The post-election residential property market – is it safe as houses or should you run for sunnier climes?

As a nation we are going through changing times, with the various political parties spewing out their pre-electoral rhetoric, like the drunkard that everyone tries to avoid. In their desperate thirst for power, the three main parties have resorted to the last refuge of the scoundrel; that is, profligate spending that appeals to a short-sighted, public-sector mentality, venal, low-IQ voter base that refuses to think beyond the next government hand-out.

Worzel Gummidge, the leader of the Labour Party and his Caledonian gimp McDonnell are threatening to inflict their Communist intentions upon us, which will transform this country into that heaven of economic rectitude, Venezuela. What they don’t break they steal, emulating their hero and mentor, the late banana-flavoured dictator Hugo Chavez.

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Ban on Letting Agents’ Fees – boon for the tenant or the clunking fist of needless government interference?

‘The road to servitude is paved with government intentions’ as economist Friedrich Hayek might have said. His prophetic ideas are pertinent today, where we are on the cusp of a government ‘initiative’ to ban letting fees. As always with bureaucratic interference, a busybody’s desire to help the ‘vulnerable’ ends up as the economic version of playing the piano with boxing gloves, where the cure can often be worse than the ailment.

Any ‘fule kno’ that agents in response will simply raise their fees, which are usually around 10%, to landlords. The inevitable consequence will be higher rent levels for impoverished tenants. Continue reading

Sick Building Syndrome

According to the press, Westminster Council is considering a ban on the building of supersized homes. Is this a prudent planning measure or is the council suffering from a bad dose of the ‘Trots’?

Of course, this ‘initiative’ is risible and I’m sure that the green-eyed diktat will be poorly received by certain residents of this London borough.

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