good news for homeowners as house prices increase again

[nettlewine]

So the nationwide are reporting that house prices are up this month.

Seriously this isn't good news, even if you own a home as any step up becomes more expensive and even if you don't and have kids its no life to still be living stuck at home in your 20s and 30s!

The vast majority of homeowners in this country couldn't afford their home if they had to buy it now. The system is broken and its wreaking the whole country and the economy. London isn't a place for londners as they can't afford it and all new builds are sold off plan on Malaysia! Arrg every time I hear the thread title quoted I want to scream.

If only house prices were sensible and people could invest in something useful like producing stuff. I can't see this country as a good place for my children to grow up in.

Civil Service jobs by region

Only 17% in London

Good luck - I'm jealous! We're some way away from that. I think it's really about overseas investors and giving local residents an advantage.

That said, there's a lot more new build in Australia...

we could relocate parliament to the north - save a few bob

Yes....we just want somewhere affordable really. DH is very handy so could do something up easily. I'm not that bad myself at DIY either!

Yes I realise that. I'm not sure parliament wouldn't be better just off the M6 toll. All major road networks and an international airport on the doorstep. Easier for lots of MPs to access...
And yes, plenty of agencies elsewhere but those on the highest salary scales are always based in London.

Anyway, what about private companies? DH did some work recently for a large shipping company whose container ships come up the channel. Why are they in London? Why not Kent or S coast? Why do retailers need their HQs in London?

DH is a lawyer who works for an investment bank. Banks no longer need to be in the city. Brokers yes, but not their lawyers or their management consultants etc. DH does almost everything by email or video conference. Even to other buildings less than 5mins walk away. It's madness for people like him to be in London.

Peggy the demand for these expensive properties is largely from overseas investors. If they weren't buying, the houses would be cheaper because normal people on normal salaries wouldn't be competing with these big guns to snap up properties.

It's not fair to tell everyone that they have to move out of London if they can't afford it. We work here, we cant afford to buy here, even if we were on 6 figure salaries, how is that acceptable?

I'm in a catch 22. Like many women who get divorced I got the family home as my part of the division of assets - I didn't want the children to have the disruption of moving house as well as the upset of their father leaving and marrying the OW two minutes later.

Because the house had shot up in value he walked away with pension and disposable assets, I got the house - and its upkeep. It's now my pension pot, so when I downsize I need it to have at least kept the value put on it when we divorced. I only have another pension worth about £2k pa (I didn't need one he said because his was such a good one!)

I doubt very much I'm the only divorced woman in this position. I wish the house prices were not so crazy and I do worry that my dc won't be able to afford to buy - but I also hope I can cash in the value and have something to live on when I retire.

THis is prmarily a London issue though.

It's one of the the problems when resources and assets are focussed on one very small geographical area within the UK. For us in other parts of the UK it's not such a big issue. We are not without problems of our own outside the London bubble, business investment. transport links, infrastructure etc, but generally housing is not an acute problem for many.

It's the price to pay for living in such an inward looking city.

fulltothebrim your post is very true - why is it only people in London who don't see it this way?

The stats suggest affordability is an issue that goes quite q but beyond London, mostly other urban centres but also notably the SW.

But hey, let's not be swayed by facts when the intense fun of bashing Londoners is available, eh? Shame to spoil that particular sport.

Yes fullto, it would be interesting to see what would happen if the houses of parliament were moved to midlands or the north along with the remaining government departments in london - would reduce the pressure on london prices and boost that regional economy

If we're talking about Whitehall civil servants - it'd probably give a local (not regional) economy a good boost, but do fuck all for London prices as we'd be talking about 100,000-odd jobs -awesome for Nottingham (unless you wanted to buy a house there and were suddenly priced out by the folks who'd sold up in London) but a drop in the ocean in London.

Kvetch15- I don't agree that house prices are overpriced everywhere.
In my area you can buy a two bedroom semii with a garden for £95K.
I live in a 5 bedroomed semi, lots of downstairs space, dining room etc,in a good, quiet leafy area, garden good schools nearby, 15 minutes into the heart of my capital city.

Cost me £210K. I don't think that is overpriced.

Nettle where did you get the idea 90% of new builds are sold to forriners?

Whilst I sympathise with the difficulty in buying a house, people buy houses every day, so don't know how OP can say most people couldn't afford their house now

Agree completely.

I 'own' a house flat but can't live there as its too small for my family.

Increasing house prices is bad news for me/us.

Whilst I sympathise with the difficulty in buying a house, people buy houses every day, so don't know how OP can say most people couldn't afford their house now

An increasing proportion of those sales are not to owner occupiers.

peggy

why is it only people in London who don't see it this way?

No idea. Possibly they think it's grim up North.

I couldn't afford to buy my own flat off myself. The only possible way my DS would ever get a home is by me dying before care home costs eats up the value of the flat. It doesn't matter how much my flat is worth if I can't afford to move anywhere else, either.

Am sick of seeing luxury developments go up in London that are bought but not lived in (most windows dark at night) and where the owners don't even pay council tax.

I don't feel it's just a London issue at all. I think it's the entire South with the exclusion of the odd pocket here and there, generally only in the areas where the job economy is non-existent, and too far to commute to a better areas. I'm 120 miles from London and prices here are well above the 2007 peak.