The Rotunda in Birmingham - BTL failure poster boy.

PasturesNew

I am poor, I would say I am working class, but I have been employed based on my speaking voice on numerous occasions. I by no means sound upper class, I just speak the Queen's English clearly when I want to. Many people say I speak posh, but they live up north :P

INIT

Money and class tend to be intertwined often in my opinion because you mix with "your type of people" because you have the same amount of disposable income. You can't mix with people who have more than you (you can't keep up so they stop calling when you've said "no" a few times); you can't mix with people who have less than you (you get bored that they say "no" a few times). So it finds its own level, most of the time.

I find I mainly have no social life because I have rarely had the spare disposable income to do more than find the cheapest local pub and buy half a cider - and those places are frequented by the sort of people that I have nothing in common with except poverty. I don't want them knowing where I live!

lostinrates

Gnerali, I'm sorry I rally disagree with you about class dfinition. In Italy I have been pulled out of official queues -like for my NI number tc- for things bcause I am English and, confusingly, therfore not a contadino (if only they knew, eh!) and an italian friend in England, on meeting my DH was in awe of him because of his accent ('but he's some sort of ancient line, no?' ) and America is possibly, though less transparantly, in what we would consider the upper middles and upwards quite THE most class conscious place I've lived. Seriously, American formal occasions are almost designed to sort the wheat from the chaff, and yet have a curiously Hyacinth Bucket atmosphere . In NZ pioneer familis let you know it, and I had assumd, perhaps erroneously, the same might be so in Aus.

Generali

There is a class element to Australia and indeed to most countries but it isn't this all-consuming relic that we have in England.

WTF?_2

hethmar wrote: »

Wouldnt it be a great consequence of this credit crunch if blocks of flats became, in the majority, owner/occupied.

Hmmm - I don't know if there is much desire generally to be an OO of a flat, especially one of those 'luxury executive' shoeboxes.

I've lived in an apartment and don't have anything against doing so again but I certainly wouldn't want to own one as a residence. Maybe as an investment if the numbers stacked up. Possibly people in their early/mid twenties might see it as a first step on the ladder but they are notoriously difficult to make money on as they swing wildly to the extremes as the property market goes up and down. You need to get in near the bottom and out close to the top to get a profit out otherwise you face being lumbered with something that's hard to shift.

BlondeHeadOn

Going back to the Rotunda article, the bit that gobsmacked me was a tiny little phrase "Some rents have reduced to around £480, but they are not even moving at that price, parking being a key issue".

You mean they build a huge block of flats which look to be aimed at the professional rental market, and they don't even have parking?

Where are all these young urban professionals who want to live in 'an iconic property' in the centre of a city - but don't have cars? I'm sure I don't know any....

WTF?_2

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Going back to the Rotunda article, the bit that gobsmacked me was a tiny little phrase "Some rents have reduced to around £480, but they are not even moving at that price, parking being a key issue".

You mean they build a huge block of flats which look to be aimed at the professional rental market, and they don't even have parking?

Where are all these young urban professionals who want to live in 'an iconic property' in the centre of a city - but don't have cars? I'm sure I don't know any....

It's quite common in London. I think the idea is that if you live in a big city you are less likely to need/want/have a car.

That might be true for London but I don't think that it's as compelling an argument for other cities.

lostinrates

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Going back to the Rotunda article, the bit that gobsmacked me was a tiny little phrase "Some rents have reduced to around £480, but they are not even moving at that price, parking being a key issue".

You mean they build a huge block of flats which look to be aimed at the professional rental market, and they don't even have parking?

Where are all these young urban professionals who want to live in 'an iconic property' in the centre of a city - but don't have cars? I'm sure I don't know any....

DH learnt to drive at 25 years old, only when he ventured out into the countryside with me ralised there was more to it than mud and that he'd like to visit again or maybe live there. His siblings (now 31 and 28) still do not drive, and neithr does their father. They travel extensively, and have lived in cities around the world, never having driven, and a surprising numbr of their friends do not drive, or do not own a car.

Sorry, !!!!!!, cross post

tintaja

!!!!!!? wrote: »

It's quite common in London. I think the idea is that if you live in a big city you are less likely to need/want/have a car.

That was me I live in central London, and for 10 years cycled everywhere, and took trains to visit friends. We bought our first car last year, few month after our daughter was born. I am about to take my practical driving test :eek:

However, when we were buying our home, parking was a must on our list. Not only because we thought we might own a car in a future, but also so visiting friends can park close by.

BlondeHeadOn

I'm amazed - but there again, I have never lived in a place with good public transport so a car was always a necessity.

In London maybe - but I think in Birmingham I would want a car! And so do a lot of other people, if the article says that parking is a key issue...

Sir_Humphrey

Generali wrote: »

Class war isn't something I'm going to miss about England.

LOL, AIUI you are moving to the country that created Kath and Kim.

Still, I am sure you will enjoy being called a whinging Pom!