To think hording something essential for life is despicable

[sandrabedminster]

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/special-reports/i-have-three-properties-at-age-33-and-3000-a-month-to-save-do-i/

Its not jealousy before someone says it, I own my own home but I doubt my children will ever be able to. But shelter is something essential and all this speculation is causing lots of damage as prices are pushed ever higher. I know a friend that spends 70% of net income just on renting something that is too small for her.

several points :
he is not investing his money - he is borrowing the money from the bank and using the rent received to pay the mortgage
the government that promoted all this BTL greed was labour - light touch regulation, slashing interest rates (remember 2008)
he is young enough to have only seen HPI (houses always go up) and low interest rates
he is of the selfish (I'm entitled) generation - massive generalisation there !
of course the houses would not be empty if he had not made his 'investment' they would be lived in by someone who found the money for the deposit to buy
you do all realise that landlords are able to borrow much more (interest only) with less regulation than owner occupiers (who just want ONE house to live in) and therefore tend to bid up the price of all houses
sometimes mumsnet appalls me with so many landlord (i.e. themselves) lovers.

I see where you're coming from OP. If I had masses of wealth, either through my own work or inheritance, I would feel guilty for continuous property buying to amass more. In the same way I'd feel guilty 'rattling around' on my own in a mansion or buying numerous properties for holiday homes which lay empty most of a year. That's just me though.
But then I guess if I did have all that wealth my life experiences and perspective would be different to what they are now, so I might not see things the same way. That, I think, is the root of the rich/poor divide in reality.

I say good luck to the owner to be honest.

Not everyone wants to buy though. We rent abroad, as we will back in the UK in three years, so don't need the hassle of buying here. We rent out our house in the UK.

If people are sent away from home for work, but don't want to uproot their families, they rent. My ds rents at university, people rent between buying and selling, or as in the case of my last tenants, whilst renovating their property. There is a need for private sector rentals.

I don't have an issue with this. My only concern is that he is a fair and responsible landlord. Affordable housing for those on a low income is a big concern of mine and the problem with private landlords is they can charge what they want.

he is not investing his money - he is borrowing the money from the bank and using the rent received to pay the mortgage
the government that promoted all this BTL greed was labour - light touch regulation, slashing interest rates (remember 2008)

That's a really good point, especially as the banking system was saved by using tax payers money and the value of the pound has been decreased with all this printing of money.

Sadly too many people go along with the greed is good, don't care who they fuck over in the process. As long as they are doing OK.

Government should of years ago curbed all this btl investing, but lots of mps (of both parties) are into this borrow to let.

The vast majority do want to buy in the uk as renters rights are shit.

YANBU

We seem to forget that homes are limited in this country. Supply is not meeting demand.

As an individual this man is doing what is sensible to him. I don't blame him. More the general state approach to housing in this country is woeful.

Housing is unaffordable. People are only talking about this in terms of house prices and ownership. But renting is also a big issue.

Families, individuals, couples, workers etc need homes. Affordable ones.

Naïve question: isn't part of the reason that houses in many areas are unaffordable to those on average wage because BTL activity has driven prices up? If BTL was strictly regulated, wouldn't house prices fall, and therefore far fewer people need to rent?

Hoarding something essential to life

For fuck sake, I thought it was actually going to be something essential for life - like 'essential to maintain life' medicine, not a bloody house.

Have a bag full of grips & stop acting like a drama queen.

Well given that your kids will be renting for the rest of the lives apparently, they'll need houses actually available to rent won't they. So he's doing you a favour. Or would you prefer they stayed with you forever, got social housing, or slept on the streets?

Older readers will remember what a success the Rent Acts were in ending the rented sector.

We need to break NIMBY to let builders build. We might impose a covenant against BTL on new build but I doubt if it could be enforced without a degree of intrusion which would not go down well (rather like this nonsense in St Ives).

BungoWomble And if the people who choose to register and vote turn down this socialist alternative that you are so keen on?

Sorry but I think it's really silly to refer to this as "hoarding" when it's property he's buying with money he's worked for, and that he will make work for him in return. It's not as if he's leaving the properties empty and refusing to let anyone live in them!

Fwiw OH recently came into a sum of money, not life changing, or enough to buy something outright that suits us to live in at present, but enough to buy a little flat locally. He's hoping to let it out, giving him a little income until retirement time, and then hopefully providing us somewhere small and manageable to live in, in the distant future if our own house becomes too much for us. It's very much an investment and a plan for our future

I think all credit to the chap in the article for being in a position to do it in his early thirties, it's taken us till the wrong side of forty to get to this stage!

I'm intrigued by this left-leaning alternative that we could vote for. Could you elaborate bungo?

The comment about renters rights will sit well with those on other threads with non payers, wreckers who have a long and expensive road ahead.

Oh, but I forget ,they are nasty landlords and so deserve it.

The vast majority do want to buy in the uk as renters rights are shit, and as I pointed out, there is a need for a private rental housing sector.

We rent abroad, and I think tenants in the UK get a better deal in terms of what landlords do, than exists where I live. Yes, we will get three months notice if my landlord wants the house back, but we pay for everything that a landlord pays for in the UK, as tenants.

We end up paying for the same things twice, in the UK as landlords, as we rent out our house there, and in Europe, where we are tenants.

Gosh, we should quickly re-nationalise the water and energy companies too, and supermarkets.
Collectivise all farms!

This^ sounds like an excellent idea, and yes, we need rent controls.

YANBU at all but I see I'm in the minority!

I'm always surprised when parents announce their DCs will "never own" a property, it's not the case that no young people can buy, even in London. They might not be able to afford a house the size of yours at the age you bought it in the town/area you currently live, but assuming your DCs are NT so there's no reason to presume they won't be able to hold down full time jobs or be able to budget, why wouldn't they be able to buy a flat or house at some point?

Obviously, not within 12 months of graduating or other unrealistic plans like that, but assuming not starting a family until 30, that should give you time to save up from either living at home with parents or renting in a house share. Teach them the importance of savings and not living to the limit of their income in order to have the lifestyle someone on their income/job title 'should have', but living like they were the step down until they've got a deposit together.

Nationalise the supermarkets? Please!

In about 1976 the Labour Party conference passed a motion calling for the nationalisation of the "commanding heights" of the economy.

Denis Healey remarked that this was a good idea. We could nationalise Sainsburys and make it as efficient as the Coop. He got a massive round of applause from delegates who knew he was bang on. Only the USDAW and Coop people disagreed. They would, wouldn't they?

Whatever you say about the process of sell-off the old boards, with a superannuated politician in the Chair, were hopeless for users.

Sorry but I think it's really silly to refer to this as "hoarding" when it's property he's buying with money he's worked for

I think its really silly to call something that has been bought with 75% of money loaned from banks as money that's been worked for.

Well given that your kids will be renting for the rest of the lives apparently, they'll need houses actually available to rent won't they. So he's doing you a favour. Or would you prefer they stayed with you forever, got social housing, or slept on the streets?

I think we need landlords for flats/smaller properties. We do need a rental market for students, people who need to be mobile early in their careers moving from job to job.

Renting has it's place.

Many of my peers didn't want to buy when they were young, preferring to rent, thinking it was less tying, less expensive..

I do think most people when they decide they want to buy, having married, moved in with a partner etc, want to go straight to a family 3 bed with garden. I don't think the rental market affects that sector as much, as most btl's are flats and apartments.

Not as silly as caling it 'hoarding' - which rather discribes behaviour of buying something then keeping it for your own future use. He's not 'hoarding' property - he's buying rental properties. The people who are hoarding property are those 2nd home owners who buy property for a 2/3 home lifestyle and don't let someone else use them as a primary home. Holiday homes are 'hoarding' property, the investors who buy property and leave it empty are 'hoarding' property. The developers with massive land 'banks' are 'hoarding' development land, this bloke isn't hoarding property, he's buying it to rent back out again, the number of homes available to be lived in remains the same, it's just some are only available for rent.

3 is hardly hoarding, and I doubt they are sitting empty either.