House price hikes in the last century... guess how much a 3 bed terrace cost in Wimbledon c. 1935 in today's money.

[BluebellBlueballs]

I was reading Raymond Briggs book about his parents, Ethel and Ernest, who bought a 3 bed terrace house in Wimbledon on just a milkman 's
salary.

I looked on Rightmove and you'd be paying at least 1.3 million today for similar.

Guess how much that house would be if bought in today's money at the same time the Briggs bought it, mid 1930s.

Put it this way, unless Ernest was head honcho at the milk company I don't think he'd manage it today.

@stepstepstep

Huge encouragement of foreign investors owners. Imagine buying a flat in a country you’ve never set foot in.

@ThankmelaterOkay absolutely! They’ve made housing such a popular investment opportunity that people will buy houses they don’t need just to benefit from the rising market.

The boom in house prices is a result of deliberate policies by government though, it hasn’t come out of nowhere or happened by magic.

And many were happy that their house doubled in value etc, it made the wage stagnation less if an issues. Now we have higher interest rates & inflation the impact of QE on wages can't be ignored.

I think calculations like this are a bit meaningless because inflation is not the only way to calculate or compare prices from years ago to now

For example, you could ask how much of a percentage of the average wage (for the type of person who would live in such a house) does the mortgage or rent payment take up, or another calculation could be how many times income is the house now compared to then,,

You can do the same with other items like cars (although thats harder because cars have such a wide range of price tag, there isnt an 'average car') or bread, or milk

Was he the fastest milkman?

My gran bought a house in the 40s for £800.

@produ Agreed, there are winners & losers to any policy decision. But I often feel that the biggest con that government pulls is to suggest that they are responsible for the upsides of increased house prices, but not the downsides, which are just presented as out of anyone’s control.

I'll bite

Fulwood, Preston my parents bought a 3 bed semi in 1957 £2000 just looked up a comparable one now £220,000 - inflation calculator says £39.080

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

i completely agree House prices outstrip inflation but if a milkman’s salary was £7 a week back in 1930 and a 3 bed semi was £895 then that is also a massive multiplier.
So house prices were high then too.
my best friend’s dad was a milkman in the 1970’s and they had a 3 bed semi in west london so it was still possible then. I think 3 bed semis were around the £60k then as we had one and moved in 1980 selling ours for £72k. I remember it well!

Would guess £30.

We know some people who live in Wimbledon village in a 5 bed detatched. (They had 4 kids.) Bought in 1992 for £112,000!!!

Makes me sick

I was a child to be clear. My parents owned the house

£825 - I’ve got the book too. A lovely classic, very poignant but funny, too.

In a small exhibition of local history our local library displayed a newspaper ad from the pre-war 1930s, advertising new houses on a large local estate.

I don’t remember exactly, but the smallest 3 bed terraced houses (they are small) were priced at £500-odd, and the rather larger 4 beds at £950-odd.

The ad said, ‘A £5 deposit secures any house!’

The 4 beds now sell for around £1m, possibly more if extended/very nicely done up.

My parents bought their house in 1970 for about £7k and my mum said after a year it had doubled in value and after 2 or 3 years trebled.... that was the start of the huge house price inflation...

My grandparents bought their first home in south london for £1000. It had no proper plumbing, just a cold water pump in the kitchen and and outside loo. At the time my grandpa's salary was about £500 per year on an experienced teacher's wage.

@yomellamoHelly I don't think it was possible to buy a 5 bed detached house in Wimbledon Village in 1992 for £112,000. If it was we would have bought it. We were looking then with a budget of more than double that and couldn't have stretched to 5 beds in Wimbledon Village.

@RosesAndHellebores Wimbledon or Wimbledon Village? Quite different price wise

@produ, I am well aware. The previous poster said £112,000 in Wimbledon Village in 1991.

A school friend had a big house in the village, cost about 500k in the mid 90s. Sold later for about 4m.

@RosesAndHellebores Yes but some houses/roads may be classed as the village but aren't or the outskirts. There were defo houses around 200k in the mid/late 90s.

My mum was going to buy a house in the 70's, it was a big terrace. I recall she said £2000.

In the 30's I'd say £50.

£825 sounds like a lot to me in 1935. I know wages were low right into the 40's and 50's. I wonder how he could afford a mortgage on £825....

Yes but not in the village @produ, neither would I have thought in Raynes Park. Not a five bed detached. A terrace perhaps.

It depends what you class as the village which is my point, estate agents can be quite vague! Top of Edge Hill or Parkside. The houses I was referring too were not terraces but I can't remember no of bedrooms

Raynes Park terraces could likely have been picked up for under 100k in the early 90s. My parents looked round there.

In the early 90s I was earning less than 10k a year working for a London borough.

Doesnt sound that much of a bargain to my mind.