To feel slightly grumpy at people who have moved to my hometown and made the house prices shoot up

[Pollysoftheworld]

I’m not talking about immigrants.
I was born here. My grandparents grandparents met in the Victorian days in a theatre two miles from my house. Now I have to move out. I don’t recognise my local high street and I can’t afford to shop there. I don’t see how £6 sourdough is a social enterprise. I imagine it’s lovely if you’re used to much higher prices. But I miss my town the way it was.
I wonder if those moving here experienced similar in Brixton, Oxford, Cheltenham etc

TBF, those people have probably been out-priced from wherever they came from

And - fashions change. That includes peoples interest in £6 sourdough bread and specialist spinning studios rather than spending £50 down the pub three times a week.

High streets are always going to evolve and change - at least it sounds like yours is still active and with new shops opening. So many are just empty.

Does that not mean when you move you will sell up for more money?

I'm sure they have. I was brought up in an area of London that I still really love. It has been gentrified beyond belief and I can't afford to live there. Many many people have been pushed out of London, it's unbelievably expensive to rent here now, let alone buy

Your great great grandparents could afford a house and you cant. Hardly a comparison.

My hometown is london. Everyone wants a piece of it, everyone wants to move here and it is completely unaffordable. Even a one bedroom flat is unaffordable. I wish everybody would just piss off to be honest. I can't afford a 1 bed flat in my own home city, and no one cares because it's london, and everyone wants to come here.

I think the prices of everything are shooting up everywhere, but undoubtedly more so in trendy/desirable areas.

I also think the bigger problem isn’t the independent shops charging for their labour and materials. It’s the property portfolio landlord vultures charging astronomical rents and hoovering up flippable properties.

Many of you fellow villagers will have made a heap of cash from selling their houses to the highest offer.

Which is what anyone would do if we are all honest.

Why do you have to move out if you’ve bought a house there?

In Raymond Briggs’ (The Snowman) book about his parents, entitled Ethel and Ernest, he tells how in the pre WW2 30s, his parents were able to buy a 3 bed house in Wimbledon, on ONE milkman’s wage.

Dh is from the area and was able to identify the street. Such houses now routinely sell for £1m.

It’s not just London or the U.K., though - I don’t really understand the reasons, but prices have shot up all over. Friends in Melbourne have found for years now that young people have trouble to be able to afford anything. Same goes for Canada, at least in the more popular areas.

And even in Sweden, where according to a Swedish friend ‘everybody’ used to rent, it’s the case no longer. When she returned to Stockholm after over 20 years in the U.K., she didn’t even think of renting, but prices kept rising after she eventually bought her flat. And neither of her 2 sons rents, both have bought, and one is on at least his 3rd property, having done up and sold on at a profit, the former properties.

Try living in Cornwall 😂

I don’t really understand the reasons, but prices have shot up all over.

People are living longer. Divorce and family make-up means there are more individual households. The widening gap between the rich and poor mean more people can afford second homes and fewer people can afford a first one. Buy-to-let mortgages created a new tier of private landlords. International migration to desirable places adds to the strain. Private housebuilders sit on landbanks to control the price of housing. Cash-strapped local authorities build barely any council homes.

I can afford a house in Cornwall it is not a patch on London prices but it is not somewhere I ever want to live. Too isolated.

Well done, you.

I can no longer afford my hometown and have had to move elsewhere.

I’m sorry it’s pushing your prices up. If I could afford to live there I would.

Would you prefer the drugs rehabilitation village that is going to get built meters from residential houses in a play park in my local area that is going to put the value of our houses right down?

My hometown is Cambridge, I can’t afford to live there. There is no rule or right to live where you grew up. We live in a Capitalist society and everyone is on the move and entitled to luve where they want/can afford. What’s the alternative? We all have to stay where we were born? It’s an absurd idea.

Well you should see my hometown - empty boarded up shops along the high street. It’s one of the most affordable areas in the country but apparently no-one wants to move there ( 1 hour out of London too). I’d love a bit of gentrification.

It does remove choice. People want to stay put where they have ties? Then what they move to cheaper areas pushing up the prices there and forcing locals out in a cycle that never ends.

Sarcasm?

You can get a 2 bed terrace for £250k in Truro, less in smaller towns.

A 2 bed terrace in my suburb of London is £750k. It's a joke.

DD is in the process of moving in Manchester. Most if the houses she is looking at are ex rental, the landlord is pulling out of the market. This may have the effect of reducing house prices, but rents will increase further if there is a shortage. On the other hand, the gov have announced a mortgage guarantee scheme so buyers will need a smaller deposit. Whilst this will help first time buyers, it will also lead to increased prices as there will be more people looking to buy. Back in the 70s we both worked and rented in London, but to buy a small flat we had to move 20 miles outside London, and have a 90 minute commute as we could not afford anything nearer.

You could blame local homeowners who are selling their houses to non-locals. Should they should be forced to sell to locals for a reduced price?

It’s the same in my home city, most of the people my age have had to move to neighbouring towns to be able to afford a house. City is being taken over by students and people moving from London to bring up their kids.
Obviously house prices have risen so much due to the demand which exceeds supply. The UK population has grown massively due to immigration.

I came on to say this. It's locals forcing other locals out. They could sell to another local for a lower price but most of them prefer more money. I suppose towns could introduce laws about it as they do in Jersey I believe.

London prices are astronomical. However Cornwall comes with a different set of issues to London… fewer home, fewer jobs, lots of work seasonal, many homes scooped up as holiday homes/lets, poor public transportation network making it harder to get to work outside your immediate area etc.

I come from London, now living in Frome. In Frome there are often people grumbling about DFLs (down from London) pushing prices up. My response is in London we had DFEs (down from everywhere) doing the same and we’re now getting our own back!

People move. It happens. Get over it. When I was in London house prices were astronomical but blaming blow ins wasn’t on the same scale as in other parts of the country.

North Pembrokeshire coastal village here - and now home to the £6 artisan sourdough and knit your own alpaca brigade.
But no 'ordinary' bakers, butchers, shoe shop, bank, clothes shop etc.
And yes, house prices still rocketing.