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Re:London Rents Eating Up 57% of Twentysomethings’ Income by imtringued on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @05:53AM (#11908191)
If housing prices didn't rise then nobody would speculate. The foreign investments are just the symptom amplifying the original problem.
Re:London Rents Eating Up 57% of Twentysomethings’ Income by TheOtherHobbes on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @06:29AM (#11908339)
House prices rises are engineered. The latest bubble was created by offering huge tax breaks to landlords who would take on a mortgage on buy-to-let property.

This is easy money for the banks. They get most of the rental income in mortgage payments on a secured loan, while using the landlords as agents.

Foreign investors go where the bubbles are, and leave when the bubbles pop - which the London bubble is doing now.

Anyone who got in after 2008 made out like a bandit. But the party is over now, and we could be moving into hangover territory.

Re:London Rents Eating Up 57% of Twentysomethings’ Income by wavefunction on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @06:31AM (#11908349)
A house's primary purpose is to provide housing. Speculation by capital should be the lowest priority of anyone's concern while formulating a housing strategy.