To think another great Depression is coming?

[littleblackdress04]

Spoke to a surveyor friend yesterday - he said they can’t value houses at the moment as they think they could lose up to 50% of their value. Also read an article about how another Great Depression is coming.

Is it the re-set we need as a world? The end of billionaires when millions have no food? What will the societal impact be?

I personally hope it’s a fairer, kinder society where everyone gets their basic needs met

I’m really worried as I’ve recently separated but still living in same home, we have no mortgage. House won’t sell and when it does for much less, if only we’d have sorted settlement out 6 months ago but No I’ve an ex who wants to screw every penny out of me. The thing is it’s not me it’s his kids that will suffer as his jobs secure, mines not as it’s closed down!

Wehttam

They are not going to keep us in strict lockdown for 18 months. It just isn't going to happen.

Wehttam Dafuq you on about? No I don;t post under any other name (an Ip check should prove it if anyone wants to check). I have has this account for years. Also, there is a way to be paid to post in here? To refuse to be negative? Count me in. I am ready to say any kind of shit for money (with the whole 284 lockdown and my job not existing when we get out of it).

@millymoo1202 I'm in a similar situation to you. It's very worrying.

The people who are not on the housing ladder will be hardest hit.

There will be very little housebuilding going on, but also very little lending. People will stay put. House prices will be stagnant but will take max 7% drop.

how the hell are people on minimum wage ever meant to get on the housing ladder?
I agree. But it’s gone on for too long now to be fixable. The time to fix it was when house prices first increased - a drop would only have affected a very small number of people. But now there are millions of people with huge mortgages so a drop would leave millions in negative equity and potentially bankrupt.

It’s trying to create a society where 3 million kids aren’t living in poverty and can reach their potential instead of worrying where the next meal is coming from

You will be sadly disappointed if you think this CV19 crisis is going to lead to some sort of utopia where kids are not starving etc

If there is a global depression, then the UK will be hit very very hard, it just does not have the social structures to survive, the poverty will be widespread and severe, it will affect the poorest the worst and the rich will have the reserves to ride it out, 3m kids in poverty will seem like a dream outcome.

Historically, depressions can lead to war as countries re arm to stimulate their economies, pls don't make the mistake that western civilization can't collapse.

It is for these reasons i do not agree with what we are doing ( based on the information we are told about this virus ) what may follow, could be infinitely worse.

If anyone really cared about societal inequalities, they'd not continually vote tory.

I think the only realistic solution to house prices is a shitload of house building at a level which causes prices to stagnate. But its unlikely for various reasons - including land banking and NIMBYism

I agree. But it’s gone on for too long now to be fixable.

This also makes me wonder if the only way to fix it is to have huge inflation - so a half a million pound house seems cheap because bread is now £50. Although massive inflation would cause a raft of other problems.

House building is the ONLY way that most people who can’t afford a home right now will ever afford one.

They need to tell their parents to stop objecting to planning permission.

This also makes me wonder if the only way to fix it is to have huge inflation - so a half a million pound house seems cheap because bread is now £50. Although massive inflation would cause a raft of other problems

Yep worked well in 1920s Germany, hyper inflation seen as a benefit? the whole world has gone crazy.

House building is the ONLY way that most people who can’t afford a home right now will ever afford one

If we went back to council housing and removed private landlords, we'd then release huge numbers of properties onto the housing market, rents would be cheap/at cost (instead of paying for someones school fees/pensions), so people could save for a house.... it worked well in the 50s and 60s, it would work again but ideology has stopped it being done.

Lots of people dying in the pandemic might fix house prices - less demand, more supply...

Pish I hope you are right but I don’t think you will be sorry 😐

Unless the deaths were enormous I suspect it would be more of a stagnation/ blip caused by deaths...especially as not every family would need to sell immediately

Some people are really hoping for the army to shoot people back inside their houses for 18 months and for going "back to council housing and removed private landlords". I am aghast,

Lots of people dying in the pandemic might fix house prices - less demand, more supply...*

Actually it would be the opposite. Less demand means family (who inherit the property) are more likely to rent it out or let it sit empty rather than lose money.

Sammy I’m not for that at all, it’s what will happen though once people get restless from lockdown. For the greater good. If people do not comply then unfortunately there will be zero negotiation and rightly so.

You can’t lose money from an inheritance. You can only gain....

No @jasjas1973 Removing private landlords will not solve the housing market - there is not enough quality housing stock to go around. Not enough homes. And many of the home we do have are completely grim and should be pulled down - Grenfell Tower and other miserable blocks of flats or horrible damp 60s cheap builds.

We need to build many more houses. Build more houses. Nice ones with gardens or balconies that people actually want to live in.

Btw, I wasn’t really being serious about house prices and deaths. Frankly, the consequences of the pandemic aren’t worth contemplating atm, unless you actively want to feel very miserable.

It’s been said already but depression leads to war - don’t expect ANY good to come from a massive depression. It takes decades to become stable again. Let’s not wish that upon our elderly, Middle Ages, millennials or children. No one will win.

People think of it as losing money though - "mum's house used to be worth x, now it's only worth y, let's hang on to it until prices go back up again, no point in losing money" is how many think

We need to build many more houses
The problem is, if a developer has a piece of land, they don’t want to build affordable 2 bed houses. There’s more profit in building 4 bed executive detached houses that they can sell for half a million plus. Nobody wants to build the sort of affordable houses that people actually need. And also they only want to build on pristine green field sites that local residents object to, not on brown field sites that local residents actually want to see redeveloped. It’s expensive to do the ground work to reclaim a brown field site so they can’t make as much profit. The lack of houses is basically due to the greed of the developers.

@JaceLancs

Yes we will have a depressed economy which will then be followed by a boom time
It’s an economic cycle which endlessly repeats
The only difference is the depths of the peaks and troughs

So, depression for 5 years then boom for another 5?