UK House prices are absurd!

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by EdiSco, Dec 30, 2017.

  1. Anth

    Anth Daft. Supporter

    2 bed terraced houses in a village with a new train station opening this year (so links to Sunderland for the metro and Middlesbrough) £10k. 3 bed £18-£25k. Might need 10k of modernisation with them being old pit houses.

    And therein is the problem. One of the biggest employers has just closed today, other places are unskilled (line work or call centre) with a lot being 15hr contracts or less. In an area known for 200 years for manual graft people still wish we had the pits and shipyards even though they've been gone for 25 years. There's a reason why this place is always on those lists of most run down areas.
     
    David Harrison likes this.
  2. Xue Sheng

    Xue Sheng All weight is underside

    Manhatten NY 500 sqft is between $350,000 and $850,000 depending on location. Go to Virginia and you can get a 5000sqft house for about $350,000 to $450,000
     
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  3. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    It's worth remembering that Manhattan is only 23 square miles, whilst London (i.e. Greater London rather than the heart of the City) is 671 square miles, and the issue of unattainable property prices affects most of that area. People can and do choose to live further away and commute in, but then you're potentially left paying £5k or more a year for standing-room-only train journeys totalling two hours or more a day.

    London can be miserable to work in if you can't afford to live near your employer, and that's very likely to be the case for anyone working centrally.
     
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  4. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    Just curious as a US resident, but where in the UK (general area) are houses this cheap? That would be great if you could telecommute to work at some decent paying job.

    In the US there are rural areas where you can get a livable house for about 33k pounds, but that would be some place on the side of a mountain miles from any decent sized city.
     
  5. Anth

    Anth Daft. Supporter

    That's in north east England. Transport links are generally terrible (no timetables have been announced for the new station yet but probably one train each way per hour and it takes about an hour for a 12 mile bus journey). When the houses were built they were prime location - 100 yards or so from the pit. When it comes to tech jobs, I can think of only one company in the area - Sage (the software people).
     
  6. Xue Sheng

    Xue Sheng All weight is underside

    Not saying London is not expensive, just that you are not alone.

    Greater NYC (the 5 boroughs - 303.33 sq mi)
    • Manhattan.
    • Brooklyn.
    • Queens.
    • The Bronx.
    • Staten Island.
    is not much different than London, that is if you want to be in a safer area.

    Get outside of that you don't get a whole lot cheaper in that part of NYS, but you can find some better deals, and it can get cheaper in NJ
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2018
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  7. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Bristol overtook London as the fastest rising property prices in the UK recently. Third fastest in Europe. I read in the local paper that Location Location Location did a show in Bristol and couldn't find a property because competition is so fierce (they ended up faking it by looking around a property people had put on the market just to see the real value, but had no intention of selling, and the others were out of town). All the locals are going to be priced out of their own city, just like London. I've had friends have to go through bidding wars just to rent.

    Gentrification of Bristol has made it a very different city to when I moved here the first time, nearly 20 years ago. Some parts are unrecognisable. As Geoff Barrow from Portishead said; "Try not to ruin Bristol too much with your 24-day aged organic sour dough". It seems like hipsters from London have flocked here because it was cool, had a bit of edge but not too much, and was a lot cheaper than London, but in the process they are undoing all the reasons they had for moving here. Oh well, it's way of the capitalist world I suppose...

    Worst thing is I only need electricity and the internet to work... if it wasn't for my other half I'd be living in a mansion in Costa Rica! :D
     
    axelb likes this.
  8. axelb

    axelb Master of Office Chair Fu

    If there were more remote working, I believe this would make a big difference. The house prices go up, people need higher paid jobs, which are usually focused towards city centre.

    There are many jobs around that cannot be carried out remotely, but with current technology, I think there are far too many central city office based jobs that aren't necessary and would alleviate the issue (also traffic congestion issues).

    I could move away from a busy town and still work remotely, but because of a lot of companies attitudes, of I needed to change job for whatever reason, I cannot always guarantee they will be remote working jobs.
     
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  9. EdiSco

    EdiSco Likes his anonymity

    They do appear to be very cheap in Pilton area of Edinburgh however to live there, you actually have to be a 100th dan black belt in every martial art as well as being member of the mafia :):p
     
  10. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    You don't fancy having NEDs as neighbours? :p
     
  11. Lennon

    Lennon Member

    North England is probably the cheapest.

    I live in the Midlands and can't afford a hour here. Me and my partner both earn well above min wage but only just make do renting a 1 bed flat in a converted house.

    Unless you have the ability to stay at home with parents, can start earning 20k Plus by the time you are 20 and are able to put half of that away each month you don't stand a chance at getting a decent mortgage. (Unless mommy and daddy put up the deposit).

    Private renting is the biggest killer. It's stopping people aged 18-30 from being able to make the relevant decisions that they need to make. (Family, Marriage or house owner ship) .

    When I was younger, I never thought I'd have to potentially sacrifice one of these three main achievements but right now, I cannot see how I'll ever be able to afford a mortgage, family and get married.

    Granted, all three can be done at any time but I'm 27 now and when you consider my parents had all three at the age of 18 it's just horribly depressing that this vision is totally unachievable without initial privilege / RANT
     
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  12. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Capitalism leads to the concentration of capital. It took two world wars to shake things up and allow a bit more freedom in that regard. Our generation thought that we would improve on the economic life of our parents, but now reality is sinking in. Back to feudalism we go!

    Good job I'm not a bread head. I know a few people who are severely bummed out that their economic aspirations are all but impossible, no matter how hard they work.
     
  13. Lennon

    Lennon Member

    You know what annoys me even more? I work in the BTL industry. I am directly making it harder for myself to buy a house *sigh*
     
  14. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    BTL?

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Lennon

    Lennon Member

    Buy-to-Let - so Providing mortgages for Landlords to buy houses/developments for letting purposes.
     
    David Harrison likes this.
  16. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Oh, so it's YOUR fault! :D
     
  17. Lennon

    Lennon Member

    Preeeety Much
     
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  18. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    This is pretty much my biggest concern. House prices are ridiculous where I live at the moment and after paying a large percentage of my salary to a private landlord it is nigh on impossible to save a decent amount for a house deposit after bills and family upkeep, most people are either relying on family assistance or inheritance to gain purchase on the housing ladder of which the government will take a sizable chunk..

    A Englishman's home is no longer his castle. better get used to serfdom...
     
  19. EdiSco

    EdiSco Likes his anonymity

  20. cloudz

    cloudz Valued Member


    Buy to let and landlords have already been "hit" a little shall we say over here, making it less attractive than it was. The impact of those changes will probably start coming through over the next year or two.

    So in recent times some punitive measures like higher stamp duty for second homes as well as tax changes have been introduced by UK government.
    It may to some be seen as too little, too late though.

    Supply and demand will always have some role to play in market prices, but what many people don't appreciate re. property is how land value is the real driver of property price. You may be able to build more houses but can you build more land ? In a nutshell, no.

    The way things work is in favour of landowners over taxpayers; due to locational value. To put it simply let's say you own some land somewhere but there's not much going on there, the land isn't worth a great deal to anyone. The government with the tax it's collected comes along build infrastructure making it more attractive, providing transport links and those type of things. Suddenly the landowners are sitting on something more valuable at the expense of the taxpayer. You pay for it, but the landowners get richer because of it.

    The name of this value is called economic rent and is permitted to be privately captured and traded; it's most obvious manifestation is in the land market. Though it arises through public activity: Collective investment, population growth, innovation etc.

    A solution to this situation has been set out a very long time ago by Henry George (an American economist) and the single tax movement, and he proposed current taxation (income tax, corporation tax, VAT etc) be replaced by a single annual service charge on land based on location/ value. The problem was it was such a threat to certain interests they changed the entire discipline of economics to counteract his ideas.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2018

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