psst wanna buy a cheap council house?

[vetran]

Is it just me or does selling council houses off at massive (70%) discounts seem wrong?

If you can afford to buy it surely you shouldn't be in a council house any more?

[alluvial]

Is it just me or does selling council houses off at massive (70%) discounts seem wrong?

If you can afford to buy it surely you shouldn't be in a council house any more?

Not so much wrong but stupid.
It was a stupid vote-grabbing idea when Maggie did it and it's the same now.

[Ticktock]

Is it just me or does selling council houses off at massive (70%) discounts seem wrong?

If you can afford to buy it surely you shouldn't be in a council house any more?

Probably not.

My brother is in one. If it is sold at 70% discount then the mortgage repayment would be about 50% of what he pays in rent at present (assuming he could get family to lend him 10% deposit and a lender to give him a mortgage).

What he currently pays in rent to the housing association for a 3 bedroom house would get him a 2 bedroom flat on the private market - he has 2 girls and boy, so that wouldn't work out.

To buy his house at market value would cost him about 1.5 times his rent in monthly payments. However, it would also require a fairly massive deposit (for 10% of value), which he doesn't have, and has no way of saving towards.

The discount that they propose offering is of a size that makes taking them up on the offer possible for some people, rather than an empty gesture. Even so, there will be a lot of people for whom even this level of discount isn't enough for them to be able to take it up.

[DimPrawn]

Help to Buy
ZIRP
Free council houses
Bungs to large property developers

That pretty much sums up Tory policy

[alphadog]

Is it just me or does selling council houses off at massive (70%) discounts seem wrong?

If you can afford to buy it surely you shouldn't be in a council house any more?

Feels wrong to me.

Another issue with it is that in the long run it pollutes the quality of the housing stock of the nation.... we started off with no council houses, now we're going to get more and more.

[Halo Jones]

My concern is that it’s not council houses; but housing associations who, in many cases use the generated rent to build more properties, if they are forced to sell off will their business model work? I fear not which means they won’t build any more affordable homes, which will reduce the stock which will push up house prices & lead to even more BTL.

Oh look the Tories are inflating the house market

[TheFaQQer]

The Tory plan is to force houses that are privately owned to be sold off to the renter.

A council house is owned by the state, a housing association house is in private hands.

[alphadog]

The Tory plan is to force houses that are privately owned to be sold off...

(at a 70pc discount)

Shades of communism, no? I sure am glad I'm not one of those owners.

[SlipTheJab]

The Tory plan is to force houses that are privately owned to be sold off to the renter.

A council house is owned by the state, a housing association house is in private hands.

Dave really is getting desperate isn't he, think he knows that he is out unless the Tories win an outright majority.

[alphadog]

Dave really is getting desperate isn't he, think he knows that he is out unless the Tories win an outright majority.

Big question in my mind is: if the Tories win the most seats (but not an outright majority), will the lib dems feel obliged to form another coalition with them cos they won the most seats? Surely the Tories won't form a coalition with SNP?

Could we end up with a Lab-Lib-SNP coalition?