Carney tells UK rates may rise this year

[eek]

There was a BBC programme about this recently, with Evan Davis, on the 'London Effect' explaining that companies like to cluster around other companies. While this has happened to an extent in Cambridge, the main focus is of course London.

That has nowt to do with Evan Davis as the original work is from Michael Porter in his Competitive Advantage of Nations.... http://kkozak.wz.cz/Porter.pdf is the original summary.

Success begets success...

[d000hg]

Don't be daft ... everyone would commute to Birmingham. Or Londoners might move to Brummy Land where the schools are, I hear, excellent.

oiigcellent

[eek]

And for cities that struggle to stay afloat, like Birmingham, we could suck the life out of them by building a HS rail link to London.

But no-one would be that supid surely?

Have you ever met your typical politician...

[scooterscot]

The housing boom is not just because of the shortage of the home(s). There are still plenty of houses around tbh. The problem is everybody wants to live in a particular area only.

Which area? I'm looking to invest.

[rd409]

Which area? I'm looking to invest.

Londonistan. Anywhere within zone 1-5 is a good game. The nearer to the Central zone, the better.

[TykeMerc]

No chance until after the next election.

I agree that seems unlikely. Interest rates rising is bad for votes.

[Sysman]

If your house was worth 100k instead of 400k is that a bad thing if the wider market is the same? It's all relative when you come to move.

Too many interested parties are involved.

• solicitors
• estate agents
• surveyors
• insurance companies (would you like PPI with that sir?)

All of them base their charges on a percentage of the house price, so guess what happens.

[Sysman]

They'll need a squeaky clean credit history, with no missed payments on their mortgage or credit cards for literally years, and no sign of maxed out credit or even a trend of decreasing their available credit. So probably a large proportion of people needing to remortgage will be declined.

Nail on head. Those who really need to cut down their outgoings will be the least likely to be able to do so.

And all you need to wreck a squeaky clean credit history is one sleazy company who tries it on by continuing to invoice after a contract has been cancelled.

[Zero Liability]

Lots of houses tied up as rentals. I think if the government is going to interfere in the free market (and I'm not necessarily saying they should)

Been there, done that, still doing it.

[Zero Liability]

This applies to businesses with a debt addiction, too.