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.

There are still plenty of places where people can get on the ladder, its just they have to reduce their prejudices.

We first bought in an undesierable location in the 80s, it was fine despite all the dire warnings from friends and family.

Overseas investors only make up 12% of the market btw.

Its happned in many parts of west london already

But it's not. Forget the areas like Chelsea where the super rich own their third home, london population is growing faster than anywhere else in the U.K. and the forecasts are it will reach a peak by 2021 with more people living there than ever before in its history.

The facts speak for themselves. London is growing. There is no two ways about it. Jobs, population, it's growing. That's simply fact. And it's growing faster than anywhere else in the U.K and to unmanageable proportions where amending the infrastructure to cope is now critical.

That's over 1 in 10 though, which is significant. The top end new developments are marketed in their literature as being for homogeneous white families pushing buggies when in fact the truth is that most of the properties are bought, sold and resold again all off plan as prices rise to Saudi/Russian oligarchs pushing dirty money through the London machine. It's a game rather than a meaningful attempt to house people.

"Only" 12% and concentrated in certain pockets makes it feel like a ghost town.

I agree with the Op I think London is quieter than say 20 years ago. Rents and business rates and internet shopping have decimated the smaller niche shops that gave London its character and contributed to its buzz. I used to go up to get supplies from 2 bead shops, one had been there for nearly 100 years, both closed in December. Online shopping really is not the same and you get charged for postage on top. It's also effecting the larger departments stores, closing down and all those jobs lost.

There is so much building going on but none of it is truly affordable for people who need to live there, retail workers, nurses, cleaners, the people who keep a city running are being pushed further and further out, spending more money and time commuting. Pointless penthouse flats being sold off to foreign investors who never set a foot in them. Centre point, that beacon of hope to homeless people for many years has been redeveloped into luxury flats costing several millions each, its as if capitalism is gloating!

I think London will loose a lot of its shops over the next few years and become more of a tourist town/theme park only interested in extracting money from people or exploiting them.

Facts?

Migration from London at highest recorded level - www.ft.com/content/2485014c-7b85-11e8-bc55-50daf11b720d

London's property prices leads to exodus of early 30s - www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jun/27/londons-property-prices-leads-to-exodus-of-early-30s

There are still plenty of places where people can get on the ladder, its just they have to reduce their prejudices.

^ This!

There are still plenty of places where people can get on the ladder, its just they have to reduce their prejudices.

Lies! Unless you want to live somewhere with no jobs or spend hours a day commuting.

This isn't like the past where you can live in undesriable places that are still quite central (hackney etc). Even walthamstow is unafforable to professionals.

There is lots of good housing in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire and good schools but people persist in wanting to live in Kent Surrey and Hertfordshire. You can commute in less than an hour to an hour and a half, door to door from many cheaper places but it is people' prejudices that put them off.

The lady up thread who has a long commute, needs to look again.

I’ve noticed more & more high streets near me changing retail units to housing developments. I want to live near a high street, I like having the amenities close by. Things are defo more homogenised which has pros & cons

I will say that I’m very lucky now that my job is a 10 min walk from my home & school. I can’t ever see myself commuting again which is another reason why I would prefer a new city as opposed to a long commute.

HaroldsSocalledBluetits
I used to live and work in Deptford - not that nice!

Deptford is being seriously gentrified actually

It isn't just 'prejudice' that stops people commuting hundreds of miles, the cost of a travelcard is hugely prohibitive.

It's almost £500 a month (after you've been taxed) and 3+ hours a day from anywhere in bedfordshire (unless you are rich enough to live close to a station and lucky enough have work near a station the other end) that isn't a good life at all.

Bedford is £603.70 a month to london. That isn't prejudice, that's fucking awful.

Plumstead, 25 mins on train to C London - 2 lines. 2-3 bed Victorian house £350K. People are prejudiced about some parts of London. It's actually a nice area around the Common and ripe for gentrification once the Elizabeth Line starts in December.

plumstead is pretty far out, most of the trains in are 35-40m (some l bridge ones are 25m) and the lizzie line is not going to be too great for it if you are near the common - will be half an hour walk or 20 mins if you walk to the high street and wait for a bus. It's alright there but still a long commute.

350k doesn't sound that reasonable with that in mind.

@dear

I really don't think housing benefit is doing much to push up prices in London. The cap is way below the market rent, eg 1,200 for a 2 bed in central. And very few landlords accept DSS tenants.

The landlords who will accept are those who have really awful substandard property that they would struggle to rent out privately, and they do this through housing associations and the council.

Those using housing benefit to pay for half decent accommodation would likely be long-term tenants who starting renting the same place when housing benefit was still generally acceptable (ie, 10 years ago).

I commuted from zone 5 London where I live for an hour in and out from 1984 and that commute people have been doing for 50 years and longer. An hour's commute each was ist just normal for most workers. It is nothing new really. My son in Chesham is on the tube, house £325k (he doesn 't work in London) and that place does have people there commuting into London too. £325k - £400k is not too bad if you have two full time London salaries and buy somewhere before you have babies or if you a couple sharing a one bed much further in for £1400 a month - £700 a month rent each.

Well said Xenia

I dunno, don't go to London much but I'm becoming more resentful of the DFLs buying property in my area (little seaside town mentioned upthread). They're pricing out local families and are often crushingly obnoxious and patronising. That's not me projecting, they sit in the cafes and bars performance vocalising about how amaaaaaaaazingly cheap their house was and how sweeeeeeeeet it is that we've finally got a Costa Ugh.

free there are 3.5m households in London of whom about 50% or 1.8m rent. About 800,000 (44%) of them are in receipt of housing benefit.

Even accounting for travel, it is still cheaper to move out to Kent/Sussex and do a long commute.

I totally get why you made that choice, Openup, but that puts inflationary pressure on housing in those areas. Places like Lewes and Tunbridge Wells are rapidly becoming unaffordable for local people, as people move out from London and are earning so much more than those who've stayed local.

I think there needs to be a real incentive for big employers to move away from the south-east to less affluent areas, to redress the balance a bit and regenerate more deprived areas.

I agree, I think we need to move the financial sector out of London and elsewhere and keep the political centre in London.

Leeds is the UKs second finance city so would be good to incentivise people to move there and the northern regions.
And it might even mean we get equal investment up north