Housing costs will kill off high street?

[GreenMushrooms]

Now hear me out - I know there are many dead high streets, and many people with lots of disposable cash. But I recently visited a small town that I have always loved, it is near the south west coast.

Wages are undeniably low in this part of the country, but this town has historically been filled with many boutique shops. With £30 bowls, and £150 trousers - all hand made in the stores. Obviously there is tourist trade, but with housing costs increasing I wonder how towns like this will survive.

Historically there were many people with mortgages of only £400ish per month. Now, for a first time buyer purchasing an average house in the town with a 10% deposit, the mortgage would be more like £1800+. Rent isn't much cheaper with one bed flats £800+. For remortgagers, the interest rate has increased dramatically, increasing repayments.

Judging by previous mumsnet posts, the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" is often housing costs, when you look at budgets and disposable income.

With less disposable income for residents, how will small independents such as this survive? Surely there will be much less demand for "little luxuries", especially in low income towns. This won't just put the boutiques out of business, but it will fundamentally change the shape of such towns. Turning them into the average run-down high street.

YABU - someone will always have money and towns like this will always survive

YANBU - increased housing costs have dramatically reduced disposable incomes, meaning these town centres will fail

The generic high street is dead. High prices and poor customer service has killed it. Time to accept shopping has changed for good.

I think unless a town or small city has something else going for it (so round here, Salisbury and Wells have cathedrals and walking tours for architecture, and Bath will obviously never die) then that's it. Bur those are the places with the boutique shops anyway. I live in a market town full of charity shops and hairdressers that just lost Starbucks and Wilko, and has planning to turn an old travel agent into flats.

My local shopping area is thriving because it is a popular retirement area. It’s also got a very frequent bus service. So people who are more likely to walk/ bus to the shops, who have time and disposable income (no rent/ mortgage), less likely to buy online and less likely to drive to the out of town shopping.

Our local town centre though is dying though.

We need fewer shops in the centre of town, concentrated in a small area, planned to cover the essentials so it’s not just barbers and nail bars and vape shops. And then redevelop the rest of the current town centre into housing - town houses with small gardens and parking not flats. Win-win. I should be prime minister.

Just because cars and drivers are not enabled to drive wherever they please, whenever they please and at minimal cost to them, does not mean there is a war on motorists!

@Spendonsend

"I feel like the whole of the uk's wealth is tied up in housing. Either paying mortgages or rent. And until we come up with a better way of housing us all the economy isnt going to thrive."

+++

This is it in a nutshell really. When a large proportion of your income goes on mortgage or rent then you have less income to:

Properly fund your own private pension meaning you then have to rely on the state pension at a cost to tax revenue.
You spend less in local shops / restaurants / stores etc which means these businesses will be less successful and employment in these businesses lower.
Save less meaning less money is available to be invested by banks into businesses.
You can't tax people more because then they have even less disposable income.
It makes controlling inflation incredibly difficult because with borrower's heavily leveraged it means any slight increase in interest rates result in people losing their homes.
High rents create insecurity amongst tenants that a) whether they can afford them and b) even if they can then will the landlord evict them in favour of someone who can pay more.
Bizarrely inflation of goods and services is seen as a bad thing but house price inflation is often celebrated.

All for a non productive asset. The answer of course is to build a shit load of houses at least 350k a year ideally 500k.

But this will never happen because for everyone that owns a house then they feel it is in their interest to object to the building of more houses.

Thanks for the replies. It tickled me that a couple of people have mentioned the trousers. I thought the same as I wrote out the post (I really wanted that bowl and trousers! But too pricey for me when I can buy second hand).

I agree they aren't little luxuries, in that they are expensive: I never have (and never could imagine) payed this amount for trousers.

However, the trousers themselves were lovely, and hand made and designed by the shop owner who was working in the shop. So I think on a "per hour" basis, given the material and business rates etc the price was fair (I.e. compared to clothes made abroad in sweatshops).

I think my point regarding "little luxuries" was - as someone else more eloquently put - I can't imagine how that business will be viable for much longer.

I feel like there possibly was a time where lots of people would have paid more for handmade, local and organic. I think this is why this particular small town is the way it is - it isn't just for tourists, there is a thriving local popular who live in the town all year round. It also draws in lots of local tourists. I feel that the pool of people who can afford to spend more for independent/local/organic/ethical are shrinking and many people need to concrete on necessities and basics.

Housing costs are the root of most of the problems in this country. It literally destroys everything.

What others have said - about always having affluent areas - resonates.

Didn't there used to be some places that didn't feel so "affluent" (in terms of full of millionaires and second property owners), but just used to feel like a nice small town with a good high street? Now it feels like the options are polarising to affluent or shit, with nothing for "regular" people? "Regular" people have to be tourists in the affluent areas if they want to buy or do something nice? Or even just want to spend a day browsing some interesting shops?

As someone else said, maybe it is inequality growing larger. Maybe the definition of "affluence" is changing - you used to have "middle class" as aspirational, sending their kids to private school, buying houses in the home counties and outskirts of London, mum didn't need to work. Now this group of people can't afford these things?

I've been to many centres in smaller towns that just aren't worth going to. The only thing that makes my own town interesting is the market and one or two interesting charity shops. I think PP who talked about women entering the workforce explained it well.