Pound down, House Prices up, Boris to decide

Pound down, House Prices up, Boris to decide

13:50 PM, 1st August 2019, About 5 years ago 5

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Foreign Investors will be rubbing their hands with glee. The pound has dropped 14% since 2016 against the US dollar. What does that mean for British house owners? Initially your house remains the same price, but for foreign buyers the house in Britain is 14% cheaper!

That is it at Face Value. We can expect more American, Russian, Chinese and Indian buyers of British Houses in the South East. On the whole these will enter the rental market! It will follow that with less houses for owner occupation the Vacant Possession prices will increase.

I cannot see foreign buyers going for off plan purchases as no one will know the value of the pound when completion is achieved!

The shortage of labour has resulted in an increase in employment costs. Wages have dis-proportionally risen and many East Europeans are saying I am off home, because the pound sterling has dropped 10% recently. They still measure their salaries in euros not sterling. For those who have settled in England it makes no difference.

Many small businesses who were reliant on British Labour in 2005 are now heavily reliant on East European Labour in 2019. There are 4million houses needed to play catch up and it is East European labour which erects the houses. Labour costs rise, so house prices rise, so rents rise!

So what is the answer? Well that is for Boris to decide. That is what he was elected for.

Difficult decisions are the privilege of rank!

Fergus Wilson


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Comments

Bristol Landlord

17:05 PM, 1st August 2019, About 5 years ago

As a UK citizen but non resident landlord currently living in the USA I think it’s going to be a case of Pound down, House prices down.
Prices have already slipped in my area,
If we no deal Brexit, or any kind of Brexit, then the UK economy will shrink, jobs will be lost and my tenants will find they can’t pay the rent I need to sustain my small portfolio of 7 properties.
Europeans currently working here and renting may be forced to leave the UK which then pulls out thousands of potential tenants. Possibly Brits living in Europe are forced to return to the UK which adds to potential tenants?
Any way you slice it it’s going to get incredibly unstable and unpredictable for UK landlords.
Why would a foreign investor buy into the UK PRS right now? There is great uncertainty politically, economically and legally for both the country as a whole and the PRS in particular.
Also if a foreign investor/landlord buys into the UK market to take advantage of the lower pound his profit, if he actually makes one, when converted to his home currency will also be lower due to lower pound.
I could maybe see a foreigner buying a home in London because that’s his long term plan to have a London home but investing in a Victorian terrace in Grimsby, fuggedaboutit!!
My dilemma is should I sell my portfolio right now and take the losses already sustained or should I wait to see what happens with Brexit and either regain my losses or lose even more?
Any UK landlord who voted for Brexit has to be a complete nincompoop with an IQ considerably lower than a mentally challenged
turkey voting for a Christmas dinner every Sunday.
The only way this impending disaster can be averted is if Brexit is cancelled ASAP and the country returns to its previously relatively stable economy. Even saying that I think enormous damage has already been caused over the last 3 years and repealing S21 is going to make the UK PRS even more challenging for landlords, local or foreign.

RichDad

9:44 AM, 2nd August 2019, About 5 years ago

Project fear epitomised: "Pound down, House prices down. … If we no deal Brexit, or any kind of Brexit, then the UK economy will shrink, jobs will be lost"
While there may be many landlords who agree with these sentiments, there will be many others who don't (these must be the "nincompoops" and "turkeys").
BL, if you are so apprehensive about the future, then yes, you probably should sell up to regain peace of mind. It hardly helps to be insulting of others, and probably keeps you wound up about it too.
I agree with Fergus about increased foreign investment when the Pound is low, but I think there will be a substitution effect whereby non-EU immigrants will progressively replace those from the EU, to fill all those job vacancies.

Demand for housing (and this rent levels) will therefore remain as high as ever until Boris and team build/allow a million new homes.

Denise G

11:05 AM, 2nd August 2019, About 5 years ago

I'd just like to say that if we continue to call the proven incompetent liar currently residing at #10, who is supposed to be the leader our government 'Boris', then we too are cutsifying him, when in actual fact he is a very dangerous man. Every other politician is known by their surname. Why should this clown be any different?
I say we must start calling a Johnson a Johnson! (look it up if you need to)

philip allen

17:13 PM, 4th August 2019, About 5 years ago

I voted Leave for reasons that a moron like you could never understand and I'm a portfolio landlord.

Denise G

17:23 PM, 4th August 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by philip allen at 04/08/2019 - 17:13I would expect no less than resorting to personal insults from SOME Leavers, but please note that I wouldn't dream of suggesting that ALL members of any group share the same attributes - oh and btw so am I!

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