Even gladder I bought in 1992, for a song, in a semi-rural area that's seen prices (and new developments i'm happy/sorry to say) rocket - the house next door is up for 4 1/2 times as much as I paid and on a 20yr mortgage too. Only 7 years left of my sentence to serve.
So, in real terms, only 12.3% of privately owned property is investment.
I would guess that quite a lot of these were investment properties prior to the "buy to let" era, so it probably hasnt had as big an effect as we might think, and nor will it have too big an effect if prices fall.
OT - what are all the other investment properties, if they are not buy to let?
Indeed. The latitude here is 37 degrees 29 minutes south as far south of the equator as southern Portugal is north of it. Avocados are the commonest fruit round here.
I am not. The beneficiaries that the original poster commented on are not on my doorstep.
I suppose buying to let is investment, but surely much privately-owned rented property was not actually bought with a view to letting. It may have been bought to live in, and then rented because it would not sell, or because the owner who had moved away for (e.g.) job reasons, wanted to move back into it in due course.
The Economist correctly called the last housing bust - based on their analysis of rents to prices. Admittedly they've been calling this bust for the last 3 years... it is going to happen at some point.
I was being a bit frivolous actually the phrase, "buy to let" ,has been coined to describe a "new" phenomena which has come into being, as many more mortgage lenders have created products which allow individuals to borrow on investments without the rigmarole and rejection previously experienced.
Presumably many investment properties were "bought to let", and it is actually a phenomena which is as old as house purchase itself?
As you say, some investment properties became so by default, rather than being purchased deliberately as such.
I was being pernickety. I reckon that to qualify as an investment, a conscious choice to buy for gain has to have been made, be it for "gaining" income (rent) or with the expectation of capital gain.
In that case I will claim that there will not be a property crash in April 2157, so in 152 years one bunch of relatives will be able to celebrate our profound incite!
Seven years left? I guess that will be when the next housing crash will be bottoming out.
How do you see prices faring over the next 7 years?
I made a mistake, prices in Edinburgh have not dropped overall yet, the 1.3% referred to flats in one part of Edinburgh. It is worst in the east where the "plush, penthouse" type flats in the old docklands areas are down 5%. BTLs piling out?
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