More, more and more houses.....

[Suff]

Hence my comment about fixing the act which forces the sale of council houses.

Councils will not build them if a tenant can force buy it 3 years later with a loss to the Council who do not get the sale price..

[cromwell]

One of the problems with affordable housing is that the more houses you build, the less land there is lefft to build on; so the price of that land goes up. (and up).

Atm there is a proposal by the Earl of Bathurst to build 2,350 houses on the edge of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. This would increase the size of the town by 40%.
The houses would be built on 300 acres of arable land. The decision on whether to allow development has been deferred for three months. The Tory leader on the local council is an estate agent. This story has been featured in Private Eye magazine and there is more in this weeks issue, no 1455.

And this is typical. Rich men wanting more money, building on greenfield sites and mainly building expensive four and five bed detached houses.

[Workingman]

I find this idea of affordable housing a bit (a lot) of a mystery.

The average UK gross wage is ~£26,000 or around £50,000 for a couple: £36,700 net.

Official figures show that such a couple would spend £1.145 per month on living costs. This figure is for everything bar mortgage/rent, council tax and holidays. A cheap holiday to Costa del Hangover could easily run to £1000, or £85 per month. Rent, ex London, averages at £900 per month. That leaves £928 per month for all other expenses or eventualities inc savings.

If that couple was to take out a sensible mortgage i.e. one able to be paid and also cover emergencies such as interest rate rises and periods illness or redundancy, at least for a short time, then they would probably get one for about £150,000. That is roughtly 6x their individual average salary and at curernt rates the mortgage repayments would be similar to their rent. That is what we used to do.

The thing there is what sort of property could be built for £150,000 and give the builder a profit?

If we go look at couples below the average salary then "affordable" becomes even less affordable.

A couple with one on £10ph and one on the living wage would have a joint gross income of about £33,250: £24,000 net. They are already wiped out with rent and living costs. A sensible mortgage for them would not get a garden shed, a risky one with no leeway for anything of, say £72,000, doesn't improve things.

[Kaz]

We would probably be better off here adopting the European habit of renting, rather than buying. Here renting is seen as something you only do if you can't afford to buy. Out in Germany, where my cousins live, in the cities and larger towns at least, everyone rents, even professionals who would definitely be home owners here.

Somehow, especially in the last few decades, home owning has become a status symbol, and an investment, and that has definitely driven prices up massively. We seem to have lost sight of housing being somewhere for people to live - it has become something to make a lot of profit out of, rather.

[Workingman]

My days in Germany go back to the 70s and when any married men wanted to bring their families out they would go to the local town and rent. Plenty of properties and all at reasonable prices because........... everyone was doing it.

Same system in France as well.

[Kaz]

Exactly!

[cromwell]

One things has just struck me (Ow!). The plasterer who did my son's front room is working seven days a week. Most people in the building trade could, if they wanted because so many houses are being built.
If we are to start slinging up another 200,000 per year - who is going to build them? Everybody has enough work as it is.

[cruiser2]

I know someone who is working in Germany, designing aircraft wings. Since moving to Germany he and his Dutch wife have only rented as this is the norm. He likes the idea although he is buying a house in the UK which he now rents out.

[Workingman]

One things has just struck me (Ow!).

Duck!

My old neighbour, Steve, is a joiner and roofer. If the weather was good he'd be on the roof, if was iffy he'd be inside chippying. He will never want for a day's work.

Unfortunately, from the affordable homes POV, his work was all on these faux stone detached shoe boxes at Château prices for little more than a pied-à-terre.

[Suff]

Ah the perceptions.

In France the Government has a rigid hold on rent price rises. So much so that most French renters move home every year because Landlords raise the rents every year regardless of any other considerations on wages or economy.

Rentals in Germany tend to be 2 or 3 years at a time. Need to move? Penalty.

Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and many others have long standing traditions of house purchasing. Holland allows you to offset your entire Mortgage interest against tax, making houses both expensive and very stable on prices.

This is the common mistake most people in the UK make, assuming that because one or 2 countries in the EU are similar, that the rest are the same. In reality they are more diverse than the UK. You just have to travel a lot to see it.

Sweden even controls how many homes a person can own and let. Sub lets are rigorously controlled. Making accommodation almost impossible to get for the mobile worker and cripplingly expensive.

Amsterdam region fines anyone who lets a airbnb for more than 3 months, 70,000 euros. With the knock on effect that Airbnb around Amsterdam is twice the price of London. Greatly influencing my decision not to work there.

The UK may have issues with accommodation, but it is in no way the sick man of Europe for that.

More pragmatism, certainly. Less Grass is greener would help a lot.

I have rented in every country I have mentioned on that list, except France, plus a few more on top.