Housing Shortfall approaching 1 million

michaels

So if all those in temporary accommodation were moved in to these new currently 'missing' houses what would happen to the temporary accommodation - would it be empty? Would we then have a shortfall of households?

The supply of new housing is down at the moment as prices are not supporting builders to put up more - this must mean there is not enough demand - hardly a shortage of housing.

Affordable housing? To build a house you need land with permission to build plus building materials and labour. Generally the price of land will adjust to the point where it is just possible for a builder to make a profit after subtracting all building costs from the selling price. In some parts of the country demand for housing may be so low that even if the land were free then they sale price of the houses would not cover the building costs. Elsewhere where there is more demand the supply of land is hugely restricted due to the planning laws - the result of this is that house prices are high (unaffordable for many) and any land with permission is very expensive. Unless much more land is made available then prices will always move to a level where there are only as many people can afford houses as there are houses to buy and everyone else has to make alternative living arrangements. This is no different from any other good with limited supply. Lots of people would like an original van gogh on the wall, there are only a limited number out there so the price increases until the number of buyers equals the number available for sale but no one ever talks of a van gogh shortage and those without make do with prints...

Shakethedisease wrote: »

I don't know about the whole of the uk but at least 10,000 are in temporary accommodation in Scotland..

http://www.allmediascotland.com/allnewswire/5472/Temporary_Housing_Crisis_Highlights_Desperate_Need_for_Budget_for_Homes





For the whole of the uk that must be a lot of people in temporary accomodation, and, bear in mind, these are people looking to rent not buy.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

To build a house you need land with permission to build plus building materials and labour. Generally the price of land will adjust to the point where it is just possible for a builder to make a profit after subtracting all building costs from the selling price.

Agree, agree. But this caught my eye. One of the things I regularly get emailed is building plots and I noticed recently how many more ''affordable'' plots were available. now, I havenot kept ccurate, or anywhere near complete record of these,and I don't know of an index that does, so I'm trusting on a very few records which have mainly been retained in my files in error..:o

GDB2222

My son and his grilfriend have been living with us for the last 2 months. You have to be really sorry for them - very large double bedroom and en-suite bathroom in a nice leafy suburb, for an outrageous rent of umm nothing at all. Shocking conditions, and you can see why they are desperate to move out and get a place of their own.

So, I guess that figure of 1,000,000 homes needed should really read 999,999.

the_ash_and_the_oak

Is there a bit more detail about where the shortages are because I still don't really get why a housing shortage exerts no upward pressure on London rents (presume the pressure is more keenly felt in other cities?)

Thrugelmir

the_ash_and_the_oak wrote: »

Is there a bit more detail about where the shortages are because I still don't really get why a housing shortage exerts no upward pressure on London rents (presume the pressure is more keenly felt in other cities?)

People move to where they can afford to rent or make alternative arrangements.

the_ash_and_the_oak

They move into other houses? glad there's somewhere else for them to live imo

dgl1001

ninky wrote: »

to the OP, it is not a shortage of availability but a shortage of affordability. and the fact that in a culture of easy credit the two are not linked.

Is this for real? Suppy and demand theory anybody?

abaxas

Also you need to factor in rental voids. Remembering that properties are only rented for 10/12 months a year (on average).

the_ash_and_the_oak

dgl1001 wrote: »

Is this for real? Suppy and demand theory anybody?

exactly!

the supply of houses for sale and the demand to buy them

and

the supply of houses to live in and the demand to live in them

are not the same thing imo

Thrugelmir

dgl1001 wrote: »

Is this for real? Suppy and demand theory anybody?

Affordability is the issue.

Supply and demand is relative to price. When oil becomes expensive people travel less, share cars, find alternative means of transport.

2 people don't need to live in a five bedroom 3 bathroom house. There's enough room for the grandparents and an offspring with their partner, and even their kids. Its called making do.