I think they are TRYING to cool down the property market that's why
the interest rate is rising. The trouble is that they can't do it too
quick too soon otherwise lots of houses would get repossessed (it'd
hurt the economy too much). The balance has to be right.

Little do people realise that: when they have a large mortgage
(especially when they can ill afford), they don't own the house,
their lenders do. It's just more an ego thing. It boosts their ego
to say, "I OWN a house" when they don't really.

Oddly enough, when house prices were low, no-one seemed that
interested. Then when it went crazy, people began to crave them like
mad. I guess it's just human nature.

The anomaly was actually not good for this country despite the
Government bragging about how good it is. As you've found out, it's
only good for some opportunists. It's not healthy economy. These days
people are so desperate that they are willing to be tied down for the
rest of their lives with a large loan and still foolishly believe
they've got a good deal. The shared ownership is an even worse deal,
not sure who thought up this lousy idea.

Currently, 70% of the land in the UK are not occupied. It's probably
about 10% are domestically occupied. So it's not that we have not
enough land, it's just bad planning. If the Government has spent
more effort on domestic issues, we would not have this housing issue.

Unfortunately, however much we protest, the Government is not going
to take any notice (as usual, they would tell you they are taking
this very seriously then ignore you), so I suggest people should wise
up and learn other ways to handle the situation.

Here's a page you might find useful:
http://www.zest4best.co.uk/wealth.htm



--- In redditch-freecycle-cafe@..., "atkinson19c"
<atkinson19c@...> wrote:
>
> Looking at the "freebie" newspapers I see nearly as many homes to
let
> as ones to buy. Has the buying up of this housing stock by
wealthier
> people (in order to create more wealth ) helped to inflate prices
to
> levels which cause real hardship for first time buyers? A more
> difficult question now. If it has, then how, in a democracy, do you
> stop it?
>