What the FTBs think.

dopester

From initial article:

The findings also highlight the actions that first time buyers are taking at the moment, which include lowering their expectations of the properties they are looking at (46%)

That would include me, the way I'm feeling today. A 70% crash might win me around though.

I'd genuinely prefer to live in a low-impact eco-home costing £3K to £4K to build like the one below and have a good quality of life with all the money saved - than spunk hundreds of thousands, paying debt for 20 years+, and continual maintenance costs on some hideous new-build house or slave-box apartment at £180,000+.

Trouble is, you can't easily get planning permission because the system wants you as a debt-slave.








http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around in-between. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

Initially we had no capital and we had decided resolutely to be full time parents whilst our children were young. As you’ll appreciate to be a full time mum and part time dad our income is low, about £5,000 p.a, so a mortgage was not an option and the prospects for renting seemed grim. Providence came our way and a landowner offered us the chance to move to his woodland in west Wales to build an eco-house. There would be no formal security or long term ownership, but £2000 was available for materials, so we jumped at the idea without a backward glance.

Others:

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

Wow, I'd have any of them!

MrDT

dopester wrote: »

From initial article:

That would include me, the way I'm feeling today. A 70% crash might win me around though.

I'd genuinely prefer to live in a low-impact eco-home costing £3K to £4K to build like the one below and have a good quality of life with all the money saved - than spunk hundreds of thousands, paying debt for 20 years+, and continual maintenance costs on some hideous new-build house or slave-box apartment at £180,000+.

Trouble is, you can't easily get planning permission because the system wants you as a debt-slave.

I'd LOVE to live in an 'earthship'. Again, planning permission wouldn't be straightforward. They're not all that cheap once all the glass is in, but they're awesome.

All I can think of is buying a house with some land and building an earthship under the pretence of it being a kind of treehouse/playhouse replacement thing!

Incisor

dopester wrote: »

... Trouble is, you can't easily get planning permission because the system wants you as a debt-slave.

Agree. The planning system is responsible for high land prices, effectively making developers the only people who can build new homes, it makes land prices high by creating shortages. And the shortages of land ensure that the houses which are built are slums without gardens.

Further, it puts people too close together, unable to escape the antisocial neighbours, who are always with you because of the paper thin walls. The planning system appears to be smoky back rooms and side deals. I think it does nearly as much harm as good.