Sitting on land

[Tashyboy]

I see our PM us telling developers to stop sitting on land. In essence dont leave it to go up in value, Get summat built on it. But why?
If i had a ton of gold. I would sell it when it when i thought i could get the highest return. Same wth land. And i dont have either by the way. Why should land owners be pressurised to build because of failed government housing policies.
Thoughts please me dears.

 

[Jacko_G]

I see our PM us telling developers to stop sitting on land. In essence dont leave it to go up in value, Get summat built on it. But why?
If i had a ton of gold. I would sell it when it when i thought i could get the highest return. Same wth land. And i dont have either by the way. Why should land owners be pressurised to build because of failed government housing policies.
Thoughts please me dears.

I think its mainly to do with companies buying land to stop other companies buying it. Supermarket chains are very guilty of this to stop competitors moving into their "area". They will then only sell it onto housing or other retailers as long as its not in direct competition to them.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

My county is currently getting house built left right and centre. The only housing crisis we have here is over development, swathes of fields being built on. There may be a shortage crisis in the SE but there is an over development crisis up here. What is happening is a scandal and it is damaging villages, towns and the countryside is general.

Anyone sitting on land in Northumberland is probably doing so because there are so many new houses built or being built that the houses are not being sold, over supply, and so they may as well sit on the land, costing them nothing, rather than pay to build and develop houses that that they can not sell.

Ironic that the party of the free market is taking the huff over classic free market practices though.

 

[User62651]

My county is currently getting house built left right and centre. The only housing crisis we have here is over development, swathes of fields being built on. There may be a shortage crisis in the SE but there is an over development crisis up here. What is happening is a scandal and it is damaging villages, towns and the countryside is general.

Anyone sitting on land in Northumberland is probably doing so because there are so many new houses built or being built that the houses are not being sold, over supply, and so they may as well sit on the land, costing them nothing, rather than pay to build and develop houses that that they can not sell.

Ironic that the party of the free market is taking the huff over classic free market practices though.

Re the above is this addressing the issue of young people getting on the housing ladder though, or all these new houses in NE being sold at usual £300-£400k etc so way beyond just about everyone under 35 who don't have loaded parents?
Think developers got stung bad after 2008 crash, surprised they'd be over speculating so soon?

 

[fundy]

Out of curiosity who is going to build these extra hundreds of thousands of houses each year, I assume there is a workforce of skilled trades just sitting around ready to go?

 

[Hacker Khan]

Whilst I do not agree with a lot of what comes out of TMays mouth, if this actually has a long term impact then fair play to her. The housing market in this country is mostly a mechanism for developers and homeowners to make money, as opposed to creating a range of standards of house for people to be able to afford and live in. Fine if you have a house not not so great if you are trying to get on the property ladder. So anything they can do to help people, especially the young who are not lucky enough to have rich parents be able to afford a house is fine by me.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Re the above is this addressing the issue of young people getting on the housing ladder though, or all these new houses in NE being sold at usual £300-£400k etc so way beyond just about everyone under 35 who don't have loaded parents?
Think developers got stung bad after 2008 crash, surprised they'd be over speculating so soon?

Nail plus head :thup:

Very few are first time buyers houses. A mixture of 3 bedrooms and 4 bedroom ones. Some bigger but few smaller. Very few address the problem of those starting out, most start at £200k. I guess people may be leaving their first houses to buy the three bedroom ones so that could empty stock but I don't know enough about the market. The issue here was that there was a planning free for all for a spell so every house builder piled in and won planning for 400-700 house estates all at once. If it were staggered then some may have held back and looked at how the sales went. As it is they all piled in, are building at once and are finding phases 2 and 3 tough to sell. We have no new industry, no mass immigration so where are the people coming from to buy them?

 

[Andy]

Out of curiosity who is going to build these extra hundreds of thousands of houses each year, I assume there is a workforce of skilled trades just sitting around ready to go?

Plant in Scotland here is quiet, I'm on a housing site just now but absolutely detest them.

 

[fundy]

Plant in Scotland here is quiet, I'm on a housing site just now but absolutely detest them.

Trades round here quoting silly prices most of the time as theres so much work available they can pick and choose

The whole approach to house building is misguided and has been for many many years, needs a cohesive long term plan defining what is needed and how best to provide it

 

[IanM]

How do you plan for housing, when you cannot plan the level of demand?

 

[Rooter]

How do you plan for housing, when you cannot plan the level of demand?

Kevin Costner knows the answer...

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And so the Tories would propose a policy to the left of anything Corbyn has come up with on housing - a policy that demands that private and listed companies do not have 'profit generation' and 'shareholder value' as their primary objectives. A policy that would have bosses of these companies being on bonus schemes that are not based upon company performance and profit.

You couldn't really make it up. But it's a great idea. let's get going Theresa and Sajid Javid.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

How do you plan for housing, when you cannot plan the level of demand?

You know the current demand - and on top of that you plan for nett immigration of 10,000-250,000 a year. Ah yes - I see the problem

 

[IanM]

You know the current demand - and on top of that you plan for nett immigration of 10,000-250,000 a year. Ah yes - I see the problem

Well that's a good 100K short this year then! (And go away a find out how wrong estimates of EU migration were for a 20 year period!)

...and while you are there, please research the production capacity of the UK construction industry.

...and of course, regional disparity is missing.


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Why is demand side economics beyond some people?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Its not land or bricks that we’re short of but water, roads infrastructure, health care and schools.
Buts its all ok, the magic beans will provide all of this.

 

[Khamelion]

Re the above is this addressing the issue of young people getting on the housing ladder though, or all these new houses in NE being sold at usual £300-£400k etc so way beyond just about everyone under 35 who don't have loaded parents?
Think developers got stung bad after 2008 crash, surprised they'd be over speculating so soon?

£300k to 400k, depending on the area, anything from £75k to the skies the limit, but realistically £150k to £250k is more realistic, new build maybe a little more, but again depending on area and size of house.

Building houses has nothing to do with getting young people on the housing ladder, but more to do with the government's requirement for councils to build a quota of housing, both low cost for immigrants and young people and more houses in general.

Only a couple of miles up the A1, there is a project to build over 3000 new houses, new estates are springing up all over the place, it is getting out of control, the road infrastructure cannot cope. The powers that be say build more housing, but the infrastructure that supports the already existing housing and communities is over whelmed, there is little or no thought going into the consequences of the new housing and where the all the new traffic will go or the effect it will have on existing communities and roads.

As a poor analogy, when you move into a new house it may have two bedrooms, you start a family and need more space, so you build an extension, more space for the growing family. This is the UK, the population is growing by birth and immigrants, but we have no space to build an extension.

Perhaps in the not so distant future a government will say, stuff build in the national parks, stick an estate in the highlands and lowlands of Scotland, the Lake district could do with a few estates, Dartmoor is a bit barren, lets build a few high rises.

 

[MegaSteve]

Its not land or bricks that we’re short of but water, roads infrastructure, health care and schools.
Buts its all ok, the magic beans will provide all of this.

This...

In the Chilterns there are plans to build several new 'garden towns'...
But, they will have to pipe the water supply in from Wales...
As there has been no investment in reservoirs for the region since the 60's...

 

[Deleted member 1418]

Way too much development going on in and around my area of Hertfordshire (Bushey and Watford) without the necessary infrastructure improvements to support it, particularly the road network and schools. A school run and back which took about 15 minutes a few years ago now takes nearly treble that, both morning and afternoon.

We're lucky in a way that Watford Town Centre is getting a multi-million pound redevelopment, but on the flip-side we're getting worse off by the amount of people wanting to move in being a 'desirable' location with very good schools and quick rail services into London, as well as easy access to M25 and M1.

 

[IanM]

Its not land or bricks that we’re short of but water, roads infrastructure, health care and schools.
Buts its all ok, the magic beans will provide all of this.

Well, you are one up on the Shadow Home Sec!

 

[Khamelion]

This...

In the Chilterns there are plans to build several new 'garden towns'...
But, they will have to pipe the water supply in from Wales...
As there has been no investment in reservoirs for the region since the 60's...

Why do you think Keilder was built? It's the largest lake in Europe an a lot of that water gets piped down south.