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Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

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Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now sure if you didn't get the education to get a decent job. Hell even on 25k each, Nationwide can lend upto £275k for a first time buyer - just need that deposit. This horrifies me. Even the slightest increase in interest rates will ruin a huge number of home owners. On the other hand, home ownership in the UK isn’t normal either. It’s only since the 50s or perhaps 60s that the average person has been able to aff…

>This horrifies me. Even the slightest increase in interest rates will ruin a huge number of home owners. And the slightest increase in inflation will benefit them. A competent central bank would make sure that it all balances out.

Having lived through the 70s and 80s, the last 30 years have been relatively stable by comparison. But different. Zero interest rates, ERM, and QE, versus inflation, stagflation, currency devaluation, decimalisation and the winter of discontent. I can wait to see what black swans we get in the next 20 or 30 years. My point being really, the classic finance phrase, past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now sure if you didn't get the education to get a decent job. Hell even on 25k each, Nationwide can lend upto £275k for a first time buyer - just need that deposit. This horrifies me. Even the slightest increase in interest rates will ruin a huge number of home owners. On the other hand, home ownership in the UK isn’t normal either. It’s only since the 50s or perhaps 60s that the average person has been able to aff…

Usually mortgages are a fixed rate for the life of the loan (usually 30 years) -- at least here in the USA. Variable rate (eg "ARM") mortgages are also available but are less common and mostly used for short term flipping and the like, for the very reason you say -- nobody wants to risk a rising payment due to rising rates. Is the situation very different in the UK? Do Britishers actually prefer variable rate mortgag…

Uk banks offer a wide range of mortgages. Interest rates used to be set by the government rather than the Bank of England and were a political tool until the late 90s. That added to uncertainty and pushed people to fixed mortgages. Then the era of low interest rates arrived and people were locked in to high fixed rate mortgages which had a fee to get out of.

Now there are Australian type mortgages, basically repay as quick as you can, that are variable rate plus X. Or fixed and floating, or pure fixed. It generally depends on your personal position.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#453
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an issue of inflation. Inflation has been super low for the past decade or more. Everything else is cheap, it's just housing that's expensive. It's a combination of scarcity and speculation leading to more artificial scarcity. Make it less attractive for speculators and build more houses.

How is the CPI a useful measure of inflation if it ignores the things people actually have to spend money on like housing and healthcare?

You don't pay for the house. You pay for the mortgage. The mortgage is accounted for in the CPI and man gets this tiring. The housing component of the CPI has always been 3% for decades. It's one of the few things dragging it up to 2%.

If you have a higher interest mortgage the value of the house goes down but you still have the same monthly payment.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#455
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While banks may not check this on signing, they'll certainly check it when you start defaulting. This really is the worst advice ever. It's a sure way to get you in Real Trouble when shit hits fans. This is not legal advice either, btw. Just someone who read the tiny letters in the mortgage contracts.

Banks will definitely know about any other mortgages and loans you have within the Netherlands before the mortgage is finalized. These are all registered with the credit agency they all employ. The only exception to this rule (for now) is a government student loan.

I hope you're right! No one knew or did anything about him renting out the Groningen house thats for sure. I don't know what happened with the 3rd house plan of his, hopefully it didnt materialize.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he defaults. From his point a view he is not risking too much; he never put his own money as down payment it was 100÷ mortgage which NL is too generous with. Then the rent he earns is higher than the mortgage due to the low interest. So best case he ends up with 3 houses in 25 years. Worst case he gets some angry letters from the bank and loses houses that arent really his. I am not condoning his actions but they…

But he lied on his mortgage application about loans in other countries. So he could be up for some fraud criminal charges, and jail time.

I find that extremely unlikely

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now sure if you didn't get the education to get a decent job. Hell even on 25k each, Nationwide can lend upto £275k for a first time buyer - just need that deposit. This horrifies me. Even the slightest increase in interest rates will ruin a huge number of home owners. On the other hand, home ownership in the UK isn’t normal either. It’s only since the 50s or perhaps 60s that the average person has been able to aff…

Usually mortgages are a fixed rate for the life of the loan (usually 30 years) -- at least here in the USA. Variable rate (eg "ARM") mortgages are also available but are less common and mostly used for short term flipping and the like, for the very reason you say -- nobody wants to risk a rising payment due to rising rates. Is the situation very different in the UK? Do Britishers actually prefer variable rate mortgag…

A lot of things in the UK are set up essentially with the notion that you shop around as much as you can to get the best deal, but it extends to credit cards, utility bills, internet, your mobile phone plan, etc. and not just one-off purchases.

You have little to no incentive to stick around as a long-term customer when there will be a fresh new deal enticing you to switch whenever your last contract expires. It's often more expensive not to switch as there's no benefit to being loyal to an energy or telecoms firm.

This arguably extends to mortgages too.

At the root of it all is that there's more competition between these elements and legislation has forced businesses to make it easy to switch providers at no cost. Anecdotally, I've been through three different ISPs in as many years in order to keep my internet costs down.

That doesn't directly address the question, it just highlights a mindset.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#458

This is a common policy across the world. It is based on flawed reasoning, and won't work. Simply put, housing isn't getting more expensive because investors are buying houses. The causation is the opposite: Investors are buying housing because its value is consistently going up, making it a good investment. So why are prices going up? Prices are formed by the forces of supply and demand. In the regions I know about,…

>Prices are formed by the forces of supply and demand.

Technically the problem is that the supply is permanently fixed. There is no force on the supply side.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#459
post #4

This is the only right way to deal with greed. Enough is enough.

Greed is innate to humans and you can't even take it away with communism, people will still find a way to collect and hoard. The problem is the low interest rates from central banks flooding the economy with money.

If you raise interest rates then people hoard money. How does that solve anything?

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contra: > The Square Mile has the highest percentage of empty homes in the entire country, fresh data states. > Some 42.4 properties per 1,000 sit unused in the City of London, leaving it top of the charts and the only London authority to feature in the nationwide top 10. > Data compiled by insurer Admiral also shows that as many as 29,242 London homes have been unoccupied for at least six months, to a collective val…

4.2% is a lot less than 70%.

That's because real vacancy (as in, untenanted) only makes up a small percentage of the empty houses. The rest are owned by wealthy foreigners who reside there a few weeks in the summer and leave it to the care of a caretaker (who does not live there of course) for the rest of the year. Some of the obscenely wealthy may even have a live in concierge who lives in his own rooms keeping the rest of the house ready for its owners all year round.
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