Your responses are welcomed: reader 'PasserBy' comments on a recent piece, with reference to the redidential and commercial property markets:
I would agree that there is no housing crisis, other than that manufactured by the government.
The main criteria for housing is that it be built and bought with borrowed money - ie the Banks keep the wheel turning and shave off their profits.
There is money in old housing but not as much as the megabucks required for newbuild residential.
As an aside, the commercial property market is in freefall. Again you wont read about this on the BBC - heaven forfend any bad news should leak out!
Whats happening behind the scenes is that pension funds (large and small) can neither rent nor sell their CommProp 'investments' and are starting to wobble. Of course the rules dictate that you cannot hold residential property in a pension so not even conversions are possible.
By CommProp incidentally, I am referring to retail and light industrial properties - right up to office blocks and distribution centres.
Prices have to be kept elevated else the whole british economy and mentality will collapse. It just remains to be seen how long the plates can be kept spinning.
The coming tsunami of 1 million + Chinese from Hong Kong after some manufactured crisis there is the plan. They, with their wealth, are currently buying up houses at an incredible rate all across the UK.
This is what is fueling the 'boom' in house prices.
This is required because the demographics of the UK are incredibly bad for housing and house prices. The Boomers are stepping into their endgames in ever larger numbers the the houses they bought in the 60s and 70s are flooding onto the market. The Chinese are needed to prop the whole thing up.
When I say 'housing' or 'house prices' I of course refer to their main role as collateral for the vast amount of borrowing currently outstanding in the UK. If housing goes down, the banks and likely the UK economy will crater.
Its more likely to happen than not and it'll make 2008 look like a picnic.
But every little tweak and fiddle by the government is directed to keeping prices elevated.
Britain is hoist on its own petard but the less it struggles the longer it'll survive.... fascinating to watch.
