Interesting use of the "d" word...

... from the otherwise usually full-on Home-Owner-Ist Daily Mail:

Families who want to upsize are to be offered government help to buying their second home with just a five per cent deposit.

Ministers are planning to expand a scheme aimed at first-time buyers to help so-called ‘second-steppers’ in a new attempt to revive the stagnant housing market.(1) The move is part of a major package of reforms expected to be unveiled in next week’s Budget designed to restore Britain’s tradition as a ‘property owning democracy’.(2)

A flagship element is expected to be extending the NewBuy scheme, which sees the government and banks underwrite mortgages, allowing them to purchase a property with only five per cent deposit. It means it could allow people to put as little equity as £11,000 into a £228,000 house.

1) I thought the benefit of "markets" was to provide as much of everything as possible at the lowest cost, not to try and drive monopoly profits up as high as possible.

2) We are not and never were a "property owning democracy", we are a democracy controlled by bankers and landowners, who allow just enough Fool's Gold to trickle down again to con enough people into voting for them. Even if there were no large landowners and everybody owned their own home outright without a mortgage (as desirable as that might be), we would still not be one.

The top-rated comments are a delight...

HOUSES ARE OVERPRICED! END OF STORY.
- jo, london, 13/3/2013 11:39

Stop manipulating interest rates and the housing market will correct itself.
- mtc, lancs, 13/3/2013 11:18

Ah yes. The answer to a global crisis that stemmed from unwise lending for the housing market is to make it easier to obtain more unwise lending for the housing market. This government simply must go.
- Frank Owen, Mugsborough, United Kingdom, 13/3/2013 12:00

"the NewBuy scheme, which sees the government and banks underwrite mortgages, allowing them to purchase a property with only five per cent deposit. It means it could allow people to put as little equity as £11,000 into a £228,000 house"...........................And tell us George WHO AND HOW DO THE PEOPLE PAY BACK A £217,000 HOUSE LOAN ON MINIMUM WAGE AND A 6 MONTH ROLLING CONTRACT!! WHAT A IMBECILE!!
- fedup2, lostcityuk, 13/3/2013 11:29

Affordable houses will never be affordable unless they are sold for 3 - 4 times the average salary. Nowadays, the value of the house is not so much the materials which make up the house - bricks, mortar, plumbing, heating and the like - but mainly determined by the property bubble still existing - ie, if the average house in the area costs £200.000, even if the building materials, labour and so forth only cost £70.000, the new house will cost around £200.000. Until this disparity is rectified, the market will fail to recover, the CBI should stop supporting the property developers who only want to shovel more cash in their pockets.......
- Steve, Dortmund, 13/3/2013 11:23