bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
nope. low-end landlords are scum fleecing those unable to afford to buy - and in more than one way too.
Given the opportunity would you become a buy-to-let landord?
- Thread starter Hollis
- Start date
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
Exactly.bluestreak said:
If someone wants to buy a million pound house and rent it out for 5 grand a month to some city type who can afford it, then fine by me.
If someone buys a 150 grand flat and rents it out then that's completely scummy. There's a huge lack of low end properties and a huge level of demand. With people behaving like that, it's hardly surprising people can't afford to get on the property ladder....
Hollis
bloody furious
In what way are they 'fleecing' people.. There's numerous people living in London who don't want the commitment of owning property.. I didn't remotely consider buying property in London until I'd been here 7 yearrs. They need somewhere to live to.
So landlords provide them a place on short-let.. zero commitment, zero responsibility for the property.
So landlords provide them a place on short-let.. zero commitment, zero responsibility for the property.
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
Hollis, dude, just be honest!
You're a mercenary, capitalist Tory who wants to screw the little guy even more by buying up the few remaining affordable properties and renting them out to people who can't afford their own affordable property because they've all been bought up.
It's alright, really it is, we understand.
Soon as the revolution comes, Hollis is first against the wall, I can already feel my trigger finger itching.....
You're a mercenary, capitalist Tory who wants to screw the little guy even more by buying up the few remaining affordable properties and renting them out to people who can't afford their own affordable property because they've all been bought up.
It's alright, really it is, we understand.
Soon as the revolution comes, Hollis is first against the wall, I can already feel my trigger finger itching.....
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
oh come on hollis, don't be ridiculous. the burden of home ownership? it's not like most landlords fix things properly or quickly anyway. most are just there to get as much money as possible from their captive market - the poor.
Hollis
bloody furious
bluestreak said:
Tell me about it. Ever had a plumber come round yer house?
There's undoubtedly crap landlords about. But then alot of their market isn't necessarily the 'long term poor'.. People just setting out on lifes journey.. you know people over from Spain for a year, just moved down to London, don't want to stay in London long term, going to move in with their girlfriend..etc. You can't see it just in strict classist terms.
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
I'd have much less of an issue with buy-to-let if the tax laws were geared more in favour of those who've yet to even make the first rung of the property ladder.
How about abolishing stamp duty for first time buyers and tripling it for those buying more than one property?
That wouldn't stop people from investing in property they're not going to live in, but would help out those who are stuck in the rental trap.
How about abolishing stamp duty for first time buyers and tripling it for those buying more than one property?
That wouldn't stop people from investing in property they're not going to live in, but would help out those who are stuck in the rental trap.
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
EastEnder said:
Become a 'rent' boy
Hell no. Buy-to-let landlords are just about the purest possible form of human parasite - contributing absolutely nothing positive to society themselves, and making a living purely by extorting money from others for "providing" what ought to be a free universal right.
The fact that so many people here would have no problem with doing that (or even with others doing that) actually shocks and saddens me at how wilfully blinded people are by capitalism to accept that which any person with half a conscience should easily see as totally unacceptable...
Buy-to-let landlords are responsible not just for the death or near-death of the social housing sector (and its consequent forcing of most poor single people into a choice between huge amounts of debt and/or the inability to buy sufficient food, fuel, clothing etc (because often over half their income goes on rent) or the inability to escape from dependence on family and thus social status as a child (or, for those who don't have family, homelessness)) but also for the near-impossibility (as already mentioned) to buy a property to live in yourself with the ultimate aim of paying off the mortgage and getting after about 20 years what everyone should have to begin with, ie living space for free...
IMO having no problem with being a private sector landlord is pretty much morally equivalent to having no problem with being a pimp or crack dealer...
The fact that so many people here would have no problem with doing that (or even with others doing that) actually shocks and saddens me at how wilfully blinded people are by capitalism to accept that which any person with half a conscience should easily see as totally unacceptable...
Buy-to-let landlords are responsible not just for the death or near-death of the social housing sector (and its consequent forcing of most poor single people into a choice between huge amounts of debt and/or the inability to buy sufficient food, fuel, clothing etc (because often over half their income goes on rent) or the inability to escape from dependence on family and thus social status as a child (or, for those who don't have family, homelessness)) but also for the near-impossibility (as already mentioned) to buy a property to live in yourself with the ultimate aim of paying off the mortgage and getting after about 20 years what everyone should have to begin with, ie living space for free...
IMO having no problem with being a private sector landlord is pretty much morally equivalent to having no problem with being a pimp or crack dealer...
What you and your mates ought to do is get together as a collective and buy a place as a co-op (altho of course the effect of buy-to-let parasitism on house prices makes that more difficult too)... www.radicalroutes.org.uk/ has good info...pootle said:
if i had a place and had to be somewhere else - abroad, or based elsewhere - for a couple of years or whatever, i'd be happy to rent it out to cover the mortgage. If i had a spare room and was skint, i'd rent it out i guess, if i had to.
i'd never buy a place with the express intention of renting, for all the reasons stated above
i'd never buy a place with the express intention of renting, for all the reasons stated above
Termite Man
zombie flesh eater
I don't like the idea of buy-to-let landlords because they do increase demand from a limited supply thus contributing to rising house prices .
twisted_angel
If in doubt.. mumble.
This is what i now do for a living.. shock horror i'm a parasite now apparently!! 
I don't agree though, over the years i have done all sorts of jobs and i aquired a house that i rented out to students, things have gone so well over the last year that i have gone into buying and renting and selling property as a living, its a job, it brings in money for me to support my family without having to clean public toilets which is a job i once had! I'm not ashamed of what i do now, i'm proud of how well i have done for someone with no knowledge of the property market... just as a woman with bigger balls than most men i know, it takes guts to take a risk but i now have a reputation as being a good landlady, i have students already putting their names down for rooms as they know my rents are good and the accomodation is alot better than alot that is offered near the university, they look after the properties and i have a good raport with them all.
We aren't all here to rip our tenants of, its just another business thats there for the taking, there are houses here that have been derelict for years, yet affordable decent housing is badly sought after, whats wrong in aqcuiring a property for a song, putting the work in to make it a home and selling at an affordable price to someone who wants a house thats ready to move in, and making money at the same time? I have been approached by families that have asked me for houses to rent but at the moment its just student accomodation i have. Not everyone wishes to buy, some want to rent from private landlords.
I love what i do now, i'm providing a much needed service and i do it well!
I don't agree though, over the years i have done all sorts of jobs and i aquired a house that i rented out to students, things have gone so well over the last year that i have gone into buying and renting and selling property as a living, its a job, it brings in money for me to support my family without having to clean public toilets which is a job i once had! I'm not ashamed of what i do now, i'm proud of how well i have done for someone with no knowledge of the property market... just as a woman with bigger balls than most men i know, it takes guts to take a risk but i now have a reputation as being a good landlady, i have students already putting their names down for rooms as they know my rents are good and the accomodation is alot better than alot that is offered near the university, they look after the properties and i have a good raport with them all.
We aren't all here to rip our tenants of, its just another business thats there for the taking, there are houses here that have been derelict for years, yet affordable decent housing is badly sought after, whats wrong in aqcuiring a property for a song, putting the work in to make it a home and selling at an affordable price to someone who wants a house thats ready to move in, and making money at the same time? I have been approached by families that have asked me for houses to rent but at the moment its just student accomodation i have. Not everyone wishes to buy, some want to rent from private landlords.
I love what i do now, i'm providing a much needed service and i do it well!
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
In the absence of adequate pension provision, what's your average, not very rich person supposed to do in order to provide for their retirement?soulrebel said:
Yes, you point out that property owners will be living rent and mortgage free; fair enough, that sorts out the roof over your head, but what do you live on?
Even in countries like China, and in other asian cultures that revere the family and parents, there's a cultural shift and fewer children are supporting their parents in their old age, leaving them impoverished.
Pension schemes? Maxwell. Numerous companies going bust having raided their pension schemes, stuffing their employees/pensioners in the process, leaving them with nothing to show for their years and years and £k of contributions. Closing of final salary pension schemes.
Investments in the stock market? Enron, Worldcom, dotcom crash. The best returns on the stock market (and don't forget, if you invest in a pension scheme, that will be invested in shares) come from e.g. defence contractors, airlines (all those carbon emissions from aren't exactly environmentally friendly), what about the tobacco industry, doesn't that provide a good return? What about the leisure sector... corporations with holdings in casinos (parting fools with their money), what about pubs/bars (aren't you profiting from binge drinking, 'lager lout' behaviour and cirrhosis of the liver among alcoholics?).
In the absence of a lottery win, I'm going to have to make provision for my old age.
I'm currently 'economically inactive' (i.e. disabled awaiting surgery) and when I hopefully go back to work, I'd be reluctant to invest in a company pension given how dodgy so many of them have proven to be.
I wouldn't want to invest in a big pension scheme anyway, because you don't know where your money is going or what it is supporting, e.g. medical research (I have a neurological difference that is being researched with a view to finding a 'cure' and providing prenatal testing and 'euthanasing' people like me).
By the time I retire, the 'welfare state' will probably have collapsed and there will probably be no such thing as the state pension or if there is one, it will be absolutely minimal, not even subsistence levels, it will be a token amount, and having contributed thousands through NI contributions over the years, I'll be unlikely to benefit during my retirement, so that will have proven to be a money pit with no return on my 'investment'.
What's more unethical in the scheme of things? Investing in a pension scheme that holds shares in BA, BAe, Caterpillar, etc., or buying some bricks and mortar and renting out the property to someone who needs a roof over their head? Don't forget, as someone else pointed out, lots of people move, e.g. to London, on a temporary secondment or working holiday, and lots are students, like where I am. There are somewhere in the region of 20-30k students in Manchester in need of temporary accommodation. Would it be unethical of me, say, in five or ten years, if I can afford it, to buy a property to rent out to students or people who've maybe just moved to Manchester for work and are renting before buying?
Cloo
Banana for scale
Maybe - I'm an 'accidental' landlord, having moved out of my place to rent with gsv. It's been OK at the moment, but I've found even small incidents pretty stressful, so I'm not sure I'd like to go for it. Plus too many people buy to let with too little idea of what the hell they're doing and the market right now is rather saturated, so I wouldn't choose to do it right now, or not without a lot of strategic advice.
Too many people fuck up as the think it'll be the easy life in a few months flat, but it takes a lot to live off it and you do, I think, have to generally be a bit of a cunt to manage the upkeep of more than a few places and I'd be loathe to be like that. I'm already way too nice as a landlord and have very easy terms for my tenants that leave me nowhere near as much security as most landlords ask for.
Too many people fuck up as the think it'll be the easy life in a few months flat, but it takes a lot to live off it and you do, I think, have to generally be a bit of a cunt to manage the upkeep of more than a few places and I'd be loathe to be like that. I'm already way too nice as a landlord and have very easy terms for my tenants that leave me nowhere near as much security as most landlords ask for.
Hollis
bloody furious
twisted_angel said:This is what i now do for a living.. shock horror i'm a parasite now apparently!!
I don't agree though, over the years i have done all sorts of jobs and i aquired a house that i rented out to students, things have gone so well over the last year that i have gone into buying and renting and selling property as a living, its a job, it brings in money for me to support my family without having to clean public toilets which is a job i once had! I'm not ashamed of what i do now, i'm proud of how well i have done for someone with no knowledge of the property market... just as a woman with bigger balls than most men i know, it takes guts to take a risk but i now have a reputation as being a good landlady, i have students already putting their names down for rooms as they know my rents are good and the accomodation is alot better than alot that is offered near the university, they look after the properties and i have a good raport with them all.
We aren't all here to rip our tenants of, its just another business thats there for the taking, there are houses here that have been derelict for years, yet affordable decent housing is badly sought after, whats wrong in aqcuiring a property for a song, putting the work in to make it a home and selling at an affordable price to someone who wants a house thats ready to move in, and making money at the same time? I have been approached by families that have asked me for houses to rent but at the moment its just student accomodation i have. Not everyone wishes to buy, some want to rent from private landlords.
I love what i do now, i'm providing a much needed service and i do it well!
So d'you work in London, and, err, if so, d'you think the market's saturated now?
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