"South West Home Truths"

Graham_Devon

The National Housing Federation’s ‘South West Home Truths’ is being launched at a special reception at the Jubilee Rooms at the Palace of Westminster this afternoon.

The report clearly highlights the growing need for more affordable housing in the county as well as the wider region.

The estimated average house price for Somerset for 2008 (£211,743) stood at more than 11 times the average (median) individual income (£18,715), with even homes in the lowest quartile costing an average of £138,000.

Broken down by affordability, a ‘league table’ for Somerset would look like this: Mendip: £211,725 average house price (12.1 x £17,566 average income).

South Somerset: £214,163 average house price (11.6 x £18,486 average income).

Taunton Deane: £212,055 average house price (11 x £19,219 average income).

Sedgemoor: £194,243 average house price (10.2 x £19,022 average income).

North Somerset: £212,253 average house price (9.6 x £22,178 average income).

It’s not surprising then that more people are turning to social housing, with over 16,800 households in Somerset on waiting lists – an increase of 60.5% in the last five years.

We are always told we should look out our local situation, so when this came on the news this morning, I thought I'd post it up!

So, is more social housing the answer? This is what the group of MP's etc are pushing for today.

Or, should second home ownership looked at and maybe discouraged?

http://www.yeovilexpress.co.uk/news/express_news_mix/4703980.National_Housing_Federation_survey_reveals_problems_for_house_buying_families/

chucknorris

Graham_Devon wrote: »

We are always told we should look out our local situation, so when this came on the news this morning, I thought I'd post it up!

So, is more social housing the answer? This is what the group of MP's etc are pushing for today.

Or, should second home ownership looked at and maybe discouraged?

http://www.yeovilexpress.co.uk/news/express_news_mix/4703980.National_Housing_Federation_survey_reveals_problems_for_house_buying_families/

Hasn't it recently been discouraged through recent tax changes? I forget the exact nature of the changes as they have no effect on me (so I might be wrong) , but I think it was to close a loophole where a 'holiday cottage' owner could pass off his own second home as a holiday let (only really letting it occassionally to claim some of the mortgage interest as a business expense).

System

I wonder what % of places in Somerset are holiday/second homes.

Graham_Devon

Joeskeppi wrote: »

I wonder what % of places in Somerset are holiday/second homes.

I wonder how many of those second homes are owned by the same MP's bundling off to the palace of westminster today!

In answer to your question though...

The Isles of Scilly comes out top of the list with second homes at over 18%. The worst affected parts of Somerset are West Somerset at over 5.7% and South Somerset with just over 1%.

So roughly 5% are second homes?

CLAPTON

the density of housing in somerset is not very high so why not build more houses... seems simple

Somerset

CLAPTON wrote: »

the density of housing in somerset is not very high so why not build more houses... seems simple

It's all about money. They haven't got it. (for social housing I mean)

Really2

I think we went over this average income in a town has little to do with house prices.

The nicest small towns have little in the way of jobs but high house prices. House prices are supported by people who commute.

Much like London as I found out people in the center of London don't live there they live miles away (so the people with the highest wage do not live where they work.)

I used to live in a town where the average house price was 10X the average wage. Not many worked their we all commuted to the larger towns near buy.

More social housing is the answer to support the people who live and work in the town. (As they can not afford to buy) Otherwise they buy in a cheaper local town and commute.

Really2

This debate on London went over a lot of the points of Local wages being irrelevant to local property prices.

I think it even talked of the SW also.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2009681

Graham_Devon

Really, these are not the "nicest" small towns.

The argument "move" can't be used for everywhere with higher prices.You can't go down the road, within commuting distance and suddenly go "oh, half price houses here! Yay!"

purch

The amount of second/holiday homes in the districts/local authorities mentioned will be very small compared to West Somerset, the only district/local authority not mentioned.

If the report had included West Somerset, which has the highest proportion of second homes, and the lowest proportion of social housing available of all the unitary authorities in Somerset, the problems would have been obvious.

the_ash_and_the_oak

Really2 wrote: »

This debate on London went over a lot of the points of Local wages being irrelevant to local property prices.

I think it even talked of the SW also.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2009681

I don't think that thread illustrated that local wages are irrelevant for London at all imo.

I think they can be for smaller towns - esp where there is external demand (2nd homes, holidays etc) and little in the way of local industry. But I don't think this can be the case for urban centres.

ie: people living in these towns in the SW may well commute to where there is higher paying work.

people in London already live where there is higher paying work (they may have an upward drag relative to local wages when they live away from London or other urban centres, but not when they live in London itself where the work is imo).

the smaller the town the more likely the work is elsewhere, the larger the town the more likely the work is in the same place