Did ya get lucky tonight?

[Simon Bolivar]

Will do Pete, my mate has agreed to take delivery of these & bring them across on the Eurostar for my little bash, at least we know he won't get any hassle bringing smokes in through France

[ValeTudoGuy]

No wonder I didn't know about those auctions... Most of the lots sold for more than my mortgage.

[JoeyGunz]

I wish I had your mortgage! haha

[ValeTudoGuy]

Haha, I meant the monthly payment on my mortgage.

[Simon Bolivar]

VTG, You won't be surprised to hear that I am no longer one of the mortgaged classes, paid it off couple of yrs ago. Actually I am using part of my original endowment mortgage to paid for these lots; it took me 25yr sto pay this off so I am having something I cam treasure for yrs to come, rather than let it get all frittered away on lives other essentials ie the lovely women in my life!

[ValeTudoGuy]

And I would never begrudge a man something he has worked hard for, to be fair I have less money each month than I could but that's due to over paying the mortgage every month by the maximum. It takes it from 30yrs to 16ish so it will be worth it in the long run.

In a roundabout way you have just inspired me, the day I pay the mortgage off I will go out and spend an months mortgage equivalent on a special box of cigars.... Well I have 16 years to decide what I'm getting!

[Simon Bolivar]

Sounds a great idea, sure your choice will change every yr but it'll keep it interesting

[Sean]

VTG and simon my hat goes off to you both i can only manage to rent at the minute but would love to own my own place one day.

[Simon Bolivar]

Hope you manage it Sean but to be honest I think most of your generation will be renting all their lives. Well until their parents die, leave them their home & they can then use that as a deposit. Another good reason not to let them fritter it away on nursing home fees!
Remember the lists they have of you know your 30 when.. your 40 when..? Well paying off the mortgage at 50 was definatley a landmark for me. When you take it out, it's a real act of faith that you'll stay in work & keep making the payments every month. I was in the the RN when I brought my first house which ws x3 my salary, with my fiancee. We spilt after 18months but had mad enough for me to get a deposit on a one bed house & she a bed sit. I went aboard for a yr, rented mine out, saved my salary by working overtime at cable & wireless BOIT Indian ocean, came back & put 20k down on a 2 bed house. Then the interest went up from 9% to 15%! So I took in a lodger, they changed x3.
Then I left the RN, my last lodger quit & I had no income to pay the bills bar the 5K I got leaving the RN after 12yrs.
managed after 6 months to get work offshore. Had just met my wife so sold house, lost 18K, moved to Belgium. Took 18months to save up & we brought a 3 bedroomed house in Antwerp, the 3 rd cheapest we found. We have spent a lot over the years doing it up & now the wife wants to start decorating our bedroom again. As in fitting custom made wardrobes & units at 12k+!!! That's what I mean by keeping a wee bit for myself to treasure

[sheppsea]

It seems to me that the housing market is in a real mess, I was very lucky as my parents help my fiancee and me to put down a deposit on our maisonette, but even with that looking to buy upsize, looks very difficult

At 27 I'm literally the only one of my friends who owns their house, and even the Government schemes don't strike me as that good a deal as although it helps with the deposit it seems you need to borrow more, which is difficult when prices are so high compared to wages (especially in my area!). If anything these schemes are going to put prices up further

And the longer term, when our parents' generation start passing away the market will suddenly be flood with all these houses people suddenly want to sell, which will probably cause another crash as prices will plummet (thats my theory anyway!)

Sorry for going completely off topic, its just the most frustrating thing and probably cause 90% of the stress smoking a cigar takes away! 😉

[dazzer]

Sorry for dragging it down further (remove if necessary) but it will only get worse after 40 years of a refusal to build enough houses for the population and a continued lack of political will to build enough houses for the population going forward, while at the same time assisting the purchase of overpriced housing at a time of the lowest interest rates known, well, it isn't going to end well.

[Sean]

I think the only time i can see myself buying a house is if i win the lottery. Renting suits me and i know people say its dead money but so is interest only mortgage. I wouldnt want to commit to something so big as purchasing a house when jobs are so hard to come by now. And if that day ever came of me being out of work i wouldn't want that worry of not being able to put a roof over my sons head

Anyway rant over sorry for bringing this off topic simon

[ValeTudoGuy]

Sorry for dragging it down further (remove if necessary) but it will only get worse after 40 years of a refusal to build enough houses for the population and a continued lack of political will to build enough houses for the population going forward, while at the same time assisting the purchase of overpriced housing at a time of the lowest interest rates known, well, it isn't going to end well.

Unfortunately it's a little more than refusal. The infrastructure of the country is not where it needs to be for major building plans. Speaking from my industry which is water distribution, clean water can get pretty stretched as it is, it's already projected that by 2050 at the longest that the requirement for clean water in the UK will be higher than our ability to provide.

Also from an engineering point of view, the current waste and surface water systems are pushed to capacity for large parts of the year and it's projected to get worse year On year at current housing levels. Just imagine what building more housing will do.

Energy production is another grim story.

[dazzer]

All boils down to lack of political will.

If our infrastructure is struggling as a result of overpopulation and a lack of investment (which it is), then that too is as a result of specific policies. Energy, another issue that our politicians have failed to get to grips with. Energy diversification and home grown investment is the key. Giving the Chinese and French the keys to a brand new nuclear power plant in ten years time with a guaranteed income 100% higher than it is today is also an extremely flawed and myopic outlook which will do nothing aside from move profits offshore and increase home energy bills by an average of 10% each year for the next decade.

None of this is a surprise, it is an obvious and known looming problem that our political overlords have kicked into the long grass time and time again knowing that they will be long gone when the problem becomes an actual problem. Either that, or it is downright incompetence and corruption.

Railways, e.g. HS2, financed by the taxpayer, run by the privateers, the best run rail line at the moment is the east coast line and is entirely state run. Yet the political will is to get it privatised as soon as.

Same with the housing situation, I *think* the government assistance is not exclusively targeted at first time buyers or single home owners? If that is true, then aside from the inherent flaw of the plan itself, that also simply exacerbates the issue further of lack of supply and increasing demand. The reason the whole financial shit storm occured first time round was because too many people, had too many mortgages that they couldn't afford. Instead of addressing the issue of providing an adequate supply of affordable houses, they are intentionally engineering the recipe that had previously produced catastrophic results. It is madness.

/rant lol

[Simon Bolivar]

Seems like I started a ball rolling there! Hope you guys you the home of your dreams in the end.