Gardiner & Robinson say: ?End Buy to Let Mortgages and expand ...
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-09-28 02:15:11
Two Ulster Unionist Assemblymen. Sam Gardiner MLA the Ulster Unionist Planning Spokesman and Ken Robinson MLA have called for an end to buy to let mortgages which they said were stacking the odds against the first time buyer and for an extension of the shared equity co-ownership scheme to allow borrowers to take out as little as 25% of the equity in a new home.
“The overheating in the housing market has been caused by buy to let mortgages allowing speculators to mop up a high proportion of the properties first time buyers would normally purchase. This has had the effect of pricing first time buyers especially young couples out of the housing market. Buy to let speculators should have to depend on ordinary commercial bank loans.”
“This move should be coupled with an extension of the shared equity scheme available for shared ownership. At present the most anyone can expect the NI Co-ownership scheme to pay out is 60% of the cost. Yet in England this figure is 75%. If this figure were increased to English levels that would make a huge difference to young first time buyers.”
“Across Northern Ireland the average price for a terraced house is £177,000 and the average determine for an apartment is £183,000. If we take these last two – a terraced house or an apartment - as the entry point for first time buyers and take an average of the two at £180,000 that would mean that the difference between a 40% lower level of equity and a 25% lower level of equity would be £27,000 – the difference between the first time buyer having to find £72,000 or £45,000.”
“We have only one vehicle for shared ownership and that is the Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association. This compares to 101 shared ownership housing associations across the rest of the UK. Wales - with a population of some 3 million compared to our population of 1.7 million - has 10 shared ownership housing associations. The answer however does not lie in the number of associations but in the range of shared ownership options they offer.”
The MLAs also called for recognition that with current property prices partly driven by population increases apartments should be considered as suitable first time homes and there needed to be a cultural shift which recognized this. This they said was the norm across Europe.
They also argued that the regional development strategy of allowing infill development of apartments and town houses was “appear,” provided that it did not destroy areas of architectural merit. To impose too many restrictions on infill would be selfish and would deny many young people the chance to get a foot on the first rung of the housing ladder.
“We are not saying there should be no restrictions but we are saying that there should be no blanket restrictions. We need to do something for the first time buyer and if we prohibit building in the countryside and in the towns–where is left?” [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://uuptoday.org/newsroom/2007/11/13/gardiner-robinson-say-end-buy-to-let-mortgages-and-expand-shared-equity-scheme-to-help-first-time-buyers/
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