So this is as off topic as it gets but I just don't understand how the house prices in UK could be this expensive? First time buyers like me could never afford a flat in somewhere like Edinburgh. they're almost 8 times average salary. Everywhere I search on Internet, experts have strong opposite opinions i.e. they will either keep rising or there will be a crash. To me it looks like a ponzi scheme! what happens when the interest rates go from half percent to 5 percent which is norm. And economy takes hit and people start earning less. They say there's less supply than demand but that's absurd...there aren't people having to live on the streets (apart form homeless)! I predict a cataclysmic crash in the next 5 - 10 years! The gov. could only prop up the prices so long with low interest rates and help to buy suckers to keep demand up.
London is just as bad if not worse. My bank keeps telling me , that I only need 5% to have a mortgage. Considering 1 bed, 500sq ft flats are going for around 200k+
Thats exactly the problem, lots of homeless, (a percentage of which the council homes in temporary rented accommodation, giving money to slum landlords, and making the supply problem worse).
There aren't high numbers of homeless because people are either living at home longer or paying stupid amounts for rent, councils stopped building houses in the 80s when Margaret Thatcher brought in private home ownership and now there are trying to play catch up. But the fact is demand exceeds supply in most areas, property is still seen as a good investment so first time buyers are priced out by those buying to rent out, which all pushes up prices at a time when wages are stagnant. Add to that if you want a good mortgage you need on average 17% deposit as banks don't see repossessions as good business anymore and you have a receipt for disaster
The annoying part is how much is bought and not used. All the flats above Princes Street are abandoned/not used. They are owned by large companies who just see it as a monetary value. The way they see it is that the value will never go down, only up. Genuinely might move into one and claim squatters rights.
When I had the opportunity to buy, I bought a 2-bed apartment in central Berlin for half the price of what a 1-bed would have cost me on the outskirts of Manchester. I can't get my head around how properties are priced in the UK. Now I have my own place to stay when I visit Berlin for work, and rent it out as an Air BnB when I'm not there. Plus it gives me an option to bail once Brexit makes everything go up poop creek back home.
I genuinely wonder how my kids are going to afford anything in 20+years time. At the current rate they will be looking at 500k-1 million for a 2 bed flat in this region
It's an awful prospect, isn't it? The youth of today is generally vilified by older folks as a bunch of workshy entitled whiners. But those same older folks enjoyed better wages, cheaper house prices and healthier pensions to look forward to when they were young. And now Millenials and Gen Z-ers are paying the price with abysmal job prospects, ridiculous house prices and an ever-increasing pension age. To say it's the young uns' fault smacks of generational privilege. /rant (I don't hate old people. Honest. I do however hate the social burden being shouldered by young people.)
I've been looking at the figures...I just don't see how these prices are sustainable! Either a rate rise or a recession (both of which are inevitable) could trigger a crash.
The daft thing is that you can literally buy an entire street around here for the deposit in a city but nobody will buy the houses.
The baby boomers own all the property, and are renting it out to their kids at extortionate rates to fund their retirement in Provence. The post-war fluidity of capital was an anomaly, and we're coming back to the old ways of waiting for your parents to die before getting your hands on any inherited capital. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to get any better. It will probably get worse.
Where I am, which is in Greater London. A a 3 bed can easily be close to 500k It's why a lot of my mates now live in Hertfordshire or something and then commute to London. At one point I considered moving to Manchester. I then realised what I said and decided to stay I also looked at Canada, but then saw that in every photo, people were freezing whilst wearing sheepskin coats. Australia - humans are about 100th in the food chain. China/HongKong - been there, done that. Europe - with Brexit coming? Better chances in Russia Russia - ....maybe not. But get some decent wrestling in.
I recently heard about London firefighters who have moved to Northern France, as it's cheaper to commute from there than live in London. Personally, if I didn't have school aged kids, I'd be looking outside the UK now, something I thought I would never, ever do.
I remember being on a course about 5 years ago chatting about house prices with a lad from London and a lad from somewhere hear the lakes , the price differences between the 3 of us for a 3 bed semi were absurd.
Used to have a girl at work who did that, lived primarily in North France, and the Office was in Euston. But sometimes, she would sleep in a mate's spare room. It was that much cheaper. Had another Boss, who lived in Liverpool and commutes from there to Kings Cross. Madness. but it works
