House prices

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Of course they are - and they all work within about 1 square mile, about half a mile from me.

When people get bonuses that could buy streets of houses in other parts of the country then there is a problem.

Those of us in London have the high price thing to look at, but we also probably all know at least one person earning money at a rate that can be easily expressed as a fraction of £1,000,000.

However not everyone can be earning that kind of cash, certainly not the cleaners, etc.

I wouldnt recommend that unless you owned the cleaning company .

If people are still earning this money then the demand will still be there as you say they can afford to buy what little is on the market over and over again. The converse is if people earnt less then house prices may drop too. I doubt that will be happening so really it will be that we all need to earn a more balanced income and increase our income to match current house prices.

SK - I'm glad you're not running the country. Your 'let them eat cake' views on homelessness are straight out of the Poor Law era.

I have a client where I'm defending possession proceedings. Technically there is no defence as he and his partner are in serious arrear. It all hinges on whether he has a realistic prospect of repaying the loan. The Court of Appeal authorities are not particularly helpful in his circumstances, so it will be inevitable that they will be repossessed, and all I can do is to postpone the inevitable. I've told them to go to Severnside Housing (local housing association - the council did a stock transfer to them in 2002). They bought in a sharply rising market but he wors for a company that produces materials for the construction industry and there is no demand so he was laid off. Partner is a full time mum to their 4 infant children.

I maintain that it is not socially desirable to have him, his partner and their children in local authority housing subsidised by the State, with him and her on benefit while their former home lies empty. I think that Government has to help people who are in this sort of mess, whether they helped create it or not, as you can't apply divisive criteria - it would cause enormous social problems.

[Viney]

Everywhere i go around me are lfats, oh sorry, appratments, being built. London is becomeing awash with them. Great, but at 'From £249,000' who the heck can afford these dwellings. Also, who can live in these things, they are tiny; shoeboxes!

There are a couple of thinsg that are contributing to the housing market decline. Imigration, and Maggie T. With the former, more people are entering the UK and buying property, mainly for buy to let. I know many a person who is renting from a polish, or asian landlord amongst other nationalities. Ok, why shouldnt they, if they can afford it, but it stops us, buying because of the supply and demand issue. The secong, good old Maggie T with her 'Right to buy' sceme. Sell of council housing. Great idea but as we can see it has its downfalls. I could have bought my mums house some 8-9 years ago for the princly sum of £22500 for a 2 bed terrace in Bromley. Ok, i was ill advised not to buy it at the time from 4, yes 4 financial advisors. its now worth in excess of £190k! Ce la vie. However, this would have been another house off the rentable market. Ok, my mum isnt going to move uptil she pops her clogs and then that house will be given to someone else. She pays about £350 a month for that house. Whyt is needed is more housing to be bnuilt by the government to reduce the 10=Year waiting list and also while they are at it, sort out the list. Too many young girls thinkl, 'oh, i'll get pregnent and get a house'. Sadly this isnt the truth nowadays. There are to many other 'groups' that come higher up the list. Again, maybe some of its down to our, or lack of, imigration policy.

So the soloution. Build this Thames corridor devlopment but make sure that its sustainable. Build better links between the north and south so people can commute if needed far quicker and simpler than they can now.

I rent, i have to, yes its £700 a month down the drain but0 we have no deposit, and our combined salarys get us a morgage of around £140k, nowhere near enough for a property in the area id like to live. I will probably move up north in a few years time or learn to speak spanish and move to spain

Originally Posted by Pedrosa

M
Maybe there should be more of a switch to purpose built residential blocks? Who needs a garden anyway? Much better to have one that is tended by a gardener paid for by the community? An underground garage would be provided along with lockable store room for each dwelling.My argument being that instead of a single or perhaps semi dwelling being built on a piece of land, a block providing say 12,(3 stories with 4 apartments per floor)

I love my little garden. Not going to get much wildlife, a few ponds and such in an appartment block.

Plus the gardeners, theres a lot of folk that enjoy gardening (I only enjoy the results when i've tidied it )


And OT, but i clicked on post one and ASM-Forever was replying, till I saw the date, i was confused...

[dizzyblonde]

I agree a lot with that Viney. We don't call Halifax, Halifax any more we call it Unhapifax,c or Unhapiflats.
Theres a hell of a lot of abandoned mills that have been converted to 'luxury apartments' and pretty much all of them stand empty. Shoeboxes with shoebox thin walls for a price thats out of reach for a whole boatload of people. Our council houses are mainly private these days, I own my house in a council estate, but 90% of those around me are privately owned. Halifax council have been running a demolition programme in one of the most deprived areas here.....streets and streets of terraced houses gone. Why? because they are in the middle of what is a predominantly asian community, who over the years have run their area down. these folks are the more poor end of the scale, all the richer ones have moved outwards of that area and are buying up end of terraces or semis to make into much larger family homes, that are absolutley astonishingly beautiful. Amongst the poorer comunity down the road, there are a lot of rented properties, rented out to druggies, layabout folks with no job, people from overseas, etc etc, the crime rate there is astronomical, houses being burnt out by youths or squatted in. SO the council is demolishing them, they are useless to anybody. But, they can't afford to rebuild them, so there are now vast spaces of land, and less houses for the poorer folk to live in. I have a thought that after a whlie the 'luxury apartments' will be left rotting empty for so long that they will end up as council owned flats...thus creating the tower blocks of yester year, that everybody couldn't wait to see the back of!

I feel like i should have something worthwhile to say but i don't - i'm in scotland where although prices are high comparably but not as bad as down south. I got my 3 bed flat for a sum of money that wouldn't buy a garage in oxford so my heart goes to everyone trying to get on the ladder
and dizzy's right - we have loads of luxury high rise flats on the clyde that are empty and being repossed when they said they would never build high rise again.
i can just see the waterfornt becoming like red road

A workmate of mine just got a mortgage with no hassle at all. First time buyer with his girlfriend. House £170K but a 35 year term. I think his house when he moves in will be worth something like £130-140K oops!

35 years- ouch!

Manchester supposedly has 1000 empty flats in the city centre. No one's willing to drop their prices so they sit empty. They're impossible to sell on too, because the ground rents are so severe. You can move in with a £40 /month ground rent, but there's nothing to stop them making it £250 over night. It's like a licence to print money.

Originally Posted by SV-net

A workmate of mine just got a mortgage with no hassle at all. First time buyer with his girlfriend. House £170K but a 35 year term. I think his house when he moves in will be worth something like £130-140K oops!

One of those things unfortunately. I bought a property for £145 this time last year, no doubt worth less now. No point worying about it though, (well, unless negative equity is gonna get you) got to get onto the ladder at some point and it wont do you any good thinking 'if only I'd waited'.

Me and treacle are looking at getting a place together at some point this year/early next year and we have no option but to rent (or live with my parents ), im going to use my accident payout (when it comes through ) as a deposit for a morgage and weve also both started saving but it all seems tbh that it wont happen, house prices arent bad here (up to 135k for a 3 semi with garden and garage) but find a company that will take on first time buyers.
ho hum.