RTB = Right To Buy. This subject intrigues me as my parents bought their council house in 1982/3.

My own opinion is that ordinary houses on the private market will still be well within the affordability criteria for ordinary people.

Discuss!

I agree with you because those homes could then be sold some years later for a whopping profit. Wouldn't have been so bad if those buying their council home had done so with a view to staying there for many years. The price of ex council properties took some time to rise but eventually they caught up with everything else.

And, of course they were never replaced either.

I was reading something the other day and I hope it's not true - the woman who plays Heather in Eastenders, the large lady who just married Minty? She apparently lives with her husband in a council house. She said she would not be leaving there and never wanted a mortgage in case times became hard again. So there is someone earning a very good wage who not only doesn't want to give up her tenancy, but doesn't want the RTB either. Another problem with council properties is that once you are in, so long as your behaviour is acceptable is it yours for life.

Okay so many move on if their financial situation allows it but I know of many families who got council houses back in the 80s/90s through 'overcrowding'. Basically you were quite high on the list if you came from a family who were already council tenants and that to introduce a partner/child to one household would be overcrowding. There would be no checks whatsoever on salary earnt, that was usually enough. These people could have easily bought a house back then with 2 salaries coming in but didn't need to and had no desire to when they were all used to being in council properties on their estate. Since then they might well have bought those houses at rock bottom prices but who suffers? The next generation where there aren't enough properties for those in need to get something suitable, never mind those who think they should have one cos the family always has.

Interesting that the homeless statistics went up as RTB cam in...

If the government really want to sort out the housing crisis, then instead of harping on about shared ownership schemes (which I think are a blatant rip-off!), they should reverse the legislation that permits Local Authorities to build council housing.

There is an ever increasing demand for it but too little is being done.

The obvious point is that RTB removed a very large number of houses from the rented sector. Because a lot of people need to rent for various reasons, the measure has led to the market filling the gap with buy to let mortgage loans.

So that is the difference Opinions are divided about whether this has led to increased volatility in the market, or is causing the ending of the 60 year long period when the trend was for house prices rose far faster than inflation, which is a deeper affect.

It is very difficult to isolate that effect from the other one expected to result from increasingly free movement of people around the EU which has begun in earnest since EU enlargement.

quote:

Originally posted by johnbee:
It is very difficult to isolate that effect from the other one expected to result from increasingly free movement of people around the EU which has begun in earnest since EU enlargement.

There are lots of other factors too of course.

One is relative wealth. This is the 25k IT worker complaining that their bus driver dad bought and they could not.

The bus driver day was much further up the wealth hierarcy then. The 25k worker is ten a penny now.

< This is the 25k IT worker complaining that their bus driver dad bought and they could not.

The bus driver day was much further up the wealth hierarcy then. The 25k worker is ten a penny now. >

Perhaps you refer to a person who cleans the waste paper bins in the IT department, or maybe the junior help desk person. People who can actually program a computer would think you were having a laugh if you offered them 25K.

quote:

Originally posted by MattW:
RTB = Right To Buy. This subject intrigues me as my parents bought their council house in 1982/3.

My own opinion is that ordinary houses on the private market will still be well within the affordability criteria for ordinary people.

What fuelled the house price spiral most was not RTB (although it undoubtedly had an affect) but the drastic fall in the number of new house builds - bith public and private sector. look up the house build statistics for the past 30 years tehn compared them with the 30 years before - quite revealing