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

I wonder if we do need a sort of cap on what the house prices can rise to. There’s a house in the council estate next to me for 600,000. It’s an ex local authority house, which has been knocked down in places and rebuilt. Very nicely. But how are we supposed to compete?

Same. Had to move out eventually and now live in one of the towns where the locals moan about londoners pushing up house prices. Can't win!

I think flipping houses causes many problems. It means the 'ordinary' person can't buy something cheaper to live in and do up while they live there. It means affordable properties are snapped up and sold at a higher price.

I agree. There's a guy a few doors down from me who does this. He's constantly monitoring for new properties going for sale in the road, buying them for cash and doing them up with top of the range stuff. He recently put one back on the market for over £150k more than he paid for it. So shitty.

ETA: I live in an area with huge demand for housing so the house would definitely have found a buyer pre-flipping.

I think it's area dependent, although I hear what you say.

You can't price yourself out of the area, but in areas where prices are creeping up, you can always be at the top (this has happened near me). First time buyers, yes, but not local first time buyers. Richer buyers who can't quite afford the nearest city and would prefer to live in the countryside and commute, but where the locals aren't earning enough to be able to buy and stay in their own area.

In 20 years, I've also experienced a beautiful seaside down turn from just being just locals in modest houses to flipped properties bought by rich holiday home owners. The place is now dead in wintertime. The local council has tried to stop this, but it has been too little, too late.

A common problem. I grew up in what has since been named the most expensive UK town outside London.

I was born there and left at 18 to study. I now only know one person who lives there, everyone else has left, priced out or driven out by the surge in housing and gridlocked roads. Not one school friend remains, from a whole generation.

I wouldn't want to live there now. All sense of community has gone.

Retreating further and further from London is the only way to find any kind of a decent community, where neighbours have time for each other, and a sensible work life balance.

I home-make bread now, every weekend, for me and a neighbour. Increasingly, healthy food is only available to the wealthy or those who cook/bake from scratch. I refuse to support the £6 sourdough.

Try having grown up in East London...

I’m probably part of the problem. I live in what used to be seen as quite an undesirable town but there’s been a lot of building and we like our area. It’s in the Midlands and we were priced out of the ‘nicer’ commuter towns (DH travels to London for work frequently, although not every week.)

Equally, I couldn’t afford to buy in London when we lived there or, when we moved back, the areas of the Midlands where our parents live. So I’ve seen it from both sides.

I don’t buy £6 sourdough though!

Me too. I was in rented accommodation until my late 40s and when I finally was able to buy I had to move almost 100 miles away from my hometown, friends, family and career. However, here I'm an evil gentrifying DFL apparently (widh I could aftord £6 sourdough!) The locals.who I bought the house from were quite happy to sell it for x4 what they paid for it, though...

My ds, born and brought up in London, is having to move up north. It slightly breaks my heart, as it's hundreds of miles from us now, but I completely understand why.

The problem is second homes, and people viewing houses as investments not homes. Be angry at end-stage capitalism, not ordinary people who just want a roof over their heads.

Young people leave Cornwall because there's no work, unless you want to be a carer or a builder.

You still haven’t explained why you’re having to move? Do you own your home?

I live in the highlands there’s a lot of incomers with remote jobs and I don’t hate it tbh, the only ones that piss me off are buying to make into holiday homes or air bnb, second homes. Homes were cheap because no one wanted to stay here, lack of jobs and opportunities most young people wanted to go off to the central belt and it was fairly depressing. We have the sourdough type shops and similar now, they’re creating jobs, tradesman have more work etc. House prices are going up everywhere.

Try having grown up in East London...

Yep! What's annoying is when you tell people where you're from and they say "Oh wow! Such a nice area!" and you have to say "er not really...it was a bit different in the 90s...!". Zero awareness.

I love this post. I agree with your sentiments entirely. Nice of you to bake for your neighbour too. So kind.

So sorry your old community is totally gone.

I sympathise with the OP and I've got experience of this too - but honestly, it doesn't matter that your great great grandparents or whoever started off the family there. Just because your family have been there a long time, doesn't mean you have a claim to a place. Everyone deserves decent, affordable housing and amenities, even if they've been there for a year.

I only post this because actually it's really boring to hear it and it smacks of a kind of 'we were here first' attitude which I think is a dangerous idea.. Everywhere changes over the years. We all would like places to change in a way that includes us but our housing market is fucked, so that tends not to happen. Not the fault of the people buying and selling.

Yes! My family moved out of East London in the 60s and 70s because it was grim. Moved to Essex and made new communities. That’s what happens.

My parents bought, on one working class wage in a nice suburb in the early seventies. You'd need two middle class professionals now in well paid jobs. The houses around have been extended up and out and our house is a squat little thing in comparison. (But really is a good sized 3 bed) Good schools are the driving force.

Both parents grew up in council houses or tied housing. I am so lucky they bought where they are as I would never be able to afford to live there otherwise.

(I live somewhere else currently)

All of my parents' friends did the same. We couldn't afford to move! My parents finally moved just before the housing boom.

I can’t live where I was born. Nothing has changed. There are just no jobs which would pay enough to live there. I could work remotely, but my employer wants us to be in the office two days per week for no reason other than to be seen in an office. This means I cannot have a child as I cannot afford childcare where I live, and my family live in the town where there are no jobs other than in cafes. Just seems to be how it is now.

YABU and in fact very unreasonable. I can understand people being annoyed by 2nd home buyers pricing locals out but being annoyed because other people with more money than you can buy houses is unreasonable.
Growing up somewhere does not entitle you to live there , no matter how entitled you feel your ‘lineage’ makes you

25 years ago, after splitting with ExP, I had to move an hour away as I couldn't afford to carrying on living in the town. If I split with my DH, then I wouldn't be able to buy anywhere!

My point is that this isn't just happening, it's been happening for the last 30 years!

It’s not about race. I’m mixed race. My town is a port, it’s been a melting pot of races and cultures since the 16th century, probably before. It’s not global majorities moving in and pushing the house prices up.
And I know it’s unreasonable but it’s often those of us who need our support network (single parents or disabled or have disabled children) who have to move out, making us more isolated or less able to work more hours and change our financial positions.

We moved out of London because I didn’t want to raise my kids in the parts of London where we could afford a house.

Sure Hampstead would have been nice but I wasn’t willing to live in Stoke Newington so we moved out. Once my DC started school I didn’t really want ‘real’ London

But that is happening to absolutely everyone. Housing is becoming more and more unaffordable across the country

And move to a town she's not from and "drive the prices up"🤣🤣🤣