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

That's not true of the people I know. We're all very ordinary and not wealthy in the slightest. I have bought a 3 bed ex council terrace house, it would be £100k more expensive in my home town. The people buying the big houses have a choice, we didn't

Not everyone, true, but most people in this country can access these things, perhaps with the exception of internships where it really helps if you have rich parents or parents living in London. In this way born and bred Londoners already have the advantage. Also most people can now find information online about where the best paid jobs are. I grew up in a very undesirable town a long way from London and even back then we knew the real money was in the capital.

I'm not saying luck doesn't come into it at all, of course it does but I am tired of people assigning everyone's success (or lack of it) to luck. We see on a daily basis on MN people deciding not to take promotions or go for jobs because of the long working hours or commute, people deciding to cut working hours to the level that UC will accept or just not push themselves generally because it isn't worth it to them. Also lots of people choosing careers that they enjoy or find fulfilling but are notoriously lowly paid. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with most of this but it comes at a cost to the individual who will then probably struggle to buy housing or rent in extremely desirable areas. We have come to terms as a capitalist society with the fact that we all can't have the most desirable jewellery, holidays or cars. For some reason, people can't seem to accept this when it comes to housing.

Are you in your late 30s? If you are then you are in my era and lots of my grad friends bought in London without financial help. It

Is this changing fashions or the effects of proletarianisation?

Essential workers are different. It is in society's interest to house essential areas in all areas, however if an extremely desirable area has enough of those particular key workers then I don't think they should necessarily get preference over everyone else. Just because you are a key worker it doesn't give you a right to be housed in Kensington if the area has enough nurses etc. There are plenty of 'nice' places a couple with those kinds of wages could afford but maybe not in the South East or London. A nice part of my old town would still be affordable for example.

@Bumpitybumperbut they don’t, that’s the problem. The agency nurses we get in usually commute from cheaper areas, such as Gloucester or South Wales. Staff nurses can’t afford to buy these days.

@Bumpitybumper I'm sure, but I was talking to about my friends...

Statically quite a large % of FTBs get financial help and then many live at home for free/cheap to save.

Not everyone, true, but most people in this country can access these things, perhaps with the exception of internships where it really helps if you have rich parents or parents living in London. In this way born and bred Londoners already have the advantage

Do you really have such a narrow experience of life? I have friends who have parents still renting, who had to move out at 18 because their parents didn't want them there/couldn't afford to house them or didn't have the space.

I'm not saying luck doesn't come into it at all, of course it does but I am tired of people assigning everyone's success (or lack of it) to luck.

The majority is luck though otherwise social mobility would be better.. I work hard but plenty will work harder than me but not have the same safety net or opportunity.

Good thing the OP clarified that we're not talking about immigrants, otherwise all these references to "incomers" vs "genuine locals" would sound very dodgy.

You are blaming the ‘interlopers’, but should be blaming the locals selling to them at very high prices. The seller sets the price, not the buyer. The seller could reduce the price for locals, but they don’t - they want to cash in.

@pucksack
Do you really have such a narrow experience of life? I have friends who have parents still renting, who had to move out at 18 because their parents didn't want them there/couldn't afford to house them or didn't have the space
No, of course I don't. I also hav friends like you describe but the statistics are clear that half of the population do actually go to university. Assuming some people could go to university and choose not to (which is almost certainly the case) then it is simply a matter of fact that university etc is an option for most people in this country.

The majority is luck though otherwise social mobility would be better.. I work hard but plenty will work harder than me but not have the same safety net or opportunity
No, I simply don't agree that the majority is luck. I say that as someone that wasn't born into privilege. It is undoubtedly easier for those born into privilege to succeed but the majority of people will have a massive influence on their life and the success they experience. Is it possible in a single generation to go from homeless to a stock broker? Maybe technically, but obviously very unlikely. It is however though possible for people to drag themselves up the ladder significantly through hard work and perseverance. I have experienced this first hand so will never be persuaded that this is wrong. It is though incredibly hard and requires an awful lot of sacrifice that most people aren't prepared to do.

@Bumpitybumper I am not sure why you are mentioning university? but you aware that students from lower incomes are less likely to go to university now? And you think that's a choice because they don't want to work hard? Governments expect parents to assist & debt is huge.

I work in education, I have students where we have to fund their train ticket to get them to a uni open day because their parents are disinterested or unable to help. And these are exceptional students, we can't help all of them.

No, I simply don't agree that the majority is luck. I say that as someone that wasn't born into privilege

The people who say this tend to not be able to see their own privilege.

It is though incredibly hard and requires an awful lot of sacrifice that most people aren't prepared to do.

But my point is a lot of us don't have to do the above. I don't think I have sacrificed anything. We will have to agree to disagree.

Errr mo, buyers set the price in everything. Sellers can ask for as much as they like but only a buyer can choose to or not accept it. House prices are what they are because people can afford them, if they couldn't they would be lower...

I don’t think so?

Back in the 70s we both worked and rented in London

Yes, but that is 50-odd years ago. I used to hitchhike from Oxford to London on a Saturday in those days. No-one or their child in their right mind would do that now.

Sadly, we live in a capitalist society, basic housing is now a capitalist endeavour.

My adult son is living at home cos there are just NO PLACES to buy or rent at a normal price, like then.

I love the isolation.

It’s more the price increase than the comparison. We won’t ever have comparable prices, I agree but the costs have risen.

The LOCALS who are selling can protect prices for LOCALS by not asking so much money. The seller is in charge. He can decide not to accept a Londoner’s £1m, and to instead accept £400k from the OP. But of course they won’t! That’s not the Londoner’s fault.
Locals doing the selling are pricing out their friends, family and other locals.

Id hate that isolation and being so cut off. Shock horror we arent all the same.

I didn’t say that we were all the same? You said that you wouldn’t like the isolation and I said that I love it. 😂 Are you okay?

I grew up in North London. My parents bought a 2 bed maisonette with large garden in 1996 for £65k. Sold it for £157k in 2001. Now estimated worth between £450k - £500k. Bought their 3 bed semi detached nearby for £199k, now estimated worth £700k - £750k.

There was no way my husband and I could buy in this area with decent dual incomes (joint income of over £100k). We moved further out to a North London borough on the edge of the M25, purchasing our first 1 bed garden flat for £315k in 2016. After outgrowing it, we had to leave London to be able to get a house within budget - we went to a nice town in Hertfordshire where I'm sure locals probably feel the same about us as you do about those pricing you out. I am even a bit embarrassed to tell anyone I meet here that we moved from London because I feel like we'll be judged in the way your post is. Even though we moved away from our home town, we would have liked to stay too, just like you. What are Londoners without generational wealth or working in finance supposed to do?

This. My dad was raised in a total dump. He worked his butt off for decades to buy a nice home in a nice village.
I cannot afford to live in that village even with better qualifications and a lot of hard work, but that's life. I moved to somewhere with job opportunities and bought what I could (eventually) afford in an area with cheaper housing.

I completely understand. It’s not against anyone, but losing the sense of belonging to the place you grew up in is really painful. Prices have turned locals into strangers.

I completely understand. It’s not against anyone, but losing the sense of belonging to the place you grew up in is really painful. Prices have turned locals into strangers.

Its complex for sure. My parents both grew up in desirable areas which have seen house prices & gentrification on a much larger scale than the area I grew up in (they moved when I was a small child and decided to stay due to space & cost of housing etc). Does that mean I've got a right to live where my grandparents & great grandparents lived (gentrified areas of london) or do I have to stay in the cheaper I grew up in? Who says someone has more of a 'claim' to living somewhere more than someone else

“The LOCALS who are selling can protect prices for LOCALS by not asking so much money. The seller is in charge. He can decide not to accept a Londoner’s £1m, and to instead accept £400k from the OP. But of course they won’t! That’s not the Londoner’s fault.
Locals doing the selling are pricing out their friends, family and other locals.”

It is interesting you say that. My brother moved to Switzerland. He claims that quite often locals will choose the type of family they sell to, over profit. To preserve the neighbourhood. And the Government whacks a hefty capital gains tax on main residence profits anyway that are not immediately invested in another property to the same level, again. Property and homes should not be speculation and used to make normal people rich. It is what successive Governments have used as a tool to gain votes in the middle aged and elderly demographics. And now the whole thing is blowing up.