Thursday 5 February 2015

A veritable feast of Homey squealing.

Via Peter Smith/Facebook, from The Telegraph:

A Labour victory, or a red-led coalition, could be detrimental to the housing market, reducing the supply of homes and deterring overseas buyers from investing in London, property experts have warned.

Two thirds of UK landlords will leave the private rented sector if Labour wins the general election in May and a rent controls policy is introduced, limiting the number of affordable rental properties, according to new research from the Residential Landlords' Association (RLA).


There's no need to speculate about what might happen. The UK had rent controls in one form or other for most of the 20th century, and the result was indeed that private landlords nearly all packed it in and sold them for affordable prices to... the very same people who would otherwise have been forced to rent.

Which, was at the time widely heralded as a Very Good Thing.

Another classic bit:

According to research by Rokstone there are approximately 97,000 properties worth more than £2m in the capital. "Therefore if a mansion tax is introduced it will totally disable the London property market," Ms Fatemi added.

"Totally"? According to Savills, there are 3.4 million homes in London.

So the Mansion Tax might affect 3% of London homes. Hardly "totally".

"This could be the straw that breaks the camel's back...we need to be very careful we don't push people too far and seen to be anti-opportunity or, ultimately, investment will go elsewhere and into other asset classes."

If people invest in other asset classes, that's A Bad Thing because..?

5 comments:

Shiney said...

The comments are interesting though (didn't real them all) - there are quite a few sensible people who see the bubble for what it is.

Lola said...

That last paragraph about 'other asset classes' tells you all you need to know about the economic ignorance of the author. Twat

Logan Boettcher said...

Some sense needs to be smacked into anyone who says that we need overseas buyers to invest in residential real estate. If they are truly overseas and they are "investing," they are not using their money to live there and be productive laborers; they are parking their cash into land expecting gains.

Given that, it's obvious that no real investing is going on. No one needs to pay for land in London, New York, or anywhere for it to exist, so it isn't true investing. True investing means using money to fund payrolls, purchasing new buildings and equipment, and paying for upkeep of existing buildings and equipment. Buying real estate and doing nothing with it does none of that; it's pure speculative rent-seeking.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Sh, I can't see the comment from work. Usually it's quite a good mix.

L, exactly. Heaven forfend they should spend it on stuff on LB's list, like paying for new stuff to be created. That's for the aspiring working classes, isn't it?

LB, correct and agreed.

Random said...

Anti opportunity eh? WTF are they on about.