UK Landlord Forum / Life

Is anyone able to point me in the direction of some literature where I can better understand the UK deficit as described in the Economist?  It is truly frightening to compare our deficit with that of France and Germany but I KNOW that there must be some compensating figures that would make me feel better about the UK spending stats (possibly invisible earnings?).  Any shortcuts or advice greatly appreciated. 

Hey Pimp,

Welcome to the forums. Yeah, the facts and figures are pretty interesting. I'm not sure where you can get your holds on "literature" per'se, regarding the issues. However, there should be a lot of small bits and bobs around the place.

I just googled, "UK deficit" and got back these results:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=277
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1120104,00.html

Basically, a lot of news articles. Sorry I couldn't of been more help. If you find anything interesting, please post here. Thanks!

Many thanks (I still want to cry!). 

Things can't be that bad, can they?

UK Trade Balance latest 12 months            =        -160.4$bn
France                                                  =        - 40.8$bn
Germany                                                =       +253.1$bn
US                                                        =       -810.7$bn

How can we afford to continue doing this is what I want to know (but I am hopeful an economist on site is going to pop up and say something like ("that takes into account that we are paying off a lot of the national debt", or "invisible earnings were a total of 200$bn")).  Somehow I doubt it.                 

America is in a lot of trouble, aye?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/09/ukeconomy

Here is the latest.  Explains a bit more about the others earnings that offset the balance somewhat but still worrying.   

Do you own property, Pimp? Or do you have interest in property?

Hi PF,

Yes I have been a btl landlord for about 9 years.  Now selling up as I am not sure about the market (although still picking up the odd bargain that I can sell on which makes me feel a bit guilty but if it was not me it would be someone else).  Never sure whether to admit to being into BTL as many people think very poorly of us.  For my part I have sold one of my properties to tenants (at a real discount) and have promised a young family that I will do the same to them when the five year fix expires in 2009.  So I have a social conscience I think as I never raise the rent once a tenant is in and am pretty conscientious with repairs etc.  Have you ever visited www.housepricecrash.co.uk?  They banned me for being rather bullish on the property market (oh and for being less than respectful for their heirachy system).

Yeah, I know HPC very well.

http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/2007/10/14/house-price-crash-hpc-website-mentality/

The place is very biased against bulls- they're pretty crazy!

http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/2007/11/11/the-house-price-crash-hpc-community-are-crazy/


How many properties do you own, if you don't mind me asking? It's pretty decent of you to sell at discount rate. Good on ya'

Tks those sites were interesting - although I am fairly often on GHPC now just to see what is going on (to be fair, HPC is difficult to beat for up to date information and pointers on bank problems etc).  Not a great businessman with my selling at a discount but the BTL market has made me a fair amount - had to be in about 2000 or earlier to make big bucks unless you were really dedicated (to me it was a fun pastime).  You into property?

Yeah, I BTL.
I'm really into property investment, but it's a hard bracket to enter right now because the market is so uncertain. I'm not quite sure where to invest at the moment.

Yes, the guys and girls at HPC really had me a bit worried and FP being on tv a lot must make a lot of people a bit twitchy.  Funny though on site they compare the people he is put up against quite unfairly.  Lets face it, FP spends all of his time either trying to get on tv or studying the market (or rather the site) and getting his story in place (and sometimes not very well).  BBC phone an established estate agency but, to be fair, the guy thrown into the lions den does not spend his nights researching the property market.  As for the Vested Interests that FP often quotes - no more vested interest than he who sold to rent a few years back (his wife must be saying "You get on tv you fat tw@t and make amends for making me sell three years ago".