34064 Fighter Command
New member
Uncle Spielberg said:9. home owners in their 40's and 50's are taking equity from their homes and buying 2nd, 3rd properties etc and building up buy to let porfolios as an alternative to pensions for their retirements.
But there is no guarentee that these properties will provide them with an income if they can't find people to rent them. Whereas a pension is usualy based upon a much broader range of investment which will include property as well as stocks & shares.
There is also the cost to a landlord of paying for the properties upkeep, council tax etc, regardless of wether the property is let or not. I'd rather keep my assets ' liquid ' rather than tie up my future income in bricks & mortar.
The real problem is that the private housing lets have no regulation applied to them, whereas with Council housing, rents were kept at a regulated level, & you could expect your home to be maintained by the Council in a reasonable condition. The Council also had an asset that they could use to encourage companies to locate to their particular location, knowing that there would be a ( temporary ) supply of housing for a sudden influx of people, whereas now people commute ridiculous distances between home & office simply because of unaffordable housing.