Friday, Jul 04, 2008
Why the housing bust is bad news for the fire brigade
MoneyWeek: Why the housing bust is bad news for the fire brigade
"...the housing boom was based on consumption, not productive investment. Buy-to-let flats were overpriced consumer goods that have now gone out of fashion. Like a warehouse full of leftover models of last year's must-have Christmas toy, all they're doing is taking up valuable space that could be better devoted to something else..."
Posted by damien @ 10:56 AM (461 views) Add Comment
8 Comments
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1. mark said...
a little off topic, something i have noticed is houseprices for those houses with oil fueled boilers are dropping much more in value, i assume this is because of the now outrageous cost of heating the house now..
2. letthemfall said...
mark:
Interesting. Where did get this piece of information? I was speaking to someone last night who said her oil bill is horrendous. All the semi-rural (and expensive) houses around where I live are dependent on oil for heating.
3. mark said...
just by watching properties on rightmove, i have selected a list of 76 properties to watch to get an idea of price drops and this is what i found..
4. uncle tom said...
Bad news for the fire brigade?
As anyone who has friends who are firemen will tell you, there's nothing they like more than a good blaze.
They get sick to the back teeth with false alarms and cats up trees, and few have much enthusiasm for the human tragedy of car crashes.
Smouldering hay-ricks are smelly and tedious, and the potential for exploding gas cylinders makes industrial fires scary.
But a good solid house fire, with no-one trapped inside - that's what they really enjoy!
5. Adrian said...
I remember during the last crash a few properties and businesses burning down.
One house, the person was redecorating and decided to move all his personal belongings and furniture to his garage. He then accidentally burnt his house down. Im surprized no one saw this as an insurance job and he received his payout.
A few pubs also burnt down and a local chip shop exploded. Strangley one of the businesses that burnt down became a bank, possibly the bank that it was mortgaged through (but that is just speculation).
6. drewster said...
@letthemfall,
Those semi-rural homes can have gas delivered by truck. They need a large gas canister in the garden, but it's no more unsightly than oil tanks. Either way, a cold country like Britain doesn't seem like the best place to be in an energy shortage situation. Ditto in a food shortage situation. Perhaps it's time to emigrate to Brazil....
7. montesquieu said...
Phrase of the week I think:
'At the height of the boom, you could have built a block of flats in the middle of the Gobi Desert and you'd still have had idiots queuing up to buy them off plan.'
And haven't we just met these very idiots down the pub ....
Priceless.
8. mark said...
drewster there can be planning issues with gas tanks in some areas...