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Tuesday 30 January 2018

Are you a victim[1] of a new-build leasehold? A digression

Just look at the howls of self-pity coming from house-buyers on discovering that their property is leasehold!

Saturday 27 January 2018

TWO GOOD ARTICLES IN TODAY’S PAPERS (SAT 27 JAN, 2018)


TWO GOOD ARTICLES IN TODAY’S PAPERS (SAT 27 JAN, 2018)

  Anne Pettifor, always a good read, explains as I have done, that
“Building more homes won’t solve the housing crisis”

And over in Ireland comes the explanation that too many people actually like rising house prices. There is a coalition of the greedy and the desperate who would be horrified if prices were to crash.

Friday 19 January 2018

EXCESSIVE HOUSE PRICES—HOW THEY LET IT HAPPEN

[of course it’s the price of LAND that is boosting the price, so in this extract I’ve added LAND to housing]
Here are four ways the State reinforces the hyper-commodification of housing LAND to make the price of housing so expensive.
—First, the state deregulates mortgage lending, ends rent control, and privatizes public housing LAND in the U.S. and U.K.

—Second, the state allows financialization of housing LAND by the banks pooling mortgages and selling them as “liquid assets.”

—Third, the state allows globalization of housing LAND with foreign investors speculating in U.S. housing or buying luxury housing as an investment which were never meant to be lived in.

—Fourth, the state allows gentrification to increase landlords’ profits with huge rent increases.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/19/the-myths-of-housing-policy/
In a review of David Madden and Peter Marcuse’s thought-provoking book In Defense of Housing asks us to rethink the U.S. housing crisis.



Wednesday 3 January 2018

THE FIX: GIVE EVERYONE £40 P.A. TO HELP PAY THE NEW LAND VALUE TAX



THE FIX: GIVE EVERYONE £40 P.A. TO HELP PAY THE NEW LAND VALUE TAX

What’s wrong with abolishing Stamp Duty completely in one fell swoop, and replacing it with a simple mini-LVT based on the value of the plot your house stands on?