A shortage of housing ?? Over 750,000 are empty

Gorgeous_George

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't have the language skills to write what I mean I don't think, but I will try.

You always explain yourself good enough for me PN. Don't put yourself down - it's a horrible habit.

There has been an explosion of flats being built because companies, like Inside Track, created a market for BTL 'investors'. There are not enough people that like living in flats to fill them all. The answer is to pull some down or house benefits claimants in them.

GG

PasturesNew

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

You always explain yourself good enough for me PN. Don't put yourself down - it's a horrible habit.

There has been an explosion of flats being built because companies, like Inside Track, created a market for BTL 'investors'. There are not enough people that like living in flats to fill them all. The answer is to pull some down or house benefits claimants in them.

GG

Brain's gone haywire tonight I think. I can't even think to myself what I meant! I'm doomed. Probably need a chocolate fix

I'd live in one of those shiny new builds, if they were affordable. The amount charged for rent is the same/more than the mortgage would be: which means people who could not have afforded the mortgage can't afford the flats.

Here, I'd say, a 1-bed would cost £500-600. With council tax added on that's close to 70% of the median earner's monthly take home salary.

"People on the street" never knew about all the stuff we discuss here. "People on the street" just wanted to move out of home, or start a new job, or shack up with somebody ... and somewhere shiny is all they see. Yet these places were empty. Even their shinyness never made people leap to rent them. And we all know one fact: if it's not shifting, it's too much.

stephen163

If the property market functioned property then properties deliberately left empty by Landlords would mean that rents are in fact too low i.e., there is an oversupply of rentals to the market. I guess it is impossible to apply such a purist argument though because the housing market isn't perfect.

I guess what you mean is that there is too great a premium expected for the better properties - but then, a scant defence of BTL or property investors is that they do 'improve' the quality of the housing stock, even if they do try to suck every last penny out of their tenants.

PasturesNew

stephen163 wrote: »

If the property market functioned property then properties deliberately left empty by Landlords would mean that rents are in fact too low i.e., there is an oversupply of rentals to the market. I guess it is impossible to apply such a purist argument though because the housing market isn't perfect.

I guess what you mean is that there is too great a premium expected for the better properties - but then, a scant defence of BTL or property investors is that they do 'improve' the quality of the housing stock, even if they do try to suck every last penny out of their tenants.

I've said for a number of years that life these days has out-priced me. And it's not just me. The cost of everything escalated out of reach. Years ago you could hire a bare minimum flatlet with cr4p curtains for a week's cheapo holiday at the seaside, once that was re-worked to appeal to the richer market it trebled in price ... and people were left behind.

Life became all about chasing the money of the richer. Everything was refurbished to top quality standards. And we couldn't all afford top quality. And it became like a snowball effect. They all did it.

And in the case of houses, the prices were going up and up because there was always somebody who could raise the money to buy it because it was a big snowball, or bubble.

Until eventually, the only people who could afford this new posh world were the people who owned it. Only they couldn't use it because it belonged to them. Hotel owners don't book all their rooms out to themselves. BTL landlords can't rent their own flats to themselves. Top chefs can't eat all their own meals. Like the people of Lilliput, they all took in washing.

They ran out of wealthy people.

If Ferrari make enough cars tomorrow that we can all buy one, we still won't because we can't afford to.

They created their own marketplace where they all sold to each other. Prices inflated so only they could afford it. And I use the word afford loosely here. Even they couldn't afford it really could they!

stephen163

Hey, maybe Marx did have a point...

Those bloody fat cat capitalists. Power to the people!

But on the other hand, aren't we supposed to be wealthier now than we've ever been? I think things are getting gradually better.

PasturesNew

stephen163 wrote: »

Hey, maybe Marx did have a point...

Those bloody fat cat capitalists. Power to the people!

I've never read Marx. Seen all the brothers on TV though :P

neverdespairgirl

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

I'm not sure that an empty house can be lived in

Most empty homes are owned by housing associations and are awaiting redevelopment. Most LLs do not want their homes to be empty. Some are empty because slum tenants have trashed them. Flats are empty because there are more flats than flat dwellers.

It's odd, but it does happen in central London. I know of 3 terraced Georgian houses in Bloomsbury which are empty and have been for years. Even in the current market, each would sell within days for £1.5 million. But they are just sitting there, empty, and occasionally squatted in.

One, at least, is owned (says the Land Reg) by some Channel Islands company that doesn't even appear to exist any more.

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's odd, but it does happen in central London. I know of 3 terraced Georgian houses in Bloomsbury which are empty and have been for years. Even in the current market, each would sell within days for £1.5 million. But they are just sitting there, empty, and occasionally squatted in.

One, at least, is owned (says the Land Reg) by some Channel Islands company that doesn't even appear to exist any more.

With the Land Registry having gone paperless, I'm surprised that some enterprising soul hasn't set up a new company with that name to sell the property. Not that I would want to see anyone committing fraud in this way, but it would certainly give an impetus to owners to stop sitting on these properties.

If holiday homes are included in the empty property statistics, that would be completely daft as they are not available to occupy in the same way as the empty property round the block from us which has been languishing on the market for months now, priced at double the market value.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

If holiday homes are included in the empty property statistics, that would be completely daft

Not all holiday homes are used. They were bought, on a whim, not used. While prices were going up it didn't matter that they were empty. Hundreds like this in Cornwall.

brixham

Sorry I know the converstion has moved on but ....

I was at university in Liverpool 1992/3 and I can remember some of the Edge Lane area being boarded up at that time.Also can remember Old Swan area being even worse.

There must be some more historical reason for these areas decline than recent events.