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>Ordinary people certainly are the ones pushing for home ownership, for the simple reason that when homes are in a serious shortage A) No, they're not. B) Hom
by crdoconnor 12y ago
>Ordinary people certainly are the ones pushing for home ownership, for the simple reason that when homes are in a serious shortage
A) No, they're not.
B) Home ownership doesn't solve the shortage problem. Actually, it can exacerbate it because it gives landlords an opportunity to gouge you. Building more council housing might help, but is that on the table? No. Banks wouldn't want that. That's rental income that is not being diverted to their pockets.
>The government is buying electoral support with Help to Buy schemes and Right to Buy extensions;
This is just the most palatable way of giving help to the banks. If electoral support were what they were really after, they would build more homes to offset the shortage.
>the fact the banks also like it is incidental.
You misspelled 'central'.
- notahacker 12y agoHome ownership obviously does solve the housing shortage for the homeowner, since (i) they have a home and (ii) the ensuing rise in the cost of housing is their capital gain; far in excess of any mortgage interest they pay in most parts of the UK. Hence home ownership being desirable for renters with stable employment. Which was my point, rather than the straw man you chose to truncate my sentence to attack. Help to Buy is tiny in the scheme of banks' balance sheets, huge in the scheme of the household finances of those wishing to join the majority of Britons in owning their own home.