Housing market is realy bucking up!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Definitely. A good union could get you up to the equivalent of £40-60K today. I earnt far less than the workers on hourly rates got with overtime. And I was required to do it, but I didn't get paid for it.

I am no fan of Thatcher, but that paricular job - smashing the union power base - needed to be done.

She jsut smashed everything esle on the way as well.

Interstinglty I doscovered that when my parents house was bult in 1950, for the princely sum of 3000 pounds, my fathers income was just over £1000.

Hose prices will always be at around 3x annual income, as long as there is a control on tehe price of suiable land..Its not a question of what they cost to buuld,its a question of what they are worth to the buyers...

With a static or shrinking GDP expected over the next few years, expect house prices to stay roughly the same as they are for as long as this cycle we are entering lasts.

[Capitol]

IMO, for pension schemes, not a lot. Particularly viewed over the past century. Pension funds benefit mainly the high earners, with 40% + tax relief. Mortgages and property, particularly tied to endowment policies were a much better proposition. Today, with low inflation, the stock market probably represents the best/lowest risk option. Either way, you control the performance. With 1.5% management charges on an investment yielding 3.5%, you lose handsomely in a managed fund!

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

CGT is only relevant when you sell a large number of valuable shares. In a pension fund, there is no CGT AIUI. If a private investor,you would not normally sell all of your gains in one go. Yield however continues to rise under good conditions, so the effective interest return on your original investment will hopefully increase many times, compared to the rate of inflation.

As present house prices are an anomaly produced by demand outstripping supply, now, would not seem to be a good time to invest, unless you wish to lose your capital base.

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

Hmm! King making?

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

Why not?

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

No! Certainly not in the South. Maybe your 21 year olds were over paid in the North, which accounts for the collapse of the Northern economy over the next few years.

Well, if you want to see the results of Nu Labur, there's an example!

Regards Capitol

[Stuart Noble]

I thought the book made it pretty clear why not

[Andy Hall]

It snowballs.....

[Stuart Noble]

Haven't heard that since I was at school

[John Cartmell]

In the real world where real people may be able to afford one house in their lifetime money is quite different. The fact that all their costs are increased by others creaming off money at every level doesn't make 'their' money a commodoty; it just means that things cost more. Carrying all that useless pile of shit (technical term for money creamers) around is very expensive for real people.

[John Cartmell]

We could have managed to get a higher mortgage - what we did get was effectively on my salary alone. You needed to have been a regular saver (foresight) and have a reasonably secure job (normal pre-Thatcher). We didn't have spare money so our furniture consisted of a new bed, new chairs (15 GBP), and we managed to treat ourselves to a new carpet. Wedding presents supplied fridge & Hoover and anything else was from cast-offs from family.

[Andy Hall]

I liked Old Benjamin the best....

[Stuart Noble]

You've obviously read it more recently than me, or you have a good memory (which is characteristic of donkeys)

[Andy Hall]

I read it periodically just to remind myself of the basics of human nature... :-)

[Ed Sirett]

Agreed, now is not the time to buy a house (at least in the SE).

[Richard Faulkner]

I tend to agree, (in the NW), but I am sorely tempted by a 2 year old 2 bed ground floor flat, 900sq.ft. £129,950, repossession. Similar brand new stuff not far away is selling for £150K +/-.

[Stuart Noble]

Hope this is on the open market, and not some sort of carve up between building society and estate agency. I hear the obligation to to get the highest price is often ignored in these cases, to the detriment of the mortgagee of course.

[John Cartmell]

Very good job. 1000 was about the top whack in the late-50s for a top-skilled tradesman.

[Richard Faulkner]

Well and truly on the open market, and advertised every week for about 8 weeks in the local rag.

[Stuart Noble]

Can't be £20K of work to do on a new flat surely. Sounds like a snip. Who lives upstairs? Maybe they keep a Vietnamese pig on their balcony.