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There has only been a spring bounce in asking prices this year, not surprised as everyone who bought 2 years ago rush to sell to some idiot who just doesn't exist. Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said the housing market was "finding its feet in an era of higher interest rates". Interesting, the housing market feet are well below the top of it's head.

It also depends if you are getting a mortgage - above about age 45 every year you wait is one less year you have on the repayment term. I think that large drops in prices can only occur if we have a severe cyclical recession but TPTB seem to be doing everything they can to keep the plates spinning.

Got rid of SEDY and HFEL this morning so zero exposure to China,Hong Kong and Taiwan. I've had a punt on some Country specific ETF's such as Turkey,South Africa,Thailand,Indonesia and Malaysia.

House prices stagnate as mortgage rates increase BEAR FOOD First-time buyers and homeowners looking to remortgage are still facing a "significant challenge" when it comes to finding affordable deals, the Halifax has said. The lender's comments came as it said the average UK house price rose by 0.1% in April, with a typical home now valued at £288,949. Halifax said house prices have been largely flat in the early part of 2024. Mortgage rates have been rising in recent weeks, mainly due to expectations that the Bank of England will make fewer interest cuts this year. The Bank's latest decision on interest rates will be announced on Thursday, with most analysts predicting they will be left unchanged at 5.25%. Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said the housing market was "finding its feet in an era of higher interest rates". "While borrowing costs remain more expensive than a few years ago, homebuyers are gaining confidence from a period of relative stability," she added, with activity and demand improving. “However, we can’t overlook the fact that affordability constraints are still a significant challenge, for both new buyers and those rolling off fixed-term deals," Ms Brydon said. "Mortgage rates have edged up again in recent weeks, primarily as a result of expectations around future Bank of England base rate changes, with markets now pricing in a slower pace of cuts." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqenp5zpen6o

The results say otherwise. The Tory candidate's campaign leaned heavily on scrapping ULEZ and she managed to lose vote share.

The pension costs are so big now at councils they are cutting services to pay for them and trying to fleece anyone they can.We would have a booming economy if the state and councils where half the size minimum.Even if the business could pay that £800 its just inflation on workers to pay for the pensions.

No cafe and the local council has lost a bit of revenue. Absolute genius local authority executives. Worth every penny of their future pension, not!

More for the Fuckwit n Arsewipe thread..... Theres so many law firms chasing so little business that the claims stuff is nuts.

Anecdotal: Grosvenor Park in Chester had a Cafe, it at least it did in March, it has now shut due to the Council demanding rent of £800 per week. This requires huge footfall to service when added to the other overheads so the business closed. There is now no Cafe.

On the radio yesterday there was one of those ambulance chaser adverts asking for customers who had been badly advised by St James with a view to seeking compensation! I was rather surprised to hear it.

More kite flying, and cliff crashing. £5m Constantine Bay near Padstow. Can you see what the problem is yet? One big cliff fall and you're on the beach. And it's on a tiny plot so you don't have the option of rebuilding somewhere further away if that happens. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146143619#/?channel=RES_BUY

The biggest swing voter group in London, considering how anti-private car Khan and the ULEZ is.

From that perspective ,it always have been the case ,slavery never ended they just removed the chains and replaced it with debt ,the problem we have now is to many governments got high on their own supply ,those willing to take on the counter party risk are demanding more for doing so Default of Zimbabwe beckons

We had a couple of people from Reform knock at the door, which is more than any other party did. Unfortunately, they were absolute cunts who banged on about "the cycling lobby", "lycra louts" and school streets. I pointed out that, despite having a nice car on the drive, I cycle to work and drop the kids off at school on a cargo bike. They apparently couldn't understand why you'd have a nice car but use a bike. They're basically just a pro-private car pressure group, at least in London. Given that I was ready and willing to listen to them, hoping to like what they said enough to vote for them, and came away deciding not to vote at all, I can only imagine what the average person things of them.

40c plus in Ballarat. They can keep their gold!

When I travelled the world, I stayed and worked in both Oz and NZ for over a year each. I have family in Oz and friends who have emigrated to NZ after seeing the writing on the wall some years back (beauty of growing up in a shit area, ears closer to the ground and all that). I could have quite easily have lived and got residency in both. The only reason I came back was because of family here. But since 2020 Aus became a Petri dish for the WEF. Militant lockdowns, mandatory vaccines for work, and now hurtling towards cashless digital currency and IDs. This was so much so, one of my friends returned to the UK after 20 years. Basically you can’t escape it (At least in western countries) I spent some months traveling around Thailand and Asia, my brother has spent the last couple of years there quite happily. If I didn’t have family here I would have no quarms about upping sticks tomorrow.

True. Especially any non-working partner. That's quite often the killer, especially for the corporate bod sent on an overseas tour to complete his/her entry criteria to the C suite. I was brought up expat so am OK making do. Just as well as there's a fair few wierdos on the expat circuit to whittle the acceptable group down even more. Not a surprise really. Locals take time, although the wierdos amongst them are more forthcoming! That said, my partner was total home counties but thrived in a variety of quite demanding situations. Made it a real team effort and gave me a new level of respect for her. I actually stopped the expat life as I tired of doing it alone and not being able to share it. Got back to the UK, met her, and off we went! Me parents had some hard times though including coups, house arrests, illness, violence, expulsions, etc that must have left scars. Probably a net positive but certainly not for free.

The phrase that springs to mind on emigrating is "whether you think you can or you can't then you're right". If you're the kind of person who needs big networks of friends and family to feel happy then you're highly unlikely to be happy abroad as they take years to develop and much more difficult to do when you're older. I have plenty of good friends and family but I can take it or leave it, just as happy alone but never lonely. The difference now is that people aren't going to be emigrating because of the weather, they're going to be emigrating because Mohammad just took control of their local council for the "Green Party" and mandated that each household must pay a levy for Gaza and new Shari'a patrols and rubbish collections are abolished and replaced with a big fire in your street.

The 1970's bit appeals. Bit like the village we live in currently. We still see a coal lorry making regular deliveries around here.

tasmania has weather the same as the UK, with the added advantage everything is stuck in the 1970s.

Anyone borrowing to fund a fhl needs their head felt. im off for my morning walk round town shortly. Given that it’s the day after the bank holiday, i should find it difficult to park. My guess is that I’ll have my pick.

Couldn't cope with the heat. I was feeling hot yesterday when the thermometer breached 20 degrees!

It beggars belief the number of people i know that toss around, “oh, my financial advisor…”. Im sure there is a bunch of these people in scabby ‘advising’ people.

FHL walk a very narrow tight rope. They need to charge much much more than a rental as they have much higher costs and only let for a small percentage of weeks. If they charge too much then they wont get the bookings and they'll lose the FHL benefits - these are gone anyway now. If they charge too little theyll fuck up the yield, which the bank does monitor to check theyve not let to a duffer. And is commercial loans - the bank can - and does- call the loan in if it finds its let too much to an area. To quote most (local) people I know whove jumped into FHL im the last 10y - and a eye brow raising number have with a mortgage - we dont make any money. They are luck theyll skim low thousands - 3/4k year. Which when you add up the mortgage debt and risk is laughable. Previously, locals only let grans old house i.e no debt.