Question:
Watching this program now! I have my views but I would like to know the thoughts of others.

How would you describe this programme?

Choices:
This was blatant ramping
This was balanced
This was informative and unbias

 

A little dissapointing.

Firstly they compare the FTSE100 capital gain against property capital gain, yet they fail to take into account rent received, dividends, maintenance and purchase/selling costs. A poor comparison!

Then they say some sensible things about the rent must cover the mortgage, but state a minimum of 5% return is required. I can get more in a bank acocunt!

It was very one sided, and i'd agree it was ramping. Could you imagine if they changed the word 'property' to 'shares'? They'd be in prison by now!

I have critisised these two on here before, but that show takes the absolute biscuit. What a pile of you know what.

All figures were based on an "independant expert forcast rise" at the end of the show they then credited a guy who works for Experian as being the source of this information.

How about forcasting the future growth on future inward investment from European, Central Government and Local Council schemes to regenrate the areas. Then take into account future plans for employment growth. All of this information is freely available to the general public and they can get the information themselves. Not have to rely on this programme to "point out the hotspots".

Let's have a look at the Top 5 again.
Southampton
Brighton
Edinburgh
Cambridge
London

No chance.

Trust me I know. I am happy to put my record on the line that I will help investors to get better results than those 5 over the next 3 years.

Channel 4 give me a video camara and I will give you more substantial information in 10 minutes than you had in one hour (minus adverts) tonight.

BTW I did chuckle when Kirsty pointed at the Gas Cooker and called it a Washing Machine

Did anyone spot the error when Kirsty was showing us around her flat?

She was in the kitchen and was explaining about the white goods that will be provided with the flat: "the fridge freezer, the dishwasher and the washing machine". As she mentioned the washing machine, she pointed to her very nice range cooker.

No Kirsty, you dont want to put your laundry in the oven!

I took the projected returns with a pinch of salt. Average house price will likely exceed £800k. Hmmmm, we'll see...

Strange the at the top of the prog they stated property is such as safe bet as the UK population is going up...yet then cited Edinburgh as being an excellent place to invest as it was one of the few places where the population was set to go up?

Oh and the wonderful "I'm alright Jackness" of stating that in the future house prices would be too high for their kids to afford to be FTBs - so they are going to keep off the market as many FTB properties as they can

With wages only increasing by an average of 2% I find it ludicrous some of the increases they suggested.

As for earning 5% yield on renting property, you can earn that in a fund in a month!!

Even taking the programme on its own intentions it was rather flawed. First of all the price rises were all last years figures and unlikely to show anything like the same increase in the forseeable future.
Secondly the crystal gazing went no further than picking large urban areas with an increasing population. What about actually predicting in advance areas like Limavady and Bingly and the rest of the stratospheric rising districts? These focussed increases must be based on logic and have enough people buying to create a hot spot. It smacks of lazy journalism.
Some advice was sound enough but with one or two exceptions I can't see the income differentials standing those kinds of hikes.

Agree with Phil on Elephant and Castle tho'. One for the future.

Really bad TV from C4 if you ask me.

This program along with Amanda Lamb's "Place in the Sun" is quite irresponsible in pushing the "investment potential" of property as a low risk high return option.

There is legislation (FSA) on all other types investments (shares, endowments, pensions) which prevents "professionals" making claims such as the ones we have seen recently on these two programmes.

Property can be a good investment and should form an element in any balanced portfolio. Ramping it as in this program and making sweeping statements such as "the best investment, safe as houses, sure fire bet" really is very irresponsible.

Not since summer '99-'00 have I heard such "Emperors new clothes" crap about "investments".

The locations suggested were definately for those with deep pockets. Did anyone spot the 1 bedroom flat (not even in London) for 499000!

The top spot was apparently Oxford. The featured property was for sale for 299,950, with a suggested monthly rent of £1200. That's a yield of 4.8% before tax, worse than you'd get in a building society. Moreover, at a mortgage rate of, say, 5.5%, you would be paying 16500 per year in interest (more if you went repayment), yet only receiving 14400 back in rental income. To my mind, that is a bad investment, no matter whether 'experts' predict a possible increase over the next 5 years in capital value.

In my mind, it would have made more sense to focus on the cheaper areas with potential for capital growth, where the rental return is a lot higher for far less initial capital outlay.

Ok now that others have had their chance I will voice my concern.

The independent experts, whoever they are, say that certain areas COULD go up by XX% over the next 5 years. The word COULD being the most important one. They did NOT however, say that conditions could mean they could DROP apart from the HIGH RISK AREAS.

This is highly irresponsible imho.

The final property in the "so-called" hotspot of Oxford had a property for £299,000 and a rental income of only £1200 pcm. An I/O Mortgage at 85% LTV of 5.5% comes to £1238. - A LOSS OF £38 p.c.m.

Say's it all really - as they said "THEY HAVE DONE THEIR RESEARCH" - Dont think so, do you?

Lastly, the bit where Phil was going on about Elephant and Castle or something, where he got a wad of cash out of his pocket and said "IM IN" was irresponsible as a lot of people take these people seriously. I would be interested to know CH4 can you tell us if Phil did invest in this area?

Anyway - I think Kirsty and Phil have just damaged the BTL market - Well Done!!!

If Phil said I'm in to the E&C you can bet his money was already there and the recommendation was by way of guaranteeing his investment.

Let's be sensible though, house shows have long made up a sizable chunk of C4s output. It would be more logical to shut up in rather inflated times like this but that would leave a lot of empty slots. I often watch Working Lunch on BBC2 without the remotest inclinations to venture into copper futures.
End of the day its a show with a bookie's runner and debs delight. Punch and Judy for metrosexuals.

I didn't watch because I couldn't bear the hypocrisy of it. Just weeks ago Allsopp appeared at a Tory press conference bewailing the fact that "the current system" makes it hard for FTBs to get on the property ladder.

Not as hard as people who glibly and irresponsibly promote purchasing property to let on spurious claims of financial gains rather than let those who want to buy a HOME do so. It's nauseating.

I've lost all faith in those two. I used to think they were alright but now they've got no credibility left whatsoever.

They're just a pair of BL**DY LIARS !!!!!!

Cannot believe their ridiculous predictions. Absolute tosh! All is well in Phil and Kirsty land!

Right now I wouldn't invest in property. Sure, I have bought a house, but that is for me and mine to live in. I personaly believe prices have 'topped' out. I cannot see expensive areas like London, Oxford and Cambridge going up any higher than they currently are in the next five years.

No-one could persuade me to get a mortgage out for an investment property right now, not even the delightful Kirsty.

quote:

Originally posted by bridgette:
I didn't watch because I couldn't bear the hypocrisy of it.

Same here, turned over after they spouted on about the x amount of price rises in the next 5 years.

Media ho's, the pair of 'em.

Anyone know when and where it will shown again?

According to Kirsty you drop a coin in a fountain and with the initial splash liken it to a property Hotspot but the secret is to buy on the first ripple from that hotspot to gain maximum advantage of any forthcoming rise in property values.......
Oxford was top hotspot and seeing that Swindon(Gateway and Mecca to the Southwest via the M4 ) is but a 30 min drive and 20 miles away from Oxford this has to be the BTL "New Hotspot".

Silly program really but I guess it keeps a load of people employed dishing out ridiculous property forcasting.
Take it with a huge pinch of salt I reckon.
Mel.

PS Glad Kirsty is not doing my washing!

I thought it was very bad, and very irresponsible. As someone says, if it was shares you could surely be sued for some of their statements. 'May rise by up to 63%' means surely more like 'we forecast that house price changes have a outer limit of 5% lower and 63% higher, with the most likely changes being between 20%-30% higher'. They kept talking about Ox and Cam being good because of the student housing issue (????? wtf ?????) without mentioning that Cam University has been happily expanding its own BTL places, and is about to do a massive new build for students to the North of the city, while actually cutting undergrad numbers. But, on the other hand, since Mr Hatster has 1.5 properties in their property hotspot, I suppose we should be rubbing our grubby hands together in glee!

If it had been billed as a spoof show then it would have been enjoyable.

There was very little substance to it, most of the time seemed to be spent on silly fillers, such as Phil doing a marathon.

A silly waste of time - but I watched it!

Let's be honest, if you take investment advice from a TV prgramme then you're heading for trouble.

With all due repsect to anyone that does BTL, I am personally sick of the whole thing and did not watch for that reason. I compare it to someone going to a party and pinching all the best food and drink before anyone else can get a fair share. It may be legal and nobody has actually said you shouldn't do it but it doesn't fit in with my idea of how to behave in a polite fashion.

Every pound one person makes from investing in property they are taking from someone elses pocket. It's not like stocks and shares where making money is the whole point and everybody accepts that. 90%+ of us just want one home to live in but countless generations of FTBs and people low down on the proprty ladder are being handicapped by all this. I really think that most of the UK population now think that continued rises are a problem, but the media is miles behind.

Lets hope that Alex, who is Chief Mod on this homes Forum, passes the voting results onto the program producers.
OK so 33 votes may not be a true reflection of a National Opinion but if the Government can quote silly percentages----- than so can we!
Mel.

To be fair, in the long run you should invest in property in cities with growing young professional population. As they are the ones that will push prices and rents up.

So the top 3 picks in the UK of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford are reasonable, especially as Oxford and Cambridge are university towns and commuter cities.

For London it was City of London, Westminster and Camden. Again, areas that are in high demand.

Other less attractive areas have gone up in value over the last 6 years, however, much of this as been speculative, and if these cities do not have the demographics to support the growth then they will tank in adverse years.

What would cause the deomgraphics of London to fall, it is an international city where people continually want to come and work.