New housing in the UK

[RichTea90]

Sorry this is a bit of a ranty post but I live in South East England I’m 33 years old. Trying to get on the property ladder with a 40k deposit and a joint income of £119k. We are looking at 3 bed new build as want to start a family but they’re all so expensive and about 30-40k out of our budget.

Why is the government letting all of these greedy house building companies build and sell properties that are just not affordable to normal, every day people / couples / families. I think it’s truly scandalous.

instead im staring at Rightmove looking at a lot of properties that are so outdated or falling down and we just don’t have enough money to / disposable income to then do the property up.

feeling rather stressed 😩 is anyone else in the same position or understands what I mean

Ooof, it’s lovely inside, but I really don’t like the outside of it. They’ve done a great job at renovating it inside though.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/66730977/

This one's in a better area

I’d go with Wokingham over Farnborough as it’s a nice place in itself and also well connected with Reading and other surrounding areas. Bracknell is ok if you are in one of the nice areas and could walk to the centre which was recently redeveloped.

Also if you’re thinking of starting a family the Wokingham area is great for kids and schools are good.

Bracknell has a new good shopping centre, small theatre, large companies like Waitrose head office etc are there, train station to Waterloo.
Wokingham is next to it, the schools and area are thought of as better. Often comes top of various places to live lists. But tbh Bracknell has really become a good place to live too in the last few years.
Wokingham has very good schools.

Many thanks.

In that case, I am keen to check out Wokingham.
what are the train links like into London from here?

Waitrose head office? Sold 🤣

Bracknell and Wokingham are adjacent stations on the same line into Waterloo. It takes 60 mins from Bracknell to Waterloo, 67 mins from Wokingham. If you prefer to go into Paddington, it takes about 25 mins on the fast train (NOT the Elizabeth Line) but you have to get to Reading via Winnersh, Winnersh Triangle and Earley (can you tell I've done this journey?!) taking about 15 mins and it costs more

Yes in wokingham you’ll see loads of people at the station in the morning going via Reading to get the fast train to London. Some of the trains from Wokingham go straight to Reading and if you time it right, as the trains from there go to Paddington every 5-10 minutes you can be there in under an hour door to door. Used to commute that way years ago. So much faster than the Waterloo line.

Wokingham is the Farnham of Berkshire, and well worth a look. Great for occasional commuters as well, as the tow itself is lovely and not simply a commuter town. Not a pain if you want to get to London either, but definitely hassle and expensive for 5 days a week.

Good to see the two previous posters know their Wokingham commuting arrangements.

Bracknell is where the soul goes to die.

😬😬

I refer you to my post yesterday at 12:29!

Anyhow, this might be interesting - new build in a very decent part of Bracknell/Binfield borders

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144115727?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=new-homes&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_NEW

@RichTea90 try Andover in Hampshire. Plenty of new or nearly new builds there for under £400k. Only about an hour to London door to door.

Every time I go back they seem to have built a new estate!

Hmmm, it’s lovely… shame it’s a coach house.

we have found a 3 story town house in Kent for £427500

There’s loads around Aylesbury in Bucks for your budget. Better drive into London in my view. Grammar schools for the future.

House builders are private companies not subsidiaries of the state. Your pension company might even invest in one. Greed as you describe it might be your pension.

Thank you. We did consider and look at Aylesbury. I went there for the day with OH but I just couldn’t connect with the area :(

Exactly. I’m sure there are things house builders can and should do better, but the housing situation in the UK is mostly a result of strangled supply. More houses being built will lower rents and prices. It will also increase competition which will result in better quality.

To be fair, some aspects of the situation ARE accountable to government. The government needs to reform planning laws. It also needs to review rules that make it hard to build affordable housing, like the “second staircase” rule.

@user1477391263 Totally agree planning is a mess and slow. Housing Associations have to raise money to build and it’s difficult. Councils take too long to agree to anything. In my own area, agreement for social housing has term 32 years so far.

Aylesbury itself is so so but larger villages such as Haddenham are great. Or Tring. I think the areas around Aylesbury are quite pretty, such as the Chilterns, and still sought after.

What is the second staircase rule?

Interestingly, a woman on the one show this evening mentioned how there is a real shortage of appropriate 3 bedroom family homes in the UK.

I find that so many are just so disappointing. We would like to now buy a 4 bed or a 3 with ability to make a 4th.
One I was looking at was a 3 bed for 580k and didn’t even have a downstairs loo. Like over half a million and only one toilet!

This is exactly what I mean. But yes, 580k and no downstairs loo is pants.

Every older property I have looked at in the areas we like only seem to have one bathroom, and a lot of them are downstairs, which I really, really don’t like.

when you are spending the best part of half a million pounds, it’s just so disappointing and disheartening. It’s not really suited to modern, family life is it?

The woman on the one show was talking about that - saying how not only is there a lack of stock (3+ family homes) but a lot of them are just not suitable or in total need of renovating.

We have a situation where many older owners are property rich but cash poor. They haven’t upgraded or simply don’t want to because they have been happy with the house. Many older people just do basic maintenance and don’t upgrade by building extensions with utility rooms and loos. Obviously area plays a part in pricing but newer houses might have a cloakroom and an upstairs bathroom. Victorian conversions are more difficult to adapt to modern living and many people wouldn’t lose a bedroom for a bathroom upstairs.

Yes, that’s exactly it - summed up nicely!

I have been reading a lot about how the market will change when older owners will pass on property to their children.

@RichTea90 There is a slight issue with passing on property to children. It’s inheritance tax. Often properties don’t get passed to family members. They are sold for renovation by someone else. There’s property that’s really worth spending money on but some property, the bare minimum is all that will be done because spending a lot isn’t cost effective.