How many Million pounds do you walk past every day?

Despite the credit crunch and the recession, property prices have held up remarkably well in Mill Hill. This could be down to low interest rates, it could be down to the area. Given that several of our largest financial institutions technically went bust, it is amazing how little real damage seems to have been done. I bought my house in 1987 for £40,000. It is now worth in excess of ten times that amount. Assuming every house in my street is of a similar value (they aren't, most are worth more), my road is worth £48 Million pounds.

Just think how much all of the property in Barnet is worth. It is a huge, mind boggling sum. Now consider this. Most people don't actually really own their house. The bank/building society do. Until you pay off your mortgage, they have a charge on your property. What happens if they go bust? If just one Bank/ Building Society goes bust, another company or the government would pick up the loan book. If however they all go bust and the whole house of cards collapses, what then?

If there were no companies to lend us money for mortgages left, no one could buy houses and property prices would also collapse. We'd all be left with huge debts, no means to pay them and no assets to cash in. Given that there is no way the whole country could be evicted, what would happen?

I am just asking this because as best I understand it (and I'm no economist) the party most likely to form the next government of Great Britain has a policy of letting banks fail, if they can't meet their commitments (please correct me if I'm wrong). Now I'm not criticising this policy (as I said I don't understand it). I'm just wondering if the most prudent thing to do is sell every asset I own, buy gold bars, hide them under the bed and wait for the economy to fail. That way I'll be able to buy my whole road for next to nothing. A friend who knows about such things tells me the price of gold is the only true way to tell how the economy is doing. The higher the price, the worse a mess we are in.

According to Goldprice.org it's up 21.72% on the year and 159.2% over five years. If I'd sold my house five years ago and bought gold with the cash, I could own my house and the one next door today (along with a flat on the other side). What does this really mean? If gold is "real money" it means that your house is really worth approx on third of what it was then. How does it feel to find out that you've lost two thirds of your biggest asset in real terms and no one had the decency to tell you? You may think that "oh it will be alright, things will recover". Well sadly it isn't that simple. To make up for this difference between what you think your Pound is worth and what it is really worth, the Government has taken out a huge mortgage on all of our behalf (it's called the Deficit). What happens to Mortgages? That's right, we have to repay them or we lose the house. That is why the next few years will be rather difficult for us all, whatever happens. Enjoy your breakfast.

Barnet Property Prices set to plummet due to Council Policy

Are you considering moving to Barnet? Are you considering moving away from Barnet? Are you not considering moving at all, but you own your own flat or house? Well if you fall into any of these categories, you really should read this blog and consider some of the points raised. There is an old saying about the three most important factors which affect the price of a house. Location, Location, Location. People will spend more money on a house if the house is in a nice area. If it's not, then they will pay far less for the same house. What makes a "nice area" :-

* Good Schools
* Good Transport Links
* Pleasant Street Scene
* Good local amenities
* Low Crime

If you have all of the above, you live in an area where the prices are most likely to be higher than neighbouring areas where this is not the case. How are Barnet Council doing in these five important areas?

Good Schools - Barnet have historically had great schools. The achievements of our best schools such as QE Boys, Henrietta Barnet and St Michaels are recognised across the country with all these schools regularly appearing at or near the top of the league tables. That is one of the main reasons that property prices in Barnet are amongst the highest in London. The trouble is that since Mike Freer took over the Council, the wheels have started to come of the school bus. There are several examples of this which have been picked up by the press. Deansbrook School will lose it's state of the art Computer suite, to accomodate another class. This is an example of the council actually spending money to MAKE A SCHOOL WORSE. The parents are up in arms. At least the children in this school will have a proper classroom. Three other Schools have placed emergency orders for PORTACABINS to accomodate the pupils starting next term. Would you move your family to an area where your kids go to school in a Portacabin? This can only have a negative effect on property prices.

Good Transport Links - The planners at Barnet want to accomodate another 80,000 people in the Borough in the next few years. There are huge developments all over the Borough, most notably at Mill Hill East, Colindale and Brent Cross. There are no planned major improvements to public Transport in these areas. A figure of £400 million is mentioned in the plans. This sounds a lot, but it cost the Council £23 Million just to replace a couple of bridges in Aerodrome Road. Much of this £400 Million is for projects unrelated to the redevelopment, such as Thameslink improvements at Cricklewood. What we need are major infrastructure projects which will give people clean, cheap and convenient alternatives to the car for their regular journeys. The only mooted scheme, the Brent Cross Railway has been scathingly written off by the Council, even though this could mitigate the effects of much of this traffic in all of these areas. That can only mean one thing - even more traffic jams. When people get sick of this, they move. When people move out, property prices drop.

Pleasant Street Scene - Am I the only person to notice how ugly the Council are making Barnet. In Mill Hill, the rather attractive flowerbeds now have ugly council sponsored advertisements for estate agents. Lamp posts have oval signs plugging obscure messages, designed solely to distract drivers from the road in front and to run people over. Nice shops and family businesses have deserted many high Streets to be replaced by bookies and fast food outlets which generate litter, smell and noise. A trip down Mill Hill Broadway on a Saturday evening used to be a pleasant affair. All we see now is litter and drunken yobs prowling. These sort of changes drive property prices down, once people start to notice.

Good Local Amenities - In Barnet Council Watch blog today, there is an expose on the policy of the council towards playing fields - sell 'em off is their clarion cry. There has been an ongoing campaign to get the council to reopen the Pavillion Road playing fields in Burnt Oak. What has happened? Nothing. My son plays football for Watling Club. Last season many matches were abandoned because the council, despite receiving fees for the football pitches, didn't maintain them during the wet weather. At a Hendon Residents forum meeting, I raised this point. Tory Councillor Hugh Rayner stood up and said "I often visit Burnt Oak Leisure ceentre and the facilities are fine". I responded "Do you ever go round the back and check on the football pitches" Councillor Rayner rather sheepishly responded "No".
If kids don't have positive outlets for their energy, they'll soon find negative ones. What will happen then to the value of the housing stock as gangs roam and drug use spirals up? Which brings us nicely on to

Low Crime - Barnet is historically quite a low crime area, where people of all races, creeds and colours get on. Barnet has the largest Jewish Community in the UK. How do they feel - here's a quote from a rather prominent Jewish commentator :-

due to the worrying rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in England, many Jews no longer feel safe

You may be relieved to know that the author of this comment doesn't live in Barnet. You'd probably be less relieved to know that he used to. In fact, up until May, he was a Councillor in Barnet. The author of this comment is ex Tory Barnet Councillor Richard F Weider. If people such as him, someone who was in a position to do something about it don't feel safe, what on earth is going on. There are many elderly and vulnerable Jewish People in Sheltered accomodation. The Jewish Chronicle has reported that they feel exposed to risk by the proposal to get rid of wardens. Barnet Council didn't even bother to do a proper risk assessment for this decision. They haven't considered the safety of those they have a duty of care to. No wonder people such as Richard Weider have no wish to grow old in Barnet. If Barnet's Jewish community decide to follow the lead of one of their most high profile local politicians and leave en mass, what will this do to the price of Barnet property.

I'm not writing this blog to scaremonger or try and force property prices down. I'm writing it to try and shake the citizens of London's finest Borough out of their torpor. All of the above issues could be combatted by an honest, brave and well lead council. If they were a bit more concerned with proper long term planning and a bit less concerned with getting free hospitality and huge allowances, maybe I'd not have to write this sort of blog.

If they don't get up off their rotund posteriors and start sorting these problems out, we may well find that Richard Weider was the most sensible of the lot of them and the rest of us are left in a ghetto of negative equity. Unlike some people, I'm not prepared to sit back and say nothing, if they want to ruin my town and destroy the value of my house, they'll have a fight on their hands.