As Credit Crunch Deepens - Nomura Top Job Cuts Provide First Big Test Of Governments Newest Scheme For Home Buyers
During the last two weeks the government has twice extended its protection schemes for Home Buyers in trouble with home loans.
The 1st extension was to include Home Buyers with mortgages of up to �200,000. Earlier this state benefit was restricted to home loans of less than �175,000. Thanks to this scheme, anyone losing their job or becoming eligible for state benefits due to income loss would have their home loan interest paid for up to 2 years.
The second extension to the scheme was targeted at offering a safety net for higher income Home Buyers. Those with bigger home loans can now benefit from a government assurance to their lender. Under this scheme the government will completely cover the extra debt created by permitting Home Buyers a repayment holiday or a reduction in repayments of up to 2 years on home loans of up to four hundred thousand thousand pounds. If the home loan is larger than �400,000, the guarantee will cover the rolled up interest on the 1st �400,000 of capital.
The idea behind the actions is to avoid further shocks to the already frail House Sales UK market.
The government’s actions have come only just in time to be thoroughly put to the test by the consequences from the Nomura takeover of Lehman Brothers’ London Business. Nomura have just announced 1,000 job losses which were mostly created by the consolidation of the old Lehman Brothers’ operations with Nomura’s own. Nevertheless, some of the job losses are due to Nomura carrying out the cutbacks advised in its global strategic review, which aims to see the corporation returning global profits of approximately five hundred billion yen or �3.6 billion in 2011.
In the current downturn, but for the governments new schemes, the effect of 1,000 previously high earning Home Buyers suddenly losing their jobs would see almost all of them immediately and desperately seeking a Quick House Sale. The government knows that there aren’t presently enough Home Buyers to buy up these homes and so keep home values at even their already woeful levels. It calculates that by giving a two year period for these Home Buyers to re-establish themselves, the necessity for a Quick House Sale at any price will be avoided, and so the already weak situation won’t start to go into a self perpetuating downward spiral. The fear is that something like this recent action by Nomura, followed by a few others would have a disproportionally big effect in one geographical area (in this case London & the commuter belt). Without government intervention it’s feared that the sudden flood of more houses onto the market, would drag values even lower, and leave lots more already struggling Home Buyers in negative equity, which would in turn see more of them seeking a Quick House Sale.
from B2B News


Posted December 31, 2008
Comments(0)