Proverbial Glow At The End Of The Proverbial Tunnel

[ProDave]

In the old days you had a mortgage because you then paid less tax. All good until one of the governments put a stop to that. Can't remember which one it was as to me they are all the same anyway.

Up to the mid 80's each joint mortgage holder got the MIRAS (Mortgage Interest Relief at Source).  Then some hair brained Chancellor announced MIRAS would be limited to one person, but that would come into effect next year. That fuelled an already booming housing market as couples wanted to buy and secure their joint MIRAS before the deadline.

Deadline passed. Nobody wanted to buy a house. Just about everybody who wanted one had bought one. Couples with joint MIRAS didn't want to move otherwise they would lose that.  That caused a house price crash and negative equity.

Then some time later mortgage interest relief was scrapped altogether.

I just wish politicians would stop trying to "control" markets, as whatever they do backfires.