The Royal Family Discussion Thread

[hackey lad]

49 minutes ago, altus said:

There are two reasons why governments don't do anything about housing.

1. Reasonably priced housing -> collapse in house prices -> unhappy voters who already own houses -> dislike government.
2. Hyperinflation of house prices -> voters who already own homes feel richer -> happy with government.

I think the best we can reasonably hope for from governments is that they ensure enough houses are built to stabilise house prices (so they don't go up). Increasing wages will then gradually make them cheaper, although it will take a long time. It would however require all parties to commit to such a strategy over a long time (decades) and for none of them to try to get a temporary electoral boost by setting conditions that encourage house prices to increase. So that's not going to happen.

What about building council houses?

[altus]

8 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

What about building council houses?

Without a right to buy, their effect would be similar to reasonably priced houses. With a right to buy (and without too many being built at once) they'd encourage hyperinflation - people buying houses at a discount can sell them for a profit immediately and that enables them to pay more than they otherwise would as they move up the housing ladder.

[Anna B]

Apparently the queen owns 26 individual dwellings, from castles and stately homes to Manor houses and Mansions for her personal use, or in her gift to other members of the clan. And that doesn't include places like Highgrove or Gatcombe Park, or property in the Duchy of Cornwall, and the vast number of properties of which the crown is leaseholder or landlord. At least she'll never be short of a bed to sleep in. 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Anna B

[hackey lad]

18 minutes ago, altus said:

Without a right to buy, their effect would be similar to reasonably priced houses. With a right to buy (and without too many being built at once) they'd encourage hyperinflation - people buying houses at a discount can sell them for a profit immediately and that enables them to pay more than they otherwise would as they move up the housing ladder.

Got to wait three years and not everyone buys their council house 

[altus]

5 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Got to wait three years and not everyone buys their council house 

Compared to the wait they'd have for prices to go up by the level of the discount, three years is relatively soon. Yes, not everyone buys their council house but if you build enough of them, enough people will buy them to have an impact on the housing market as a whole. You only have to look at the effect that right to buy has had on the housing market since it was introduced to see the scope for a large effect.

[hackey lad]

Best not to build any then .

[harvey19]

8 minutes ago, altus said:

Compared to the wait they'd have for prices to go up by the level of the discount, three years is relatively soon. Yes, not everyone buys their council house but if you build enough of them, enough people will buy them to have an impact on the housing market as a whole. You only have to look at the effect that right to buy has had on the housing market since it was introduced to see the scope for a large effect.

I imagine most houses bought from the council were built in the 1930s or thereabouts.

they will have been paid for many times over in rent.

They will have been in need of modernisation and increased repairs.

The council had these responsibilities to pay for plus the cost of collecting rents etc therefore councils were probably happy to lose this expenditure and maybe the reason right to buy income could not be used to finance new council housing.

 

[Anna B]

1 hour ago, harvey19 said:

I imagine most houses bought from the council were built in the 1930s or thereabouts.

they will have been paid for many times over in rent.

They will have been in need of modernisation and increased repairs.

The council had these responsibilities to pay for plus the cost of collecting rents etc therefore councils were probably happy to lose this expenditure and maybe the reason right to buy income could not be used to finance new council housing.

 

That may well be true. The big mistake was that the Tory government would not allow councils to use the money to build new council houses.

 

[harvey19]

34 minutes ago, Anna B said:

That may well be true. The big mistake was that the Tory government would not allow councils to use the money to build new council houses.

 

I think the point of the exercise was to reduce council housing.

[crookesey]

I know several families that have bought their council houses on S17 estates, only to suffer the indignity of problem tenants being housed close if not next to them.