Poor people being priced out

[veggifriedbreakfast]

I live in East London and need to move, I currently rent a 2 bedroom flat. But, looking around now, for a 2 bedroom the minimal is £1400 a month up to £2000 for a 2 bed!!!

It seems to me that what is happening is that actually poor people are being priced out of London. I lived in Stratford and had to move out of there due to the market going up and now where I am again it's happening. How can people on lesser incomes afford this? I am now looking to having to uproot ds again and move even further out because of this. Aibu in thinking that this is a part of forcing the poorer people out of London?

Sorry, also x-posted with Mrsharrison!

I'm in North Essex and some of the rents are sky high. £1000 pm for a 2 bed in a not that great town. Even where I live about 8 miles, the rents are pushing up and I live in a village with no rail system and shit bus timetable.

Supply and demand. When more people start looking for jobs outside of London and there are less "poor" people willing to commute in and do the "menial" jobs for the rich like cleaning, working in hospitality, transporting them around etc then the tide will turn.

but it needs a whole cohort of people to just stop doing it.

London is a completely different country but you do get what you pay for. property is cheap here but no public transport, not much culture, pubs closing down, village shop closing down, no post office no bank etc. It just depends what you want out of life I suppose.

nothing would convince me to move back to London.

It's social engineering, a form of 'ethnic cleansing' in effect. Even at my highest ever salary, I only just got to £1400 a month take home, so I'd have stood no chance. I feel for ordinary folk working in London but having to commute long distances; it must be soul destroying.

There needs to be investment in proper social housing for people in those areas - but where you don't have the right to buy so that all the stock doesn't keep disappearing.

YoucancallmeVal teaching is a job you can do anywhere. Move, have more money, maybe even employ a cleaner

I have never lived or worked in London but have lived and worked in several areas.

We are now in West Yorkshire. A 4 bed detached house is less than £300k, my children attended an outstanding primary and now attend an outstanding secondary. My average child has gone from being a C grade student to being an A grade student due to amazing, inspirational teachers. You could be one of them.

Children move homes and schools all the time.

OP I hope you find somewhere to tide you over until you move to Derby.

It's not just London. I rent in Cornwall and can't afford to buy where I live because people buy second homes. I used to live in London so I get it.

I tell myself I'm paying for a better quality of life

Discotis, thats a 2 bed flat within 5 mins of a tube station that gets you central in 20 mins,

For a couple on London Average salary of £34,473 its easily affordable.

Also close to V trendy Walthamstow

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-53698947.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-65847022.htm

lwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-54645087.html

Hope you find something suitable soon!

And to those few who think that it's just a matter of 'economics' and everyone should live where they can afford, who is going to nurse your sick child? Who is going to empty your rubbish/repair your streets? Who is going to teach your children? Who is going to serve you in your local shops? Probably not someone with the earning potential to live in or commute to most parts of London.

As someone who believe in "economics", the answer to your questions are simple and obvious. When employers can no longer get the number and quality of people they need at current rates of pay, they will pay more to have all those jobs done. And the people who pay high prices for London property will have to pay higher prices for the services that depend on the London labour market.

I do struggle to understand how current London property prices are sustainable. I would say that maybe they aren't, except I was thinking the same thing ten years ago.

Also, the idea that thousands on LLs are conspiring to create social cleansing is absurd. They are just asking a market rate for their property, what do you exoect them to do? That is how they earn a living-should they compromise their earnings so that poor people can stay in London?

I think this is a bit disingenuous really.

Annual rent increases can't usually be blamed on the fact that the landlord's costs have gone up. They haven't. Interest rates have been at rock bottom for nearly ten years. Borrowing has never been so cheap. Their mortgage has not got any more expensive.

Putting up prices every year because it's "market rate" has nothing to do with the landlord's costs going up and everything to do with greed and wanting to squeeze a bit more out of tenants who have no real choice but to pay up or move on. It's only "market rate" because they're all doing it.

Except presumably that desirable location wants teachers, nurses, bus-drivers, youth workers, nursery workers, retail staff etc? Why should they have to commute miles into said desirable location?

Nobody has to do anything, slavery is illegal. They should commute if it's worth it to them, and not if it isn't. If too many of them choose "not", pay will go up until enough of them change their minds.

London rental prices are so depressing. When I was a student in the early 00's we lived in areas like Highgate, Islington, and Camden. None of us were particularly wealthy, but back then you could live fairly centrally on a student's budget. I am part of a double income household now, and there is no way we would be able to afford such areas now if we were still renting.

It is horrible when you have to move from the area you grew up in, where your family are. We were forced out of Walthamstow 12 years ago by rising prices. Unfortunately it is the reality for most young people raised in London - I'm in zone 6 now, we bought a one bed flat as the prices were rising so fast, and have had to delay starting a family as we couldn't afford to have a child and buy a property.
Any opportunities to buy a shared ownership flat or similar (like the NewShare 50% equity scheme?) as you may find a mortgage is less than renting and gives you the security of not having to move because of landlords selling etc?

The problem with London prices is that everyone wants to live in desirable areas like Queens Park and lots of people aren't willing to compromise on location in order to get a better deal.

The irony of it is, that most of these locations weren't desirable when most people moved to them, but the people willing to make compromises made them desirable now.

You could say it's social cleansing in terms of government policy not to build affordable houses; but not on the part of individual landlords expecting market rent. If you had a product to sell would you sell it for less than what people are willing to pay just to be altruistic? No because you had to buy it for a certain price in the first place and have your own bills to pay - buy to let mortgage for example among them. But yes the government does need to provide more affordable housing for key workers.

Albeit, aren't sale prices in London starting to decrease? So the problem might be solved by itself with a property market crash anyway. As house prices and rental levels are interlinked.

Discotis, thats a 2 bed flat within 5 mins of a tube station that gets you central in 20 mins

Yes, I’m suggesting it to the OP as it’s cheaper than how much she said originally.

Its just supply and demand. The community ties thing works both ways - I'm a northerner and got made redundant up there and had to move to the south to get work. There is no automatic right that everyone gets to stay in the area where they were brought up - we've got to be flexible. I work in London and commute from outside because I can't afford to live in London, but that's just a fact of life, that my teacher's salary doesn't allow me to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Its a shame, but I don't have any entitlement to do so.

If low cost housing was built with low rents then be honest how many of those do you think would then be sublet? There needs to be a fresh look at social housing in the capital. Its there but who is in it?

One of the trusts, I think it was Peabody, used to let you have a flat whilst you were on a low income. they would review it every year. if your salary went up above a certain threshold or the number of your household went down then you would be given 12 months notice to move.

there are a significant number of people in social housing who could afford not to be or who have sublet or who are underoccupying because children have moved away. I am not saying its huge, just that it is statistically significant.

you cant have it both ways. if you want social housing then it has to be engineered and it has to be accepted that some people will be forcibly asked to move once they reach the income or occupancy thresholds.

For everyone saying move elsewhere, it is a very sad state of affairs when people cannot afford to live in the areas their parents did (on much less income, for that matter) and are expected to simply pack up and move away, thus giving up their support systems and networks because, 'economics'. It doesn't have to be like this. It really doesn't.

The problem with London prices is that everyone wants to live in desirable areas like Queens Park and lots of people aren't willing to compromise on location in order to get a better deal.

Everyone I know in London has compromised on location and is still paying through the nose.

HTH.

The problem is in a lot of cases, the money you save on housing costs by moving out of London only ends up going on expensive train fares to commute back in. It’s a false economy.

And of course I'm not entitled to a mansion in Notting Hill but when 2 adults working professional jobs are struggling to keep their foot in the door of an entire city, something is definitely off. I hate to think how people working zero hours and minimum wage jobs are managing.

I live in a poor part of Birmingham and house prices are rediculous and the rents aren't much better.

"Everyone I know in London has compromised on location and is still paying through the nose.

HTH."

Lots of people I know in London aren't willing to compromise enough, lots of snobbery involved.

HTH yourself with your anecdotes.