Why buy-to-let sales are bad news for the property market

Sales of buy-to-let properties jumped in the first quarter and rents are beginning to rise, just as they did in the months before the last property collapse.

Two weeks ago we posed two questions, was Blackstone's decision to sell their shares to the public a symbolic signal of a market top and was Richard Russell's move from an extremely bearish view of equities to an extremely bullish one another signal because it is said, bear markets start or, in this case resume, once the last bear turns bullish.

Since then the Shanghai stock market has seen a significant sell-off; initially largely ignored by the rest of the world. It started once their government increased stamp duty from 0.1% to 0.3%. Their objective of cooling the stock market worked a bit too well; the market was down 13% in just a few days and on two of those days, down by 6% and 8%. Now the Chinese government, alarmed by the fall, are sponsoring media statements in support of the market.

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