As I said, this is all getting beyond satire, here's the umpteenth re-hash of a scheme to subsidise purchases of new housing:
A government scheme aimed at kick-starting the housing market by underwriting 95% mortgages will be available to people spending up to £500,000 on a new-build property, the housing minister has announced...
Unveiling more details, housing minister Grant Shapps said he wanted to "go the extra mile" for those aspiring to get on the housing ladder. He said that while buyers typically needed to raise £40,000 to put down as a deposit, this could help those with just £10,000 to buy a home of their own...
"The pattern of the past has been to produce endless policies and initiatives that simply gather dust on Whitehall shelves and lead to inaction and inertia," he said. "But with the prime minister putting housing centre stage on the road to economic recovery, I am determined we shall not repeat these mistakes of the past."
Forbidden Bible Verses — Genesis 42:18-28
5 hours ago
8 comments:
Isn't the only real sustainable way to stimulate the housing market to make land as inexpensive as possible (i.e. increase planning permission approvals?)
AC1
"The pattern of the past has been to produce endless policies and initiatives that simply gather dust on Whitehall shelves and lead to inaction and inertia.".
Whereas this time they are going to fuck everything up with a government sponsored sub-prime disaster.
Do people buying 500k (just under) need government help? Instead of using their 5% deposit to buy a 500k house, why not use it as a 10% deposit on a 250k house? I.e. one you can afford?
Isn't the only real sustainable way to stimulate the housing market to make land as inexpensive as possible (i.e. increase planning permission approvals?)
More liberal planning approvals will help to an extent. But ultimately you'll always get more people wanting to live in the most desirable areas than the desirable areas can support without becoming undesirable. At this point the only solution is to levy a ground rent as public revenue so everyone pays fairly for the location they want to occupy.
Underwriting mortgages given out by state owned banks?
They havn't thought this through.
But the natives are definitely starting to almost cotton on to "the game !" Almost - as demonstrated by this comment on the story for example :-
NameTaken 1 February 2012 5:38PM
So let me get this straight - the current system of mortgage indemnity guarantees that the house buyer pays for is being done away with and replaced with one that the developer and the taxpayer pays for?
Which really means the taxpayer and the house buyer foots the entire risk/bill as the developer will simply include the extra costs in the purchase price?
AC1, increase planning and do what QP says.
Rob, good point, or just sit tight on that £10,000 and pray that prices come down.
CD, oh they have thought it through. Labour have been doing this under various names for the past few years and it's been of great assistance to home builders (i.e. land bankers). As a method of transferring money from taxpayer/young people to land owners, it is more or less fool proof.
Anon, if only everybody were that clued up.
"Labour have been doing this under various names for the past few years"
Of course they did. Large construction firms are always great friends with the government of the day. You wait, the government will be buying up unsold new houses and selling them at a discount soon.
Mind you, it's fish/barrel stuff; most of these would-be homeowners can't even remember the last house price crash. For them property always has gone up and it's going to take a lot to educate them otherwise.
Shapps = wanker
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