BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Pblakeney]

I beg to differ, the post which began this exchange (see below) made no mention of "low rents 40 odd years ago".

It made reference to homes vs investments in the 1990s. In my life time, buying a house was always regarded as an investment. Even my Father (who never bought a house), often expressed his regret at not buying a house, when he set up home, with my mother, in 1945.

That post which you have quoted was my personal opinion as to why house prices (bought & rented) are now so out of whack with wages.
I have seen nothing to change my opinion. I would however add on removing the 2-1/2 to 3x salary to mortgage limitation as a cause.

 

[Dorset Boy]

That post which you have quoted was my personal opinion as to why house prices (bought & rented) are now so out of whack with wages.
I have seen nothing to change my opinion. I would however add on removing the 2-1/2 to 3x salary to mortgage limitation as a cause.

I would say the relaxing of lending limits is the major factor.
It used to be a max of 3.25 + 1 or 2 +2 typically.
That was relaxed and Blair's government encouraged people to switch their short term debts to long term loans (ie adding their creditr card debts and other loans) to their mortgages. We also saw the nonsense of 125% loan to value mortgages.
Post the GFC the lending criteria was altered to an affordability test, coupled with the can you afford the mortgage if the interest rate jumps 3%.
The F'wits at the FCA then removed the 'crash test' requirement just as interest rates normalised.

 

[briantrumpet]

I was able to compare a no standing charge offer from Octopus with 12, 18 and 24 month fixed for my office a couple of weeks ago.
The no standing order tariff was the most expensive option for my level of consumption, which isn't huge.....

The key is to do the maths based on your longer term average useage - it's just a simple spreadsheet

Here's an impressive output of Gemini to do a similar thing (I uploaded a screenshot of the monthly totals for 2025) - obviously a lot hinges on how much the unit cost would go up by to cover the loss of the standing charge (the 20% was my prompt)

 

[laurentian]

I would say the relaxing of lending limits is the major factor.
It used to be a max of 3.25 + 1 or 2 +2 typically.
That was relaxed and Blair's government encouraged people to switch their short term debts to long term loans (ie adding their creditr card debts and other loans) to their mortgages. We also saw the nonsense of 125% loan to value mortgages.
Post the GFC the lending criteria was altered to an affordability test, coupled with the can you afford the mortgage if the interest rate jumps 3%.
The F'wits at the FCA then removed the 'crash test' requirement just as interest rates normalised.

I have been of this opinion for years now. House prices are more linked to what can be borrowed than they are to how many houses are built. The idea that building more houses will bring down the price seems highly unlikely to me.

 

[Psamathe]

It's looking like an impossible-to-call by-election, but the good news is that if Reform should win it, Labour + Greens vastly outweigh Reform

My view is that even if Labour win they'll probably have "lost" in terms of suppport. Previous General election Labour got over 50% of the votes cast, next closest party only got 14% of votes cast. Even if Labour slip it's the reduced margin that will be telling the story.

 

[Psamathe]

Any views?
Standing charges are a rip off. You should pay for what you use, but no more.

Same for water. My last water bill (at home entire time) 64% of the bill was standing charges (remaining 36% water and sewerage).

And still we get toilet paper and shït floating round some roads in the village (as has been happening for 18+ years every winter).

 

[briantrumpet]

I dunno, might there be a teensy weensy bit of context missing here?

 

[BoldonLad]

That post which you have quoted was my personal opinion as to why house prices (bought & rented) are now so out of whack with wages.
I have seen nothing to change my opinion. I would however add on removing the 2-1/2 to 3x salary to mortgage limitation as a cause.

I would agree, reference salary/mortgage ratio. @Dorset Boy has said the rest for me.

 

[briantrumpet]

Here's an impressive output of Gemini to do a similar thing (I uploaded a screenshot of the monthly totals for 2025) - obviously a lot hinges on how much the unit cost would go up by to cover the loss of the standing charge (the 20% was my prompt)

View attachment 13408

Ran it through Gemini again, and their info for the pilot scheme is that the standing charge will be reduced by £150, and the unit charge will increase by 4-7%. As a very low user, I should be quids in.