To be irritated by the Londoner exodus to my town?

[thesecondnamegame]

I've been priced out of my Greater Manchester town by the London diaspora. Anybody who knows the area will know which town I mean. My tatty council town centre terrace is worth 300k. A load of Londoners came up after the BBC moved to Manchester. Half the kids in my kid's school's parents are from London and they love to make sure you know that. House prices have become ridiculous and are in a different world to the rest of Greater Manchester. It's ridiculous as it used to be a very unremarkable market town (albiet with not much to it) and now it's gone all 'naice' and I'm having to move 10 miles away because it's reaching the surrounding towns and I simply cannot afford to live here and I want to buy a property. It annoys me, I keep imagining somebody who had a London salary and bought a house in London, sold it, and came up here and bought a house 3 times bigger for the same price as their smaller London home. It just seems like they cheated. There are no school places either, because a lot of the Londoner's chose this particular town for the schools. The catchments are bloody tiny, I know somebody who lives in a village about 4 miles away. The schools in this town are the closest schools. No school would take her child and she ended up having to home educate for months.

All my relatives who bought properties or private rented have had to leave, even those who went to uni and got great jobs.

@SoupDragon maybe. But the issue is real. It’s not necessarily specific to people from London only moving and gentrifying. But the issue is quite real and interesting

@thesecondnamegame

Those coming up north just to buy luxurious houses they couldn't have afforded in London are the issue, as I've repeatedly said. There are many MN posts of people who've done just that.

When enough people do it, the property prices sky rocket. It's bringing London's issues elsewhere but with none of the opportunity London provides.

But isn't this the point? People are moving because remote working means people can access London jobs and salaries from anywhere, so people in your area do now have those opportunities.

Those who have earned their wealth, not necessarily in the local area but who aren't buying purely on equity gained in a property from a completely different part of the country where house pricing is another world.

Wowsers the goalposts keep shifting! So it's ok if they earned their wealth, how do you quantify that? So the privately educated solicitor who earns 300k deserves it more than the nurse who happened to buy in an area that became popular & has equity?

@Blueeyedgirl21

I went to urmston in the end- furthest away children lived in Irlam.

@Drunkenmonkey

It was Covid that caused the remote working boom. And I highly doubt any companies will be offering salaries that are higher to reflect London living costs to employees who are WFH in other areas.

That's true, but I think OP means it's much easier to live on a £30,000 salary here if you have a five bedroom house bought with the proceeds of selling somewhere in London

But equally somebody on a £30k salary in London is probably renting.

That's true, but I think OP means it's much easier to live on a £30,000 salary here if you have a five bedroom house bought with the proceeds of selling somewhere in London rather than living on £30,000 salary and trying to get on the housing ladder.

If you’re on £30k and you have a house to sell in London of a value that would buy you a five bed house in Altrincham (which is around a million quid minimum, by the way) then you’ve clearly got a source of a huge amount of capital that isn’t your own salary. In which case of course your life is going to be easier than that of someone who just has the £30k salary. That’s got literally nothing to do with people moving from London to anywhere, it’s called capitalism and yes, it’s a system that’s incredibly unfair on most people.

@RedToothBrush

Agree about Urmston. Less so Stretford at the moment. But there are bits on the edges which are being sold as up and coming so I think it will happen more in time.

Houses in Urmston are now going for silly money. I've looked at some of them and thought wtaf.

I think stretford, although it has the met, suffers from not having a high street with bijou shops and cafes. Longford park area is still extortionate though as it’s chorlton borders effectively

always wonder where the Londoners with normal jobs live - where does a single mum who is a staff nurse possibly live? What about a taxi driver and a cafe worker with four kids? There must be people living in awful conditions.

Dickensian really. For some. Migrants exploited by beds in sheds 'landlords', single mum nurse in cramped damp ridden flat on a deprived estate or a shoddily maintained but expensive private rental, taxi drivers in HMOs.

Obviously not everyone struggles that badly. Some, particularly the older ones, have perfectly nice homes on decent estates or well maintained private rentals. Some own - bought before things got out of control or with family help or an inheritance or a high earning partner.

Also a lot of essential workers particularly lower paid live in the outer suburbs, or outside London and commute in.

Some of the very worst off are London's disabled. The acute social housing shortage means they need to find private landlords who accept benefits. Which in London is increasingly hard. Many, being vulnerable, aren't in a position to just move elsewhere.

Despite the growing problem (that's now starting to spread elsewhere out of London) Right to Buy still hasn't been banned in England.

That's true, but I think OP means it's much easier to live on a £30,000 salary here if you have a five bedroom house bought with the proceeds of selling somewhere in London

Some one in London on 30k will have to be old or have family help to have enough equity for that.

@awaketoosoon

The nurse guilt tripping is pointless. Both went to uni and did degrees which they chose, didn't they? The nurse could have become a solicitor if they had done a law degree.

Moving back to relevancy, the concept of housing being an investment is disgusting and I hate it, of course I'll naturally focus on London because that's where most of the ridiculous equity is building up, and it's being used to buy out houses in other areas.

@JaJaDD stretford had a lovely high street when my grandpa was growing up. All bulldozed for the bloody arndale!
(Now ‘mall’ 😂)

It is getting more popular though as it’s Urmston and chorlton overspill. Longford park is lovely but the vegan cafe and the people who are often screeching ineffuctually are their kids from it drive me a bit mad. Not really my type

[quote thesecondnamegame]@LoudestCat14

Is nobody allowed to talk about social issues anymore? Let's get rid of politicians then, they make policies that affect what people want to do. I absolutely think that a couple selling a bog standard house in London and then using that money to buy a massive house in an area that's had a completely different history and much less investment historically is wrong. It may not be a common thought process, but it's mine. That's my opinion, I'm expressing it.

To be honest, I do despise the way this country is in general and would welcome socialism, but that isn't going to happen.[/quote]
We'll have to agree to disagree. You cannot dictate how or where people choose to live. Plus your next comment about only people who've earned their wealth being allowed to move? Like you are doing now, I scrimped and saved to buy my first flat, a pokey one bed in a rundown area of east London. Since then I have continued to work hard so I can afford a bigger place in north London. I have acquired equity but I still have a sizeable mortgage that I work my arse off to pay. But according to your thinking I should have stayed put in the one-bed and known my place in the pecking order by virtue of me now having some equity and therefore not legitimately earning my 'wealth' that enabled me to upgrade to a better part of the city. It just feels like very limiting thinking that people aren't allowed to better their family's prospects and environment?

I can hazard a guess at which towns you're talking about and they have always been expensive, way before the BBC moved to Manchester.
Media city has given the local economy a real boost, lots of new builds in Salford Quays and the city centre, so I don't think you can blame them entirely for the rise in prices in some outlying towns.
I've no doubt there'll be some unpleasant people who have moved up, boasting about their cheaper massive northern property but you sound very much like you are stereotyping based on limited exposure.
Remember that they have struggled with house prices because people from all over the country flock to London for work. It works both ways.

@merrymouse

That's true, but I think OP means it's much easier to live on a £30,000 salary here if you have a five bedroom house bought with the proceeds of selling somewhere in London

But equally somebody on a £30k salary in London is probably renting.

Yes. Many people on more than that - £40 or 50K have to rent in London. And then they can't afford to save for a deposit because of London's expensive rents.

It's easier to get on the ladder in the first place outside of London.

@Tealightsandd but if you work in Starbucks in Zone 1 and commute in, surely your wage barely covers your commute? It seems mad to me. I always assume that the young, immigrant workers who make up the bulk of the staff in those type of places are housed in really poor conditions and it makes me really sad

The nurse guilt tripping is pointless. Both went to uni and did degrees which they chose, didn't they? The nurse could have become a solicitor if they had done a law degree.

Except for the fact a solicitor earning 300k will very likely have been to an elite university & private school so not a level playing field. However if it is what's your excuse for not earning a high salary?

Is it just you or does everyone where you live have a massive chip on their shoulder?

[quote thesecondnamegame]@awaketoosoon

The nurse guilt tripping is pointless. Both went to uni and did degrees which they chose, didn't they? The nurse could have become a solicitor if they had done a law degree.

Moving back to relevancy, the concept of housing being an investment is disgusting and I hate it, of course I'll naturally focus on London because that's where most of the ridiculous equity is building up, and it's being used to buy out houses in other areas.[/quote]
You do know the entry requirements to law are higher than for nursing and there are far more nursing jobs to be had than legal ones?

Cities and counties need essential workers. They were discussing where essential workers live in a city turned economically toxic. That’s build interest you too, if you feel that Manchester is following in London’s footsteps.

Surely with everyone having moved out of London now, houses here should be cheap as chips so you can move here instead? Oh, wait...

Moving back to relevancy, the concept of housing being an investment is disgusting and I hate it, of course I'll naturally focus on London because that's where most of the ridiculous equity is building up, and it's being used to buy out houses in other areas.

Good idea to focus on London. I'm with you on that OP. What with the 165,000 homeless there, somebody needs to focus on London's very severe housing crisis. The capital of homelessness has a lot of people in desperate need of housing.

If OP works for the Manchester tourism office, they’re sunk, aren’t they?

Ordinary Londoners are not responsible for the housing boom in the last 20 years OP. You are barking up the wrong tree with your vitriol.

What would you have liked people in London to have done, exactly?

If house prices in other areas such as Manchester are now set to rise, there will be winners and losers. It’s what has been happening in London for decades.

If somebody in Manchester finds that their house price doubles in the next five years, are you seriously telling them they should never be able to move anywhere else? Even if their job requires it?

Surely you can see what a ridiculous argument this is.

The issues you are moaning about are precisely what millions of people in London and the SE have been experiencing for decades. Why is your area any different to anywhere else?

How will my children get on the property ladder where I live? A one -bed flat over a shop or something will be £500k. Please explain what you would like them to do? Camp in a tent in Hyde Park?

Many people who have made money on the London property market in the last 25 years are from the north anyway! Why would you think otherwise? They only came to London due to the inequality in job opportunities. If this situation, the North-South is now beginning to rectify itself, that’s a good thing.

I am from a very rural part of Spain, but I’m as much a Londoner now as the next person. Should I complain about all the Brits who have shifted to Spain for a bigger / nicer house with a pool etc etc. Shall I tell them they’re not welcome and are putting pressure on local services? Because they pushed property prices up for locals there, you know.

Again, why do you think your area of Manchester should be different to anywhere else?

Yes we were fortunate that we have benefitted from the London property boom. My husband is of Middle Eastern descent. Like most people, he was not born here, but has made it his home. He bought his first flat, aged 24, in East London for £70k in the mid 1990s. House prices have rocketed out of all proportion since then. If he was trying to buy the same flat now, it would be £800k. Imagine if he was starting out now in 2021, post uni, at age 24. And he was in banking, hardly an average London salary. Even on massive salaries it’s a struggle for young people.

Nobody owns anywhere. People will do what they have to do. That’s life.

🤣🤣🤣

I'm not saying people can't move up in life, but London equity shouldn't be then used to price out people from their local towns in the north.

How can it be stopped though? A large tax perhaps if somebody is using a large amount of equity earned in a high yielding area such as London to buy a much larger house in Manchester?

It is not the same as somebody raised in London who's ended up buying their starter home in say, the east midlands because they couldn't afford London!