Making the news today....

[trigger_andy]

In Norway everyone seems obsessed with renovating their houses/apartments and getting a new 'tax' on it, ie, getting it revalued to see how much more its now worth. Its certainly not a UK centric phenomena. Getting your house re-valued and seeing what additional equity you have in your property allows the home owner to get loans for Cabins and Boats etc. Or even adding them to the existing Mortgage. 

[trigger_andy]

11 minutes ago, Big J said:

But despite this, the average house price on that postcode 2 years ago was about £658k. It feel that if the owners of these homes spent less on their mortgages and more in local taxes, the whole area would function better.

Geeeez, your Communist is showing.  

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, trigger_andy said:

In Norway everyone seems obsessed with renovating their houses/apartments and getting a new 'tax' on it, ie, getting it revalued to see how much more its now worth. Its certainly not a UK centric phenomena. Getting your house re-valued and seeing what additional equity you have in your property allows the home owner to get loans for Cabins and Boats etc. Or even adding them to the existing Mortgage. 

Is that localised? (Near major conurbations) or countrywide?

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

Is that localised? (Near major conurbations) or countrywide?

Im not sure really. Certainly in Stavanger and Bergen. But I have collages on the East side of Norway who have stated the same, so Id say it was countrywide. 

[Big J]

13 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

this is why there seems to appear to the English at least , so many run down unloved properties in France with the potential to create a fantastic property that would be utterly unaffordable in the UK .  DIY why appears to be a non thing in France from my own observations !!

 

My dad has said the same thing. They would much prefer to just buy something new not needing any work.

 

5 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It’s just that the French understand that you can’t just buy a property for 100k throw another 100k at it and expect it to be worth 500k like in the Home Counties.

 

If you got your money back you’d be doing well.

 

 

It's a similar mentality to buying an old car. You can chuck a whole load of money at it, but it won't perform as well as a new vehicle and you'll be doing well to get your money back.

 

4 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

In Norway everyone seems obsessed with renovating their houses/apartments and getting a new 'tax' on it, ie, getting it revalued to see how much more its now worth. Its certainly not a UK centric phenomena. Getting your house re-valued and seeing what additional equity you have in your property allows the home owner to get loans for Cabins and Boats etc. Or even adding them to the existing Mortgage. 

 

Interesting. I didn't know that. There do seem to be some fundamental differences in the psyche between Norway and Sweden.

 

3 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Geeeez, your Communist is showing.  

 

You're confusing communism and socialism my good man. There is a capitalist argument for first class infrastructure, health care and education, in that it improves productivity and profit on a population-wide basis.

[devon TWiG]

Property prices in France are still very high near the better places , nice parts of the Coast , the Alps or near big cities ....the English tend to buy in quiet out of the way areas where demand is low and prices follow ...same in Italy , Spain etc ...

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Big J said:

You're confusing communism and socialism my good man. There is a capitalist argument for first class infrastructure, health care and education, in that it improves productivity and profit on a population-wide basis.

I dont see a fundamental difference really. 

 

Those who can afford a £600k mortgage are already paying a huge amount in income tax. Not to mention the significant Stamp Duty owed on the purchase then the higher bands of council tax. Why on earth should they be tapped for even more? 

 

Yet when you get hit with a wee bit of tax on your Forwarder you go nuts.  

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, devon TWiG said:

Property prices in France are still very high near the better places , nice parts of the Coast , the Alps or near big cities ....the English tend to buy in quiet out of the way areas where demand is low and prices follow ...same in Italy , Spain etc ...

Very true.

[Big J]

8 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

I dont see a fundamental difference really. 

 

Those who can afford a £600k mortgage are already paying a huge amount in income tax. Not to mention the significant Stamp Duty owed on the purchase then the higher bands of council tax. Why on earth should they be tapped for even more? 

 

Yet when you get hit with a wee bit of tax on your Forwarder you go nuts.  

I would hardly say that £20k plus on an asset that was tax free until 8 months ago constitutes a wee bit of tax 😄

It's a difference of perspective here. I don't object to a free market economy, but it shouldn't be at the expense of public investment. The successive British governments have mismanaged and squandered colossal sums of money lining their own pockets of buying votes and as such we have a country where the concentration of wealth is in private property as opposed to public infrastructure. That imbalance is probably one of the main contributing factors to our low levels of productivity (when viewed in the European context). 

 

Compare our roads to the German autobahns. Our train network to just about anywhere in Europe. Our health sector to France. 

 

We just need concerted investment in bringing the lagging parts of the economy, society and the country into the 21st century. That's not communism. It's socially responsible capitalism.

[trigger_andy]

21 minutes ago, Big J said:

I would hardly say that £20k plus on an asset that was tax free until 8 months ago constitutes a wee bit of tax 😄

You might not think it’s wee bit of tax yet that seems to be exactly what you expect someone who owns a £600k house to fork out. They’d say the exact same thing as you. £20k on an asset (their house) that did not previously have such a tax on it. Surely you see the irony here?