A bit of Simple Plan news. I was out on the March for Homes at the weekend, and I’m afraid nobody had a SIMPLE PLAN NOW banner, mainly because I didn’t make one, although some Germans did ask me if I was an “expert on the housing crisis”. That said, it was a pretty decent demo for an absolutely horrible day, and I am rather proud to find out I’ve now been on a march with Max Levitas. And why not chant BORIS OUT BORIS OUT BORIS BORIS BORIS BORIS OUT!
Anyway, here we go, from the FT. 48 local authorities have created a company to issue municipal bonds jointly, reckoning that they can raise money substantially more cheaply than they can get it from the Public Works Loan Board. This is of course a key element of the plan.
Through algorithmic serendipity, the FT‘s sidebar on the story was this.
London faces surfeit of expensive new homes…Most of the new homes being built are two-bedroom apartments in high-rise towers and many are being sold to “unsophisticated” foreign investors, said Charlie Ellingworth, the founder of Property Vision.
“It is unlikely that investors are going to see the sort of yields that they have been led to expect,” Mr Ellingworth warned. “The pool of buyers may extend to the whole of China, but the pool of tenants is pretty static.”
The owner of a £1m, two-bed flat would need to charge £30,000 to £40,000 a year in rent in order to make a gross return on their money of 3 to 4 per cent, Mr Ellingworth said. “There are not many people in London who can afford that.”
There’s no reason why it has to stay a £1m flat if nobody wants to pay the rent…obviously, municipalising the minigarchs would be a dear do, but at least we’re getting the machinery in place.
Simple Plan latest:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-31162806
More simple plan – this time a slight variation on it:
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/feb/10/blackpool-treasury-slash-residents-housing-benefit
“Blackpool also aims to drive the worst landlords out of town by establishing a competing private rental firm offering high-standard accommodation and support to tenants. This is set to open in April, pending approval of its business plan by councillors this month.”
That’s a pretty smash-mouth way to go about it, and risky with it. mind you I have a running joke with Tom Gann in the other place that I’m counting on his Maoist insurgency to terrorise landlords into selling up so the simple plan can buy them out, and it looks like Blackpool has independently invented the idea.