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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I found a solution to the London property crisis?

61 replies

Toriali · 19/06/2017 21:58

AIBU to think the London property crisis could be resolved if we'd convert the oversupply of luxury flats into social housing or lower the price so that first time buyers can purchase them?

London's councils will hopefully rehouse all the families living in sub standard and hazardous tower blocks.

Why not make a few luxury apartments available for low income families? Or offer them to first time buyers at a more reasonable price?

This got me thinking... luxury flat developers turn to discounts as London sales slow

Looks like there's going to be a lot of empty apartments. What the heck are we going to do with them? AIBU?

OP posts:
PhilODox · 19/06/2017 21:59

Who is going to pay for these appartments? Are you suggesting councils can magically afford the prices of them, but yet cannot house the people they currently have?

Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:00

Sorry, link not working properly...article comes up when you google it...

OP posts:
Parietal · 19/06/2017 22:01

apartments that are currently very overpriced will become a little bit less overpriced.

that still doesn't solve the big problem that there are not enough flats in London and we need to build many more.

NSEA · 19/06/2017 22:01

Lower the price? Just like that? that's not how economics works.

Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:02

True, Phil. It just seems such a waste...

OP posts:
PhilODox · 19/06/2017 22:02

Gosh, they're offering£30k off a £800k Appartment... I'll buy three then! Hmm

ArgyMargy · 19/06/2017 22:03

YABU you have totally not found any kind of solution.

Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:03

They're already lowering the price. Will those places just stay empty?

OP posts:
mummymeister · 19/06/2017 22:04

ah yes. you have found the magic money tree. just pick the pounds off of it and pay the developers and all will be well. oh no wait - businesses, like the people who paid the huge costs of the land, the cost of building materials, planning applications, architects, building control, builders, plumbers etc they might actually want to break even on this deal mightn't they?

heres a radical idea. why doesn't the government stop pouring millions of subsidies into the capital in the form of transport links and spend that money in other cities and other areas so people stop having to live in London but can choose to live in other places where property is cheaper.

its self perpetuating. stop building more homes in London. stop businesses investing there - make it either unattractive to do this or more attractive to do it elsewhere and then people will naturally move to get the better jobs and the cheaper housing.

Out2pasture · 19/06/2017 22:12

in my experience of working with social housing (6 very fulfilling years) the people who need housing are not the grey haired seniors who drink tea and watch coronation street too loud refusing to wear their hearing aids. nor are they students eager and very able to finish their degree if only for a little extra financial help to pay the food bills.
they are marginalized people with complex issues.

as much as everyone would love cheaper rent/or even mortgage what is really needed is more mental health services and supervised housing options.
the lovely seniors, perfect student and retired pastor usually have a broad support network and are able to find support from family and friends.
so your idea isn't necessarily bad but better screening to move those difficult to house is necessary.

Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:13

Ok guys, I take it my idea was rubbish... but what about mummymeister's? that is a great idea! Sorry, am a bit London focused I guess...

OP posts:
Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:15

Out2pasture you boosted me now Grin

OP posts:
mummymeister · 19/06/2017 22:18

yes. I used to live in London for 20 years. now live in a very rural area. the amount of London centric thinking and funding in this country is absolutely appalling and has led in part to the housing crisis.

the answer is not to build more houses where the land values are at their highest. but to provide the jobs and infrastructure in other places so that they become an attractive place to work and live.

I get sick to the back bloody teeth every time there is a tube strike. whinging people moaning about how they had to wait for a bus. excuse me mate we have one bus a week on a Tuesday and that is it.

we have tried the spend more money/build more house model in London and its failed. so why not try something different.

Original poster
Toriali · 19/06/2017 22:24

Grin mummymeister... a new perspective on tube strikes!

OP posts:
stopfuckingshoutingatme · 19/06/2017 22:29

They need to just make the rent for poor people more Manageable

It's not rocket science really is it ?

They have benefited from the boom enough it's just greed and to some extent racism

SoftSheen · 19/06/2017 22:32

Purchasing the luxury flats would cost billions. Even if this money were available (not likely), it would be better spent on properly maintaining and upgrading the current social housing stock, or building new, good quality housing on brownfield sites. Or even better, spend some of the money on helping people address some of the problems that lead to them needing social housing in the first place e.g. improvements to mental health provision, better access to education and training, better support for care leavers, etc etc.

RubyGoat · 19/06/2017 22:40

Or people could live somewhere else where they can afford it. There are other places to live in Britain. Some are even quite pleasant. And there are so many more important things to spend public finances on, than continuing to push London as the only, ideal & central point of the country.

Fluffypinkpyjamas · 19/06/2017 22:42

YABU and ridiculous.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 19/06/2017 22:45

Lego

What about the NHS . What about people who man a till in Tesco . Same salary UK wide (ish) and vast differences in rent

What about The many Universities here , the teaching hospitals . We can't only have rich people here !

Why should people leave their home city because of this ??

Charley50 · 19/06/2017 22:47

Well a lot of those luxury flats are aimed at foreign investors (who will never live in them). That could be stopped through legislation, then the prices of those flats would drop a little more. I suppose the developers would want compensation for the govt changing the goalposts after the flats had been built..

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 19/06/2017 22:55

In one way I agree with you OP. I think some form of mixed development is better than large scale social housing. Where I used to live in Westminster the local HA owned some of the converted houses on the street and others were owner occupied. That way social housing wasn't stigmatised or isolated but integrated. It was good for the social mix of the neighbourhood too.

Out2pasture · 19/06/2017 22:58

foreign investment should be limited no doubt about that.
bringing back industrial jobs needs to happen (even if it is government subsidized to keep up with technological skills).
companies (nhs, schools, Tesco) could set up their own housing schemes for their employees (and like 40 years ago deduct rent from their wages to keep it simple).

i'm interested in the topic as I foresee some upcoming changes that might involve banning smoking in government funded buildings, not allowing sublets, measure to limit maximum occupancy.

Want2bSupermum · 19/06/2017 23:06

The big issue that needs to be discussed is the development of greenbelt. There are a lot of small lots which could be built on for the private market. People currently living in HA housing might have a chance to buy a place of their own.

None of this shared ownership either. Just a family buying their own home. I have plots which are up to 5 acres each. On a 5 acre plot they want me to build 50 units! I would prefer to build 4-6 units of 2-4 unit homes which would be sold. Right now I've got a bunch of horses on the land and we have people living in bedsits. Totally stupid if you ask me.

GreenHillsOfHome · 19/06/2017 23:07

I often wonder what would happen if a new property law was introduced...each individual in the UK can only own one house. Anyone with more than one to their name is given a long grace period-say ten years-in which they must sell or it is given over to social housing.

What would happen?

WinifredAtwellsOtherPiano · 19/06/2017 23:08

I do think that divesting more central public sector jobs to regions with high unemployment and low housing costs and incentivising the private sector to relocate would be beneficial. Not to genuinely rural areas, because that's environmentally disastrous, but to the Detroits of the UK. It's not rocket science - it's been done before and it can work.

But doing it by making London less attractive to live in is not going to work - Londoners have votes and clout. You can't force them out, but you can give the many many people who'd actually rather work elsewhere a decent job opportunity somewhere they might ever hope to afford a little terrace of their own.