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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not understand why we need so many new homes

265 replies

Pebbledash7 · 04/06/2017 20:52

Just as in the title really. I keep hearing about us building all these new houses but where are all the people currently living? There are tonnes of houses for sale in the property pages of our local paper.

I really dont understand why we can't make better use of what we have?

OP posts:
treaclesoda · 04/06/2017 22:55

You haven't explained what's stopping you enjoying your home, or what would stop you enjoying it if those pesky poor people moved into houses near you.

I own my house (well, it's mortgaged), I've only ever lived in rented accommodation as a student. As soon as I started working I bought a house. Do I get an award for being a superior person?

MaisyPops · 04/06/2017 22:56

We bought a nice house in a nice rural spot and ive just heard that affordable housing will go up on the fields around us. Our lifestyle will be compromised, our hard earned house worth less money & our little village school will go downhill.
Oh gosh. You have my utmost sympathy. It would be ghastly. With some houses for people on lower incomes little Cordelia and Alfie might have to mix with children who don't eat quinoa and there will be non Boden mummies at the gate. The existence of these people will ruin your quality of life and the children will be so feral the school will be rubble within days.Hmm

You're a NIMBY.
People who are NIMBY are almost always thay kind of yuppy middle class type who feel they are somehow unique.

ralphi · 04/06/2017 22:56

Do you do know that we have a demographic problem. ...not enough children, people living longer etc? And you have presumably heard of the massive problems people face getting council housing, not really a case of having a lot of kids and then getting housed by the council, which is obviously how you think it works.

Whileweareonthesubject · 04/06/2017 22:56

The cheapest property for sale in this borough is a one bedroom flat for £150k. In a neighbouring borough, the cheapest is a 'studio flat'for £95k - it's actually a one car garage that's been converted. My DC is a teacher. A teacher's salary does not allow them to buy even the cheapest property in this borough. Or are you saying that a STEM degree and Masters, followed by pgce is not 'working hard'enough? I'm glad you have a lovely little village school. Maybe when the affordable housing is built near you, you will be able to ensure a regular supply of teachers to replace the ones who will inevitably retire, move on etc.

RebootYourEngine · 04/06/2017 22:58

Oh do fuck off.

How can you live in such a bubble and not see the awful state this country is in.

passmethewineplease · 04/06/2017 22:59

Your lifestyle compromised?!

You poor love.

mollyfolk · 04/06/2017 23:00

So do you think that low paid people should somehow be prevented from having children? It's 20% of the workforce by the way!

Also if all these people gave up their "lazy low paid jobs" such as childcare, cleaning and serving you food in restaurants ... and worked hard in new more worthy careers who would do the low paid work - immigrants? But your probably against them too - and you'd have to house the lazy sods...

BlurryFace · 04/06/2017 23:00

Where are these people living? In really shit private rentals, with their parents, in temporary accommodation, in B&Bs, sometimes even in shitty caravan parks. Do you want there to be 'tent cities' popping up before you admit there's a problem?

High rise flats bring significant problems to those with disabilities and small children such as the lift breaking down making it hard to access/leave their flat, or trying to get out quickly if there is a fire.

I don't know about where you live, but here most young people can't afford to buy a house, no matter how much they cut back and private rentals can be really unstable.

treaclesoda · 04/06/2017 23:01

I actually live in an area with 'cheap' housing. You could buy an ex council house for maybe 85k which other parts of the UK could only dream of. But...most people earn less than 20k round here. So a single person would still struggle to gather together the necessary deposit to enable them to buy one.

LadySalmakia · 04/06/2017 23:01

What a shitty nasty attitude you have OP. If we're playing educational bingo, I've got way more degrees than you and a very good job but I was born at that wrong time without a silver spoon in my mouth so I didn't win "I worked soooooo hard for everything I got by good timing" bingo.

How do these people sleep, honestly.

BlackStars · 04/06/2017 23:03

So once all the 'affordable housing' has been sold - how long til those properties go back on the market at full rate (or is there some covenant?) or is it going to create the same as the stupid right to buy did......

TitaniasCloset · 04/06/2017 23:03

This reply has been deleted

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Reow · 04/06/2017 23:04

I've reported this ignorant elitist nonsense.

dontpokethebear · 04/06/2017 23:06

We live in the SE, in a commuter town about 35 mins from Euston.
There are some new builds just gone up, half a mile up the road from us. Some are classed as affordable housing, with a 3 bed starting at £480k. I shit you not.
A 3 bed semi, ex LA goes for between £390-450k depending how close to the station it is.

You sound insufferably smug and quite frankly, stupid. Give yourself a shake.

gamerchick · 04/06/2017 23:07

Sounds to me there is an election coming up. Don't rise to the GFs. It's got it all this one.

It's all bollocks Wink

LagunaBubbles · 04/06/2017 23:07

Nasty nasty nasty. I really do despair of some people.

kjvandtelt · 04/06/2017 23:07

Good for you Reow. One for the Watching.HmmHmm

NennyNooNoo · 04/06/2017 23:07

So when did you actually buy your first home, pebbledash? Presumably before the house price boom seeing as you've bought and sold twice more since. So you bought the first one cheaply and made money out of the house price boom as well as through renovation, then used that money to buy another house to do up etc. Each time with the proportion of your house that is mortgaged getting smaller because of the price rises rather than any direct action on your part.
I have been a homeowner for 20 years so I'm guessing you probably bought around the same time as me. Although it seemed a lot then, house prices were nothing compared to what they are now. Young people can't afford to get on the housing ladder any more. I often think how lucky we were.

Hotheadwheresthecoldbath · 04/06/2017 23:09

I love the idea that older people should downsize,sounds great but to what.If they t go down to a 2 bed house then the availability to first time buyers is reduced.If you are you left you also need to be closer to shops and other amenities yet many (expensive) bungalows are out of town so if you can no longer drive you are isolated.
If you stay in your original home there may be neighbours who keep an eye out for you,there is space for relatives to visit .
Oh and by older I mean over 70 most of us will not be pensioners until we are 67+.
Also I would like to point out that when I bought my first home aged 24 in 1984 it was highly unusual as most people than rented and house shared as it was easily affordable.To buy a house you needed a 10%deposit and could borrow 3.5×your salary.The inflation in the housing market with the push for people to own their own homes had been a disaster for everyone along with selling off the council housing stock.Rant over!

BlurryFace · 04/06/2017 23:09

OP, when my DH's dad went inside, he quit school at fifteen years old so he could work full time and help put food on the table. Is that not working hard?

Not everyone who has worked hard gets a fucking degree and career out of it, not everyone has the right circumstances or the right mental capacity to go to university.

ExplodedCloud · 04/06/2017 23:11

Hi OP. What brought you to MN tonight for this topic?

treaclesoda · 04/06/2017 23:12

How dare you Nenny it's nothing to do with buying at the right time, it's all to do with hard work. If all the current 20 somethings had worked hard enough they would surely have found a way, through sheer graft, to have been born 20 years earlier and thus been able to afford to buy more easily. Wink

Zoflorabore · 04/06/2017 23:16

The issue here is op does not want her children to mix with the great unwashed.

Inferior beings who have to rent to live in a naice area, for their children to have the same chances as yours, education, access to play and god forbid even sharing the same doctor.

How snobby you sound op. Do you not think that these people who will move into said properties don't work hard? Not everyone has been as lucky to buy when you did.
Does that make you feel superior?
How about the people who are victims of an abusive relationship who are starting afresh? Or the young couple with a baby on the way?

Do they not deserve the chance to have the same postcode as you?

I hope that you manage to cope when you have so share the same air as the commoners who move nearby.
And remember- circumstances change op- you could be in that position one day where you need help, don't be so quick to judge.

CheeseOfHearts · 04/06/2017 23:18

I too live in a nice rural area where the average wage is very low- due largely to the fact that as there are many retirees in the area there are a lot of low paid health and social care workers. They need and absolutely deserve to have a life, a home and a family too. The countryside does not exist solely for the middle and upper classes to have a nice view of some fields.

GoodGirlGoneWrong · 04/06/2017 23:20

Oh my Hmm