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.

lots of couples, in their 30's, are asking for double room shares in houses on our local FB pages.
Historically you would have hoped to be on the housing market by then.

What about Essex, openup - places like Dagenham have a much shorter commute time and you could get something there for your budget.

People on average earn very high salaries in London

The average wage is 35k and in bristol it's 29k. Neither is that high but bristol you aren't poor as fuck on the average wage.

The super rich and family money people with houses across the world are making areas ghost towns.

Dearme,

London won't be a ghost town, London is the only place unlikely to be hit too hard by Brexit.

What will happen is people will flock here for work from the regions, as always happens.

Stop praying for a crash, you won't get on the ladder even it happens.

The average doesn’t take into account people with businesses and all the rich overseas people.....and trust fund kids. They are a significant group.
Add on inhéritance and you have large group of people.

Nobody goes to London any more. It's too crowded.

Do you have a crystal ball or something? Mighty foolish to make such assertions on the future.

I own my own house and wouldn't ever live in london again due to the air pollution. Again more stilly and inaccurate assertions.

Everyone I know loves London. And goes there a lot. Me included. So that’s nonsense

I think that was a joke!

It was. An old one, adapted.

"Do you have a crystal ball or something?"

Nope just using all the economic assessments of brexit.

dearreme - you're talking about making assertions on the future being foolish, but that's exactly what you're doing on this thread!

The Northern line certainly wasn't a ghost tube from Tooting this morning at 7.30 am - it was rammed. DC and many are their friends are in London now, although it may not be a longterm 'home' for them. Time will tell.

Stop praying for a crash, you won't get on the ladder even it happens. Wowsers are you a landlord!

I’m critical of the housing market, it’s one of the reasons we are so unproductive. And as say that as someone with lots of equity & potential inheritance.

I'm asking a question and wondering what the future will be. Hence the title "thinking."

I'm not saying exactly what will and won't happen. Huge difference.

Lots of landlords on here seem to take it so personaly and assume everyone that questions londons fundamentals is desperate to buy there and doesn't own a home.

I wish OP

the place gets more overcrowded by the day

I don't know how you missed that!!

There is no risk of London becoming a ghost town. This is because despite the high housing costs, there are also high wages, and a lot of social housing, as well as households of multiple occupancy. There is still accomodation to suit a variety of budgets in London. Of course people do move out for a variety of reasons, including wanting to upsize, but this is more than outweighed by the new development.

It will stay heaving but with rich people like Monaco. It's too big to be a ghost town. It's a shame it's being a place for wealth only though. I like cities to be more diverse and full of character. Like Glasgow and even New York to an extent.

" Wowsers are you a landlord! "

I've had enough of people praying for a crash because they think it would benefit them.

Also, don't forget that the greater London area is going up and up in population terms too. There are houses being built everywhere.

New York has rent controls. I think that's pretty key to it being the city it is, even with it being a global hub of wealth.

I think you have a point. Areas like Bank and Canary Wharf are practically deserted of a weekend evening, granted few people live there, but that's the point. Once all of zone 1, 2, 3(4..5...6.....) has been sold off to investors at extortionate prices there will be even less opportunity for people to live there. I already know people with 2+ hour long commutes as they have had to move further and further away from central London while their wage stays stagnant. New developments simply aren't affordable to the average person. £500,000 for a one bed flat in Elephant and Castle - on the site where thousands of social homes used to sit.

I do think it's very possible that much of central London could become nothing but a workplace for many and a savings account for the ultra-rich.

I don't believe that London will become a ghost town in my lifetime. It has all the port, train, underground and airport links with plans to expand Heathrow airport, train link to France and the new high speed link to North. I expect that like all other cities that it will continue to grow. Compared to other cities that I have visited abroad it is not over populated. Example I was reading about the history of a city in Africa recently, in 1910 it had an estimated population of 1000, it now has an estimated population of 5 million. People arrive in cities as tourist or make a better life for themselves, some stay, some move to another place.

I've had enough of people praying for a crash because they think it would benefit them.

You;re the one mentioning a crash, I can't see a crash happening and this whole thread is about a crash not happening and all of london just becoming out of reach to 99% of people

Just a workplace for the masses, who travel in and leave it empty at the weekend.

Its happned in many parts of west london already.

Agree its not a ghost town, but is becoming a place where there's the wealthy and the poor, rather than some of those and a larger number in the middle.
Compared to the 80s, its good that so much of London has gentrified to the level of not being generally unsafe - remember when cabs routinely refused to go south of the river? - but we've run out of places within an hour's commute of the centre that are still affordable, unless people accept much reduced living standards. For example when I joined the civil service my grade were around 25 and living in reasonable flats or houses that didn't have damp, everyone had their own bedroom, and the place still had a living room. Houseshares with a communal room are rarer now and the new staff at that grade are usually sharing a room with someone, not just the flat. One colleague calculated it would take 20 years to save a deposit for a flat if he managed to find a partner to do the same. Or maybe 18 years if he forwent all lattes and avocado bagels and all the things millennials are slagged off for spending on. So lots of our talented staff want to move north.

New York has rent controls - yes but these are being eroded and shared ownership / help to buy and housing benefit all have the same effect in London.

In terms of International investors what is more interesting is that property prices in London's competitor cities like New York are starting to fall. There are signs of oversupply and there doesn't seem to be so much hot money looking for a parking space. Rapid growth and development in China etc is already starting to see money which would previously have been moved off-shore to London etc staying home or even being repatriated.