The state of Cardiff's housing market as prices grow twice as fast as wages

[Feedback]

Maybe the world has changed since I stopped working in public housing 7 years ago - but at that time developers were definitely land banking, and (along with their supporters in the Tory Party) blaming planning regs. No doubt planning systems and regs can be improved, but my experience was they were put up as an excuse for developers wanting greenfield sites not brownfield, and resisting requirements to include section 106 affordable housing in some developments. It was mostly a smokescreen to maximise profits.

Councils do not build council housing because they are unable to fund them (despite the self-financing Housing Revenue Acount reforms of a decade ago) and because they will still be subject to Right To Buy - meaning the public (councils and remaining tenants) will continue to subsidise a section of new owner occupiers. Mass social house building is needed now.

The other recent factor affecting housing costs and supply - and a reason for owner occupation in the UK dropping from over 70% in 2003 to under 65% now - is the 'buy to rent' phenomena. Vast numbers of homes - new build and ex RTB council in particular - have been hoovered up by the new breed of landlord who then push up rents and collect from the affluent who can afford them, or those on housing benefits (so the state, or taxpayers, have to afford them) for those that can't. People in the middle get squeezed.

This is what happens when housing is seen as an investment asset, for personal or company benefit, not as a home. That mindset is much more prevalent in the UK than most other parts of Europe as Sludge said - even Romania with its' 97% owner occupation rate!

Developers don't land bank. It would tie up too much cash to do so. Developers want to develop but also have to develop with the intention of turning a profit.

[Tuerto]

There are 14,500 council houses left in Cardiff. CCC are the 2nd most active council in the uk at buying back ex council houses. Selling them off was a disaster, massively boosted the private rental marketin which some landlords did exactly what they wanted.

[jon1959]

Developers don't land bank. It would tie up too much cash to do so. Developers want to develop but also have to develop with the intention of turning a profit.

And if they could turn a bigger profit by sitting on the sites, that is what they did.

If you are so insistent that land banking never happened tell me what Henry Boot, Keepmoat and Kier were doing with their development sites in South Yorkshire in the period I described. I was working with them, talking to them, talking to the planning and development officers in the council, reading the reports and even visited a few sites.

No doubt you know better - so just give me the headlines on the real story.