To think London will become a ghostown

[dearreme]

People of my parents age could get a nice house in zone 2 on one wage. People of my age if they bought 10 or so years ago could get a little flat on two full time wages. And of my friends any that didn't buy have now left for other cities or are planning an exit.

Younger people I work with now are planning on never even moving to the city as they know the quality of life is so much better in other cities.

What will happen to london? It seems like much of K&C has been purchased by people as a store of money and is left empty.

Less jobs are apparently being created now, with employers favoring other locations in europe or the UK.

places like Hackney, Harringey, Brixton etc all had plenty of ordinary people buying houses even 25 years ago. No chance of that now.

They were very cheap, and I know families that were very poor who immigrated and bought there. Now a little house in bethernal green is only affordable by CEOs.

Houses in bristol and edinburgh aren't that crampt. I know people on below average wages that can afford to rent quite nice one bed places a short walk away from everything they need in the city. Impossible in london.

Bluntness100 im looking at the trends and what happens if they continue.

Bethnal Green!

Anecdotally, I've seen this over the past few years in my Borough. The only people who can afford the £850, 000 bog standard three bed terraces are those who bought years ago or those on City salaries. Ordinary middle earning neighbours are leaving in droves to Sussex and Kent. We are left with those in social housing and those with high incomes. Doesn't seem to be much in between.

There are also reasonable houses for sale, in London for £300K in places such as Plumstead/Woolwich but they're not fashionable (yet!).

Late 80s was indeed a housing bubble which burst. A lot of people ended up in negative equity for the best part of a decade - no reason why it couldn't happen again. Negative equity trapped young professionals where they were. As young professionals have been less and less able to afford to buy there are fewer of them who would be trapped in the same way. If the tide does turn there is much more likelihood of an exodus - although I agree there is an equilibrium which is likely higher than the 6.5m of the 90s, given the scale of recent development but below the current 8.5m. A lot of paper wealth could be lost in the process but one of the reasons rents are cheaper than buying is because there are a lot of long term landlords not pricing according to current property values.

Openup, that's difficult.

Jesus but housing is fucked in this country.

@spanish

I don't know about Bristol but in Birmingham and Edin, you can rent a whole flat for less than 800. In London no way. And the difference is those graduates in those cities might actually be able to afford to stay there when they want to buy.

When graduates in London get sick of room sharing and want to buy, many now need to move out, that was my entire point.

Woolwich at the moment is so far out, traveling on the DRL changing at bank then going onwards takes forever. I do wonder what will change with the lizzie line this year. I know someone that has to take a bus to the station, then get all the way to marble arch every day - it's almost 3 hours a day!

I beleive they already have huge very expensive and small flats build right outside the crossrail woolwich station that they are trying to shift and get buisnesses to open up undeneath in with limited sucess.

Openup commuting to london is hell, i'm sure with good skills there is a solution out there

I live in London and it’s the complete opposite of being at risk of becoming a ghost town.

Where is H and F?

In my leafy part of SE London, just over the cheaper side of the road to Blackheath and Greenwich, it's funny how people see their houses. When we bought at 400k (for a 4 bed Victorian terrace) a few years ago we were disappointed as we could only get a 50% mortgage and this was all we could afford (sorry if that sounds ridiculous to people in other parts of the country. We are both northerners by birth but used to London prices now) and we would have loved to have bought t'other side of the tracks (the posher side).

I met a new group of people who have recently bought here and they were so pleased to have managed to get into this area despite paying double what we did! It's funny how that can change the perception of a place.

I see the 'sought after' areas are now extending and extending but not too far from here - parts of Woolwich etc - there are still family homes for about 500k (which by London standards is probably quite affordable).

Transport investment in areas like Woolwich will slowly improve the area over time as journey times are slashed. Places like Peckham, Brixton, Stratford were all no-go areas for the middle classes not so long ago. Not even sure you could afford those areas now on middling incomes! It'll be interesting to see how the demographics change in London over the next 20 years, particularly with Brexit thrown into the mix (although I suspect Brexit will have a lesser effect on London than elsewhere in the country).

I never see any evidence of any crisis in london! Theatres heaving, ditto restaurants and bars. Private schools hard to get into. Lots of wrath has been created in london in the past decade and it’s very evident.

Ah, bless you - that's so tough. I think what is often forgotten with this jubilant talk of house prices is that a house should be primarily something that enables you to live, and the way things are now it has become something that has an actively deleterious effect on many people's lives, whether they are in a bedbug ridden hellhole in Dalston or spending their entire waking hours paying for a place they only see to sleep in.

Openup41, your situation sounds awful but you could afford to move closer to London but perhaps not to a 'naice' area. Would it be a compromise you're willing to make?

2 houses on my road have sold within a week for just under 2 million, desirable areas with good schools will always be in demand

London has always been expensive to buy property, a lot of people rent or house share when younger then move out to buy, it’s not a new approach and London is busier than ever!

People on average earn very high salaries in London or have businesses and do not underestimate the international rich parking their money in London property still.
Lots of people also have family money too. The place is anything other than a ghost town.
However you are less likely to hear a northern accent than an American one!

openup london , zones 1 and 2 will eventually only be affordable to the very rich. most people will have to travel in, like Manhattan.