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Credit Crash Britain

In a series of special reports the Money Programme team investigate the issues that are affecting all of our bank balances: Credit Crash Britain.

In the UK, home ownership is high, with successive governments encouraging home ownership for a number of reasons – the Conservatives because they think home owners are more likely to vote for them, Labour as a way of taking the cost of providing social housing off the government balance sheet. We are now a nation of home owners, relatively high in comparison with our European counterparts, especially Germany and France, but still not as high as in the US. Although, in Ireland, Norway and Spain home ownership is even higher.

Home ownership statistics should be treated with caution – different countries measure them in different ways. For example, it depends what you mean by a “house”: using the US definition, four out of 10 homes in India would fail to qualify. Also, in a growing population, for the percentage of home owners to stay still, the number of house owners would have to radically increase. For example, in the US, the number of households increased by 10 million in the 1990s and yet the home ownership rate increased from 64% to 67% during that decade. In the UK, the big increase was between 1951 and 1981 – 28 percentage points – largely due to the sale of council houses at below market rates.

Buying a house at a discount to the market price is a ‘no brainer’. Similarly, in the US, mortgage interest payments are tax deductible, while rental payments are not, making buying relatively attractive compared to renting. Tax deductible interest on mortgages also encourages borrowing up the hilt – the more you borrow, the lower your tax bill.

Toy house on a calendar.
[Image © copyright Photos.com]

In the UK, mortgage interest tax relief was abolished in 2000. But buying is still attractive for tax reasons – there is no capital gains tax on your main residence, however much you have made. When the capital gains tax rate was 40% on everything else, that looked attractive. And , in any case, you could take advantage of low taxation by setting yourself up as a ‘buy to let’ investor, with tax-deductible mortgage interest payments and a reduced capital gains tax rate of 24%. And all this was happening at a time when the mortgage market was deregulated, with traditional banks competing with building societies to offer attractive loan packages. They were able to offer so-called “fixed rate” mortgages – in practice for only 2 or 3 years, with borrowers expecting to be able to refinance at the end of this lock-in period with another attractive offer.

The rent versus buy decision is clearly partly a financial one. In a rising property market, it is easy to persuade yourself that if the mortgage costs the same as the rent, it is worth buying for the potential tax-free capital gain. And we all get sucked in. If we don’t buy, so the argument goes, we will lose our toehold on the property ladder. And that means only being able to afford a smaller house or flat in a less desirable area when we do – as we all expect to- eventually buy a property.

But we tend to forget that the property market is just that – a market in which prices go up and down and – worse – where liquidity can dry up much more easily than in a stock market. In a falling market, you may not be able to sell at all. My sister is trying to sell her house and has had the sum total of three visits from potential buyers in the past nine months.

The property market is a market in which prices go up and down...liquidity can dry up much more easily than in a stock market

In a rising market, we also tend to forget about the high costs of buying and selling. For example, renting a flat for £300 a week will cost around £15,000 a year on a flat worth say £350,000. But buying a flat for £300,000 will involve £10,500 of stamp duty, that is, the equivalent of 8 months’ rent. And that is before taking into account the legal fees, the estate agents’ fee on sale, the cost of the HIP, and the fees attached to any mortgage.

But there is a key non-financial reason why we don’t rent as much as say in Germany or France - security of tenure. In the UK, rental agreements are typically for 1 year with a possible break at 6 months, for both furnished or unfurnished homes. You’ve hardly had time to get settled in and you may be on the move again.

In France, furnished lets are similarly short term. But, the most common form of let, unfurnished, is for three years. The person who rents can give one month’s notice at any time; the landlord has to give six months’ notice at the end of the three years and only if there is a very good reason, such as they want to sell, or a close family member wants to move in. And, whatever the rental agreement you have, and whether or not you have paid your rent, you cannot be thrown out during the winter, between November and March.

I once asked a successful entrepreneur what was the best financial decision he had ever made. “Buying my house in Hampstead”, he replied. He had made more money in the property market than from his successful business. I think it is sad that we should in a sense be forced to buy houses and become experts in plumbing, electrics, and painting and decorating. I would far rather delegate that to the landlord, and get on with my work at which I am much more competent! The only problem with renting is the lack of a long-term rental contract to give me peace of mind. Maybe, instead of trying even harder than ever to encourage home ownership, the government could try to sort out the rental market instead.

Listen to this blog post on our Money & Management podcast.

Weblinks

• Where's My Mortgage Gone transcript
• You and your money interactive
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About the author

Janette Rutterford is Professor of Financial Management at the OU Business School, having previously worked in corporate finance and investment. Jannette's research includes pension funds, equity valuation and investment history, in particular the history of women and wealth.

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Money Programme

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You’d think that a service that cuts estate agents out of the house-buying process would be hailed as the best thing since sliced bread. Such services already exist, and can save you thousands of pounds, yet for some reason they have yet to make any significant impact.

The Money Programme 'Beat the Estate Agent' explores the growing range of alternatives to the traditional high street approach to buying and selling houses. These include a number of internet-based services, as well as leading supermarket chains, all keen to grab a slice of the market.

"Estate agents have seen their fees skyrocket tenfold in the last 25 years"

Estate agents have seen their fees skyrocket tenfold in the last 25 years, without doing a jot more work. In addition, many customers complain of dubious practices and poor quality service. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that some see this market as long overdue for change.

The internet has transformed the way we buy and sell most things. It has proved exceptionally successful at disintermediation, which is the ability to cut out the middlemen, especially where they’re seen as adding little or no value to the supply chain. So could it damage estate agents’ stranglehold on the property market?

The internet offers alternative business models which are attractive to house sellers in a number of ways, and a growing band of sellers are eager to switch. But this doesn't appear to be enough in itself to change this marketplace.

Very few innovations that rely solely on technology are successful. Technological innovation must be matched by market need, and so far house buyers seem reluctant to embrace this change. This acts as a brake on private sellers who would rather have a sale with a hefty estate agent’s fee, than no sale at all.

It’s not clear why buyers are slow to take up these new opportunities. Whilst some 70% of people now search for their next home online, many people still seem to be uncomfortable with the notion of engaging in direct negotiation with vendors.

Understandably, estate agents are not keen to see any growth in private sales. They suggest that sellers will lose out by not realising the full value of their property and not having an agent to manage viewings and screen-out undesirables. As Peter Bolton-King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, puts it “if you are selling it privately, any Tom, Dick and Harry can just come round”.

Much of the competitive advantage that estate agents have comes from controlling the flow of information at the various stages of the house buying process. However, this is gradually being eroded. For example, the Land Registry decided a while ago that the prices paid for homes must be made public. So both sellers and buyers can find out exactly how much was paid for other houses in their neighbourhood.

The availability of this information helps private sellers place an accurate value on their properties, effectively deskilling the estate agent’s role. Hopefully, as more information enters the public domain the house buying market will be exposed to more transparency, which (in theory) should be good for customers.

"The role of the estate agent could be on the cusp of a radical transition"

Everything suggests that the role of the estate agent could be on the cusp of a radical transition. But it’s not yet clear what will be the tipping point which will push the old business model aside. Until then I guess it’s business as usual.

Further reading

• Beat The Estate Agent – The Money Programme investigates some surprising alternatives to estate agents
• Network effects – new technology doesn't succeed or fail on its own merits
• Money and Management Forum – would you buy a house online? Or trust Asda to sell your house?
• War breaks out on the home front as old and new estate agents clash
• ThisIsHousePrices.co.uk
• The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age by Manuel Castells, published by Blackwell Publishers

About the author

Matthew Hinton is Senior Lecturer in Information Management at the OU Business School. His research addresses the impact of e-business on operations and information technology evaluation, especially the performance management of e-commerce applications.

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