AIBU to say UK houses are poor value for money?

[Ursulla]

They're either old, damp and cramped or new, built to poor specifications and cramped. But they cost more than 7x the average wage. You really don't get a lot of bang for your buck/GBP in this country.

Land is scarce in the UK. Were small geographically and raw materials and labour costs aren’t cheap either 🫤

Yanbu, it is astonishing what some people are prepared to pay, for such poor houses, with barely any space, in them.

I don't think housing is necessarily poor quality (I love my house!) but it is ruinously expensive. No idea how young people are meant to buy a home now - I guess they have to have money from parents or they're buggered.

See I just don’t buy this - there’s tons of land but we insists on all living in the same square metres.

what we need to do is build good quality new towns that have jobs within them etc not cram more and more houses on the edge of towns and charge the earth for them.

It depends what you buy.
New houses are generally overpriced, small, crowded together and designed only to last 75 years. Older houses are equally expensive if they have already been restored.

I buy scruffy, unrenovated older houses that are structurally sound. My house is home counties 4 double bedrooms, good sized living space, garden, parking. It's taken time and money to renovate carefully and slowly but now it's a large comfortable family home.

I've put in a lot of love & work. Most people want instant. That's the difference.

Hard to find large employers who will settle in brand new towns. New growing industries like university towns with a ready supply of bright young graduates. And top grade graduates want London or Cambridge or similar.

Depends where you live. I bought an enormous 6 bed in Scotland for half the price of a tiny 3 bed in SE England.

Yes people want houses fit to live in and most don't have £££££ extra available on top of the purchase price. Damn their greedy grasping ways.

Loads pf people would happily take doer upper IF they weren't priced nearly as done up houses 🙄 problem in my area...

Yeah building quality is general quite poor. And I still can't under why would a house be a leashold #immigrantproblems 😂

Scotland and NI have much better quality of homes I have found . There are new build flats in Belfast that are on the small side to maximise profits . But average houses are bigger and certainly have bigger gardens and fronts with driveways.

Land in the UK is not scarce, only 5% to 6% of the land is built upon. There are hugh swathes of land owned by the crown.

UK property has always (well since the early 80s) been poor value. It’s a ponzi scheme of course - gotta keep those prices rising to stop the country going bankrupt - hence people getting mortgages up to 7x income.

Where did I say they were greedy or grasping?

Of course people want somewhere decent to live, but that has never been easy. My parents lived in rented until my f was 57, then managed to buy a too small house for us.

Buying a home had always been a battle for most. My first flat, I had no fridge, no heating, no bed to begin with. I added them gradually as I could afford them.

Expecting it to be easy is the bit that goes wrong.

Land in the UK is scarce compared to the US and other countries is what I meant

I think you're right OP, but I also think it's exacerbated by low salaries compared to other countries.

I'm from Scandinavia and my summer job in a warehouse when I was at uni paid significantly more than my now husband's 'proper' job in the UK. Even now, 15 years later and he has progressed significantly in the industry, he'd make literally 4 times as much in the exact same job if we moved back to my home country. And houses would cost approximately the same as they do where we currently live but be of a much better standard.

Yes people want houses fit to live in and most don't have £££££ extra available on top of the purchase price. Damn their greedy grasping ways.

All my life getting on the housing ladder has been a problem for most ordinary folk. Lack of social housing, failure to build, second homes, air bnb etc all contribute to the problem.

I bought my cottage in an almost unlivable state. I camped in one room for a year and over three years have done most of the work myself to make it home. I had a bit of DIY skill and learned the rest on UTube. One winter I did a lime plastering course. Because I've done freecycle, been through skips (that's where most of my kitchen came from), bought second hand and done most of the work myself it's cost me about £10k over that time and now I have a tidy little home I'm proud of. It's been bloody hard though.

I think lots of people want no maintenance homes and that's just not possible.

The building quality is not great. Houses are not energy efficient at all and dont retain any heat. Even new builds have been weirdly creeky.

The US for example is 40x the landmass of the UK with 6x the population. We do have a land issue

I think bigger issue is insulation and crap designs tbh.

Iirc UK houses lose temperature as one of the fastets in Europe? Happy to be corrected

Lol at the people thinking they are contradicting me by saying the answer is to be happy buying shitholes. Part of the problem is exactly that so many people are willing to spend money on shitholes.

Yes your right

where I now live is about the size of uk but you can’t build on half easily as it’s mountainous. Houses and apartments are still built far better. Basements almost always added for utilities, storage and other things, often underground parking in new builds

An example, some council apartments have recently been built in town ( well last year). I think it’s 12 Apartments of various sizes.. A friend received one so I went to look. Really nice 2 bed flat. Has separate extra loo off entrance area and proper storage in her own entrance for coats, shoes, pram etc.
There’s a huge communal laundry room in basement, and each flat had own storage room there for bikes, out of season stuff, there’s a ramp down from outside access so easy to get in and out.
Lots of storage inside apartment.
Outside communal garden with decent kids play equipment, built in bbqs, seating.
They have private balcony with built in wooden sunshades for summer, and roller shutters on all doors to keep heat out.
Heating is a communal heating system ( same as we have), so fixed winter bill prices. There’s photovoltaic panels on roof to keep electric costs down for everyone. Oh and Ev car chargers and undercover parking so your not digging car out in winter snow or roasting in summer.

Its been built economically as possible by town council to keep costs down of course, but everything built to last, and make tenants life’s easier and the apartments long lasting.

We looked at loads of old houses before we bought. And we bought an old house needed full renovation. But I can’t remember any we looked at having damp problems.

🤣 yep and I’m sure you make a chicken last a fortnight too. MN is odd sometimes.

I don't think this is the norm or even should be the norm

It really isn't. There are places where you can travel for miles and see nothing but hills and fields. The problem is that we're trying to build more houses in places where there are already houses densely built as that's where the infrastructure is in place, i.e. power, water, roads, amenities, etc.

We desperately need to spread out more and not keeping building more and more in the same places!

We also need to bring run down areas back into use, i.e. Seaside resorts and mill towns/pit towns etc where there are entire blocks/streets of derelict empty homes. The infrastructure is already in place, so just demolish and rebuild in those places. Just need a government with a brain cell to ensure that there are businesses encouraged to move to those places so people have jobs and aren't depending on benefits who are currently fueling the demise.

And, we need some politicians with vision to plan "New Towns" in currently undeveloped areas.

I agree, and Rachel has just made it worse by increasing borrowing limits, which will just fuel house price inflation. They never learn!

People should not have to do this to have a liveable and affordable house. I think you're proving the Ops point...