How many properties do you own?

[Deleted member 18121]

So what about all those who rent through choice and rely upon those that own more than one property for rental purposes? The idea of restricting ownership to one house, the main residence, sounds very big brother and a slippery slope!

I agree with you, it is big brother. A possible solution is that the government would rent out the houses to those than choose to rent.

Are you also going to ban companies from owning residential property? What about individuals from owning commercial property? what about pension funds?

Bit of an idealogical view one on which the horse has long since bolted! And if it was to come in to act it would crash the UK economy in an instant!

The right answer is for local authorities to have replaced the HA properties as and when they sell them but again that horse has bolted and they now cant afford to make up the shortfall, especially as population and hence demand continues to increase

The long term solution now is a lot harder and not sure anyone knows the best approach

I fear much of what you say is right. Especially that noone knows the long term solution.

Would I ban an individual from owning commercial property - no.

Would I ban commercials from owning residential - I'd restrict ownership for the right reasons.

Owning a farm we have several farm cottages which were originally for farm workers.

No problem in my eyes, that was commercial property.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

What is your opinion about that?

I thought it was an interesting initiative taken by the council to supplement their housing stock. The £240/month they charge rent covered all their costs but made no profit.

 

[timd77]

I own 2, live in my house with my family and rent my old flat out. I'm an accidental landlord, I bought the flat just before the crash and even now it's not worth what I paid for it and is still in negative equity.

Saying that, the rent covers the mortgage and so it's worked out well, but the negative equity smarts!

If things go to plan, I'd like to keep my current house when we move in a few years. Depends a lot on being able to save up enough and also whether the stamp duty is still higher for investors then. But as someone else rightly pointed out, there are plenty of people who can't or won't buy (not just cos of house prices) and so I don't see the harm in it at my level.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Just the one, mortgage free. More than enough for my simple needs

 

[Hobbit]

Currently, zero but pick up the keys for a villa in Spain on the 19th. Very excited.

 

[TheDiablo]

There were schemes after the war for community builds in a number of European Countries. Local Authorities released areas of land at low cost and people formed building cooperatives, they built their own homes to a standard plan but purchased materials and organised specialised services together.

http://www.selfbuildportal.org.uk/supported-community-self-build-group

There were also the Prefabricated homes that were built to last 10 years but many are still lived in now. many of these were built by the Aircraft Industry as Aeroplane production dropped off after the war. I think it would be possible to design and build modern prefabricated eco houses these days at fairly low cost to increase the housing stock.

I actually live in one of the houses built under a post-war self-build project now (around 60 houses total). We bought the house off the guy who originally owned it in 1957 and there are many others still in their houses from that time. It's an incredible story about how it all worked. They were all living in London, in various professions and bought the land out in Surrey. Ex-members of the army who hadn't found work spent the evenings teaching all of the men a trade. So our previous owner, a banker by trade, became the fence builder. The surveyor down the road was a bricklayer. The lawyer was an electrician - really inspiring stuff!

After work, they would head down to Surrey and learn to build. Eventually, they started, house by house. When a few had been completed, they all stayed there, leaving families in London until the whole project was complete.

My Father in law is a retired builder, having been in the trade for 50 years. He can't believe the high standard of the homes considering their origin!

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I actually live in one of the houses built under a post-war self-build project now (around 60 houses total). We bought the house off the guy who originally owned it in 1957 and there are many others still in their houses from that time. It's an incredible story about how it all worked. They were all living in London, in various professions and bought the land out in Surrey. Ex-members of the army who hadn't found work spent the evenings teaching all of the men a trade. So our previous owner, a banker by trade, became the fence builder. The surveyor down the road was a bricklayer. The lawyer was an electrician - really inspiring stuff!

After work, they would head down to Surrey and learn to build. Eventually, they started, house by house. When a few had been completed, they all stayed there, leaving families in London until the whole project was complete.

My Father in law is a retired builder, having been in the trade for 50 years. He can't believe the high standard of the homes considering their origin!

That really is a cool story. To think of how sheltered a life many live now.

 

[Beezerk]

Got a house with the missus and we kept my flat to rent out. Dropped lucky with a tenant as it's a friend of a friend but may sell up once he's moved out as it's a lot of hassle. Get taxed to the nuts as well so it isn't really paying much back at the minute.