This isn’t because of the deposit but because HTB essentially allows you to buy a property for double the price in London. Most people couldn’t afford a 500K property not because they can’t save up £50K but because they won’t have a salary north of £100K for the bank to loan them the rest as lenders cap the loan amount at 4-4.5 times your annual salary. So now people that earn £50K can buy a property that only people that earn £100-120K could regardless of their deposits.

dogma1138 5y ago

For 250K you’ll find shitty property that would require a 2-3 hours of daily commute that will cost around £5000 annually per person working in London…