Property Hawk the landlord's homepage since 2006
Free Tenancy Agreement FREE tenancy agreement
Free Landlord Software FREE landlord software
Home | Property Manager | Free ASTs | Landlord Forms | Mortgages | Insurance | Inventory | Magazine | Landlords Bible | Directory | Forum | Training | News / Blog |

Monday, March 15, 2010

Priced out wingers!

Having arrived back from my little jaunt around South East Asia including Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines which I highly recommend to all those who like colour, vitality, great food and lots of heat!

I sit down at my desk and straight away I'm reminded what is so great about Asia and what pis...me off about the UK.

The latest article in the Guardian featuring an article about a pressure group so called representing the interests of first time buyers. This group is blaming buy-to-let landlords for pricing first time buyers out of the housing market.

When will these petty groups get it into their heads that it's not landlords that are pricing first time buyers out of the market. Other factors have contributed to tenants choosing to rent for longer before buying. Not least is the huge capital falls in values borne by landlords not tenants over the last couple of years. Other factors are rising transaction costs such as Stamp Duty along with higher rates of deposits (although still less than a landlord has to find which are typically 25-30%). Ultimately if you dig even deeper restrictive planning policy which reduces supply of land and increases the cost of housing.

Asia perspective.

After my trip around Asia where you see families living on the streets with nothing other than the few rags on their back; but who some how manage a smile. My sympathy with these hoards of wingers is frankly zero. What these groups should wake up to is that we as a country have huge choices in where and what we live in, rent or buy. I can't live in 10 bedroom mansion in South Kensington; but do I start a pressure group to campaign against the unfairness of this?

A lot of people across the world have NO choice at all - but they don't whinge they just smile and get on with it. We can all learn a lot from that...

Landlord insurance quotes

Bookmark and Share

No comments: