Housing crisis solutions
- Thread starter ChroniC
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>2000 housing standards were shocking, since decent homes standards quality has improved massively.
Local authority housing is excellent quality often exceeding Building Reg standards by 25 - 50% where as low spec developers are still building with matchsticks and egg crates
Local authority housing is excellent quality often exceeding Building Reg standards by 25 - 50% where as low spec developers are still building with matchsticks and egg crates
Deleted member 651465
Deleted member 651465
Soldato
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Sadly here in the UK the very people who make the laws also happen to be landlords, an eye watering 39% of tory mps are landlords so I think it's fair to say the UK rental market will never ever be as tenant friendly as the German rental market, not when so many of our mps have their noses in that particular trough.
New builds are shockingly cheaply built imo. I have seen about 40 of them go up in less than 4 months.
It's because they are brick skins around wood/metal structures. The ones I've been in you can hear the neighbours walking on their floors and if you closed the french doors at the back the whole front windows used to shake. They're flimsy, but have incredible insulation and effiecient heating and solar cells on the roof.
It's because they are brick skins around wood/metal structures. The ones I've been in you can hear the neighbours walking on their floors and if you closed the french doors at the back the whole front windows used to shake. They're flimsy, but have incredible insulation and effiecient heating and solar cells on the roof.
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The supply of houses didn't suddenly increase, nor did the population drop several years ago when average prices dipped by around 20% in the midst of the 'credit crunch'.
It was a temporary blip in the excessive supply of cheap credit which caused the prices to drop, the fall in base rates to 0.5% (nearly 1/12 of 5.75%, a huge drop) and various subsequent stimuli such as QE, funding for lending, help to sell has seen the madness continue in the UK property market.
How sustainable this all is, is rather questionable. In some areas BTL was nearly 30% of the market, somewhere in the NE has seen it drop from that figure to around 10% post Brexit. Given that BTL landlords can outbid potential owner occupiers by at least 30%, the coming tax changes which makes landlords with high LTV portfolios cashflow negative should see some huge potential falls.
I bought and live in lovely place in the Surrey countryside. It's an old Victorian hospital building which was one of several bought by a major housing developer (similar size to Barrett etc) who turned them into flats. My place is over 1000 sq ft and, given the fabric of the building is solid, is beautifully refurbished inside and you cannot hear a single foot step or sneeze from the neighbours. All I can hear is the wind in the trees and owls at night.
When I was looking to buy I was very keen to avoid new build blocks of flats due to poor residuals, cheap construction and poor sound insulation. What I got was a beautiful old building with 3m high ceilings, gorgeous sash Windows and fully refurbished throughout - the perfect compromise!
Keep an eye out- old hospital sites in the countryside get snapped up quick
When I was looking to buy I was very keen to avoid new build blocks of flats due to poor residuals, cheap construction and poor sound insulation. What I got was a beautiful old building with 3m high ceilings, gorgeous sash Windows and fully refurbished throughout - the perfect compromise!
Keep an eye out- old hospital sites in the countryside get snapped up quick
https://www.theguardian.com/society...est-level-in-30-years-as-housing-crisis-grows
Topical: Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years
I bought my first house in 2007, on a lovely little cul-de-sac which was about 95% owner-occupied. When I sold it earlier this year I'd say my end of the street was only about 70% owner-occupied and you could tell - the people living there were now a lot rougher, no-one kept their front gardens looking nice. A real shame.
Topical: Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years
I bought my first house in 2007, on a lovely little cul-de-sac which was about 95% owner-occupied. When I sold it earlier this year I'd say my end of the street was only about 70% owner-occupied and you could tell - the people living there were now a lot rougher, no-one kept their front gardens looking nice. A real shame.
The real question if this pattern of more and more renters continues, what will happen to these generations when they come to retire?
There's no way a pension can pay for rent and food, are we going to have oaps flatsharing or something like the victorian erase with multiple families squeezed into ever decreasing sized houses?
There's no way a pension can pay for rent and food, are we going to have oaps flatsharing or something like the victorian erase with multiple families squeezed into ever decreasing sized houses?
I guess we'll have to go back to the way the Chinese currently do it. With all generations of a family living under one rented roof. Thus making it even more difficult for young people to get on the housing ladder as they'll be expected to make a financial contribution towards looking after Grandma and Granddad. Meanwhile the landlords can sit back and relax...
A real possibility.
So many people in the UK live hand to mouth and either :
a)Have the inability to save
b)Lack the willingness to save
It would be interesting to see if there are any statistics on this. For example if an individual lost his or her job over night would they have the funds to be able to pay the mortgage/rent that month.
Aside from house prices (which are way out of balance - despite the fact that its a reality that favours me), the real issue is the deposit. If a 200k house dropped in price overnight to 100k how many people out there would have the ability to take advantage of it and put a deposit down?
I really hope I am wrong, but I believe it would be a really small minority.
People in the UK like their HP cars, TVs, furniture. They like their store cards, their new contract phones, their foreign holidays every year. A credit happy nation.
Outside of a mortgage it would be really interesting to see what the average unsecured personal debt level was in the UK.
In Asia (my experience being India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore)the culture is completely different. As a general rule of thumb, most professionals will look to save 30 to 50% of their salary every month, whatever is left is THEIR budget. They very rarely look to borrow or finance, a habit bolstered by the fact that especially in India the interest rate on a loan will normally be in double digits. A habit of saving also supported by the fact that the social welfare system doesn't really exist (pensions, medical, schooling, unemployment etc). There is no safety net over here, this forces a mentality of self preservation, no one is going to help you but yourself.
When young people out here look to buy a property they generally have the funds to buy it on the back of their discipline of saving.
Are you sure these are Council and not purchased investments? It made sense for quite a while to just buy a dump and hold it for x amount of time, no investment required and a better return than many other investment vehicles (which I believe may have changed)
Capitalists are all fine and dandy with eachother until the status quo swings too far one way. If what you suggest happens, I'm sure people higher up the food chain will turn the screw on the private B2L landlords
The economy is basically dependent on people's ability and willingness to buy houses at enormous amounts of money
Soldato
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Soldato
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Housing benefit levels sky rocketing.
Feeding the old to the young poor
I would be outraged about tarring all tenants with the same brush (was tempted to give you a
actually) but to be perfectly honest it points to a bigger social issue with having larger groups of people renting with few rights. Living your life on two months notice is not fun. What is a tenant's stake in their community? Why should they care about the street? Why should they care about the upkeep of the house when they're not even allowed to decorate it the way they want? Why should they get to know the neighbours when they may be moved on in 6 months or so? Homeowners can sit there complaining their street looks messy but it's all to do with the flimsy rights that tenants get in this country.People are having children later and later, some never. a lot of that is because tenants don't want to bring up children in a rented house that does not feel like their own. They can't risk their child doing a year in school, then getting kicked out of their home by an unscrupulous landlord and having to move schools. It's horrible.
I've had it both ways recently. We lived in our flat for 5yrs and got on really well with the landlords. But then out of the blue they decided to completely renovate the property. We had to go live at my Dad's on the other side of London for 9 months, we didn't know if it would be long term or what. We were always interested in going back once the renovation was done, but given how fast rents were rising we would expect to pay almost £500/month more than we had been doing. We weren't prepared to do that. Long story short, the landlords were so keen to have us back they gave us a really good deal (and a two year contract) so we feel very lucky indeed. But looking back to when we got kicked out we were absolutely devastated. That was our home, our community and it was taken from us. People that have only ever owned their home just simply don't understand what it feels like to have someone tell you to get out of your own house within two months. It's horrible.
I rent. I keep my front garden tidy. I don't make it look nice. Why bother when I could get kicked out in a few months with no recourse. Why should I add to someone else's investment.
If I had protected residency for a period then things would be very different. But as it stands the weeds are out and the lawn are cut and the edges strimed down - no more.