Brickonomics

Are plunging rents a prelude to a mass buy-to-let sell off?

Here are the figures that the buy-to-let critics and cynics have been waiting for. Rents are plunging. Okay, this is only one month's figures from the surveyors' body RICS, but the many buy-to-let critics will see these as heralding a...

Posted by Brian on November 18, 2008 9:29 AM

Is buy-to-let really screwed? No, according to the figures. But...

What is all this about the "particularly hard-hit buy-to-let market" I keep hearing about in reports about the demise of Bradford & Bingley? The thing is, I tend to follow the figures a bit and was not aware of any...

Posted by Brian on September 29, 2008 2:00 PM

Are house prices sliding towards a cliff?

A snap survey by RICS has backed up the figures produced by Hometrack that homebuyers are demanding increasingly savage discounts from sellers. Hometrack puts that average discount at 10%, whereas RICS suggests 9%. But either way there will be a...

Posted by Brian on September 27, 2008 7:01 PM

Government needs to lay firm foundations for its housing policy

I admit it, my response to Caroline Flint's housing rescue plan Part II, "Facing the housing challenge - Action today, innovation tomorrow", was borne out of frustration. I admit that lapsing into frustration is a huge fault in my character,...

Posted by Brian on July 17, 2008 11:42 AM

A fall but no collapse in buy-to-let borrowers

The latest figures on buy-to let mortgages from the Council of Mortgages Lenders do provide some comfort for house builders tackling an increasingly tough market. There were fears that buy-to-let borrowing would collapse with the first whiff of a slowdown...

Posted by Brian on May 22, 2008 9:34 AM