To think no one has a right to make money off their house

[Laughingstock1991]

The general consensus among financial commentators this week has been that the housing market has turned. Interest rates are still going up and are unlikely to come down for a few years. The low interest rate financial experiment that has been in place since 2008 has ended and it’s unwinding is going to be painful. The housing boom was based on cheap credit.

My mortgage is likely to go up about 400 a month. Lots of commentators reckon we are in for a big fall in house prices. Good thread here:
https://twitter.com/EdConwaySky/status/1668987423643119623

What pisses me off is the absolute assumption made by some people (like my friend today) that the government should use public money to bail out mortgage holders. Most people were stress tested on their mortgage- I was- and yes it’s going to be tough but do I think public Money (renters money) should be used to bail out mortgage holders- fuck no! The Lib Dems have raised this also today.

House equity is unearned wealth. There are no guarantees. We have been through a boom and now it’s going bust. Hopefully sanity will return & housing will be seen as a home again- not an investment. Its not a ‘market’.

And I say all of this as a homeowner who is going to have to pay a lot more. I want everyone to be able to afford a decent home- not just those with money.

I don’t think that’s unreasonable!

To add I know social housing isn't like that now.

It’s all well and good to say people shouldn’t be helped but with mass repossessions coming up what will happen? We have barely any social housing stock thanks to the right to buy scheme. Where do these repossessed people live? Also it’ll have a catastrophic effect on our economy, if people are on the bones of their arse due to high interest rates then demand within the economy will be affected.

The banks were bailed because it’d have a dreadful economic impact, from where I’m sitting it’s no different bailing people out to avoid the same happening again, or maybe a scheme like the PP suggested where the government owns part of your house to avoid a repossession.

I'll be voting labour but let's not kid ourselves.

Last time they were in, the made the housing market worse. I bought my first house under a labour government (for £80k) and it was worth £300k by the time the Tories took over.

You forget that labour encouraged the BTL rise, deregulated the banks, introduced PFI contracts that got us into trouble.

I hope they learn from past mistakes and am sure they'll be less incompetent than the Tories but by how much?

Exactly. Savings interest rates have been kept low for years, mainly to keep mortgage payments low.

Rents, social or private, continued to rise.

Why should taxes go on helping people protect a private asset?

There are better priorities to throw money at.🙄

Thatcher deregulated the banks as did Reagan.. i don't vote labour but high house prices isn't a UK thing. It's a global thing. People looked at housing as an investment rather than a home.

The reason why UK's house prices look so high to us is because real wages haven't increased since 2008. Other countries aslo don't have so many measures that subsidize home ownership and rental laws are more favourable in European countries. Here a lot of demand is triggered by people being desperate to get out of rental, coupled with the fact they think housing is an investment.

You're right. We should be looking at a massive social housing build - as we had after the last war.

It would need investment, it would need the ever present NIMBYs being ignored, but it could be done.

Private landlords are often (not always) the cause of the rental problems we have now.

@SunnyEgg

where do you propose those people live when they can't pay their mortgage?

It's not like we have an abundance of social housing or now (thanks to the govt) private rentals.

@ThursdayFreedom renters currently have to navigate the Wild West of private renting- they’d have to join that.

Maybe, just maybe when that housing reality hits- the government would reform the entire sector.

Us homeowners aren’t special and don’t deserve a bail out.

I have mortgages on a couple of my rentals at 2% pa
The tenants will have the choice to pay the increase when the mortgage comes up for renewal in 2 years or I’ll sell. Simple as that.
Many of my LL friends feel the same.
Therefore even less rental properties available.

@Densol57 stop acting like you are providing an amazing service to society. Hopefully prices might have fallen a bit and maybe a family could but those homes.

*buy

Landlords will just put the rents up to match the hike in mortgages- I'm sure there'll be plenty of renters who cannot afford that. Question is where does this swathe of society who cannot afford to buy, cannot afford to rent and aren't eligible go to live? If people have their homes repossessed chances are the stock will be hoovered up by affluent people who can already well afford to buy more properties and hence exasperating the issue.

Maybe. Most rental properties get bought up by corporate or larger portfolio landlords, who will just increase the rent, same as you're planning.

But why do you need to increase your rent? Have you over leveraged or are you on an interest only?

I've not increased my rent for 5 years and I'm currently paying 8.74%.

@Flocider we had rent controls in the U.K. until the late 80’s- it’s likely time for a return to that too.

Ergo why should taxes paid by child free people be used to fund schools?

Doesn't really work like that if you go down that road does it?

Anyway I'm not saying the government should bail out mortgage holders but bloody hell they're the o D's who have created this entire mess.

All wealth is luck.

Hopefully! The real crime is the ridiculousness of the rental market and the lack of availability of social housing stock.

A family does use those homes 🤦‍♀️
I’m sorry, I just do not believe that there are the numbers of people in rented waiting to buy a house they’re being implied on this thread. I moved to this country in 2015 with four suitcases and four children. Zero credit rating and now own two properties. If people were that desperate to buy, they would.

@LadyTemperance

yep, thousands & thousands of people being made homeless, that'll be brilliant for everyone.

Child free people subsidising schools, etc is a totally different situation.
Everyone benefits from the children, the next generation of tax payers who will be paying your pension and wiping your bottom when you are old.
Nothing like renters subsidising mortgage holders.

@3BSHKATS people can’t buy because of the cost. Housing has become detached from reality both in terms of rents and house prices. It’s time has come now - read all the front pages of the news this morning - the penny has dropped!

To be honest I'd happily rent forever and not own if it was like social housing of yesteryear. Guaranteed tenancy for life, sure you paid rent and at the end didn't then get that investment back as such- but you had repairs carried out, you knew if the roof blew off it would be replaced and you wouldn't be scrimping and saving.

I agree. Social housing is also a victim of the changing view of homes from somewhere safe to live, raise families, grow old - to somewhere that should be making you richer.

It means that no one views social housing in the same way: as a HOME you can feel safe and secure in. Instead it becomes like an asset the council should take back off you as soon as you don't need the extra bedroom etc.

FWIW I own my home so I am not speaking on behalf of myself.

Whichever way the window blows next, housing is going to become an even bigger issue I think. Mortgages go up = people lose homes. It's all very well telling them they deserved it (and some are saying that on here with too much glee) but life is complex and not everyone will have made decisions that left them vulnerable. Many will be children, for example. You'd have to be heardhearted to be 'told you so'-ing. Many renters will lose homes, especially during the tumultuous period where LLs sell up.

If mortgages don't go up or come back down again, property prices keep going up and whole generations will find owning a house to be almost impossible - leaving them vulnerable. Especially as they age.

There are no easy answers and I cannot find it in myself to have any self-satisfied glee, whichever happens.

The you need to stretch your imagination a lot further. Your experience does not represent everyone else's experience.
Unless you arrived in the UK with a lot of money from abroad, which you have failed to mention, the bank owns your home at present.

They can - when I sell them in two years time.
I’ll have made a few hundred thousand on them even if they drop so Im not complaining.
I don't expect the Gov to bail me out.
It is what it is.

Too often these days, I find myself in mind of that Handmaid's Tale quote... "better never means better for everyone".

When we talk about something being better, it rarely is. It's just different. Some people will benefit from that. Some people will have their lives torn apart by it.

Neither is a situation to celebrate.