The unravelling of the great buy-to-let scam

[Green_Bear]

The unravelling of the great buy-to-let scam
spectator.co.uk/the-magazine … scam.thtml

Ross Clark says speculators and fraudsters saw easy money in buying city-centre flats with borrowed money — but investors and lenders now face huge losses as prices crash
I have developed a rather ghoulish pastime. It involves thumbing through auction results for repossessed apartments in city centres, then checking what those same properties sold for when new, a year or two ago. My record so far is a two-bedroom flat in a development called Beauchamp Place, Coventry, which was auctioned in September for £85,000 — less than 40 per cent of the £214,000 for which it was sold new in June 2006.

[xman]

From the same article

In January I spoke to a middle-aged couple in Sunderland who had sold their suburban home to buy a city-centre apartment, only to find themselves, even after several months, almost the only people living there: most of the flats had been bought by Irish investors, who could not let them. There was no infrastructure of shops, schools or anything else to support a community: just flats and more flats.

Ah Canny, I hardly knew ye.

[fishfoodie]

Interesting read that article.

I think ‘Irish Investor’ is going to become a simile for stupidity in the future.

[2Pack]

For Sunderland read Longford if you will

This article is a must !!!

[Stifster]

The future for many of these flats, I suspect, will be as social housing. In June the government made £200 million available for housing associations and councils to buy empty new homes, and you can bet there will be more as local authorities work out that buying flats at distressed prices is a cheap way to house social tenants. We’ll be back where we started: with inner cities full of council tenants. But at least they’ll have a better class of kitchen.

Our council tenants will be in the suburbs (sandyford) and not only will they have a better kitchen but they’ll also have a concierge.

[Rimbaud]

@2Pack

For Sunderland read Longford if you will

This article is a must !!!

I doubt any buy to let in Sunderland came with the exceptionally generous Tax reliefs that were available in Longford,lets face it you could pretty much write off the cost of the house in LEGIT avoidance in a matter of a year(granted you are then obliged to hold it for 10 years but wtf)if you have other rentals.