kensalriser
pfm Member
The problem with rent caps is they attack symptoms rather than causes. Last time around it resulted in Rachmanism and swathes of seriously degraded properties.
Housing market
- Thread starter matt j
- Start date
Ponty
pfm Member
Crikey, I suppose people are just going to have to pay up or move to a cheaper area given the supply / demand levels. Worse case, what will labour do, realistically? I can already see a knife fight in a phone box at the next election when it comes to tax, I sense housing will be another.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Which is great ...if you have sufficient income to buy multiple properties. And presumably enough left over for a Porsche.
Not knocking it. I paid off my mortgage as soon as I could when I was earning decent money. But that's never going to be most people's experience.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Yep. London rent is expensive because London property is expensive. Only alternative I can see is to replace all the council housing that was sold off under Right To Buy.
Ponty
pfm Member
Although yields tend to be far lower than other parts of the country. Maybe that will change with increasing IR’s.
andyoz
pfm Member
Yes, you and I did but alot didn't. They just used it as an excuse to spunk money up the wall...we all know some that did. I worked as hard as I could in the business, ran my cars into the ground, DIY'd everything I could, bought a cheap mobile home that the kids loved instead of shooting off to the continent..just hunkered down with the family as knew it wasn't going to last.
mandryka
pfm Member
Well he’s an agent so it may be best to take it with a bit of a pinch of salt, though I’m very pleased to say that he’s an agent for SW London, which is my manor.
mandryka
pfm Member
On the tube there are posters where Sadiq Kahn says that he’s building more new council flats than at any time since the 1970s. I think he calls it The Golden Age of Council House Building.
This is one in SW19 - I’m not sure whether all the new housing will be social housing. Some of it is already built and occupied.
https://www.myclarionhousing.com/my-community/regeneration-projects/merton-london/high-path
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Absolutely - I've worked with a few peeps on six figures who were constantly broke. Mind boggling really.
I just breath a deep sigh when folk in their 20s/30s trying to buy and finding themselves priced out get told it's because they spend too much in Costa.
Not much sympathy with the former. Lots of sympathy for the latter.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
There definitely seem to be efforts to improve things - though my guess is there's still a long way to go.
Funnily enough I read a story yesterday about our neighbouring street. The local council (Greenwich) is planning to demolish a community centre that's used as a creche and build over the only green space in the estate to put up low-rise housing. They're arguing they have no choice to but to build over community spaces like this because they have targets to meet. Seems like a spectacularly thoughtless way to go about it.
I imagine that places like Greenwich are between a rock and a hard place in this regard. The old industrial land has been built over years ago because of the massive demand, and there's not much left. Leeds is going the same way in the centre, newer developments are moving further out and into formerly grubby areas and there are fewer and fewer spaces available. Meanwhile Bradford is dying on its arxe because nobody wants to live there. There are dozens of empty wool mills going begging. A few get knocked down and redeveloped, but there are plenty just falling apart and being used as cannabis factories and the like.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
It's a fair assumption though until recently Greenwich actually had quite a lot of heavy industry, especially by the river. Greenwich peninsula has been extensively redeveloped in recent years but almost exclusively for high-end luxury flats. Pretty much every developer has been allowed to reduce or remove their initial plans for including social housing.
As I've posted once or twice before the relationship between Greenwich council and large property developers is more than cosy. The current leader of the council also works for a firm who lobby the council on behalf of developers. A previous leader left to become a consultant for developers... etc etc
With the result that they build over the community centre and green in an existing estate rather than on prime riverside land.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
P.S. OT but engineering nerds might be interested in the history of Enderby Wharf in Greenwich which used to be one of the largest manufacturers of submarine cable in world.
https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/EnderbysWharf/index.htm
Since that page was written Enderby House has been converted into a Youngs gastopub.
https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/EnderbysWharf/index.htm
Since that page was written Enderby House has been converted into a Youngs gastopub.
I imagine that Mr Enderby can trace his ancestors to Mid Lincolnshire, where there are a cluster of villages with the charming names of Wood Enderby, Mavis Enderby and Bag Enderby. They are all Norse names and -by is found all over the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
Agree but it's getting to the point where the payoff takes much longer but then again we are all living longer.
Ponty
pfm Member
The point is also, do you really want some overleveraged landlord dictating your retirement living arrangements?
Not that we didn’t know this…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65833840
