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

[jon1959]

Developers cannot build because they cannot get planning. Councils do not build because mass social house building is only required in extraordinary times.

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!

[LeningradCowboy]

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!

Buy-to-let landlords are the worst in my experience. They spend the absolute bare minimum maintaining their properties because the rent goes straight towards paying their mortgage each month.