Why Don't We Have US-Style Accommodation?

PasturesNew

scubaangel wrote: »

I've been looking at moving myself lately and have to agree, I want to move to an area about 200 miles from where I currently live, but to be able to do that I need to find a job, which entails a whole load of applying online and getting knocked back as soon as people see my address, and somewhere to live which I simply can't afford to do without a job - though it would make getting a job much easier to already be living in the area.

If I could simply get in my car and spend a week or a month in a b&b while I look for/start working the whole process would be so much simpler. That said most employers want 'stable' employee's these days so the sort of person who can up and move on a whim might not be the sort of employee they're looking for anyway.

That's the sort of thing I've been doing. I moved 200 miles, but that didn't work out. Now going to move 300 miles, but temporarily moved 200 miles back to my parents' house ... now I have to confirm the 300 miles plan (had an offer of a temporary room at a mate's flat to look), but if that doesn't work out or if that offer's not available right now then it's back to square one and "OK, so where to head for to live, to look for work ... is there work there or will I end up another 100-200 miles from there". You just get locked into places and then time passes .... and it's just tricky.

I did think about getting a camper van and living in it ... but the weather's so !!!!!! here really isn't it. It also gives issues in towns/cities of where to park it and can it be used to get to/from work and not being able to fit into multi storey car parks.

Sometimes it looks like you can work something out but then BANG ... another school holiday and everywhere that you thought you could go to is inundated with holidaymakers and all rooms are booked at 3x the price.

scubaangel

I know where I need to find work as my partner is working there-but I can't live with him as he's in work accommodation, and am similarly lucky in that I'm living with a parent so don't have to worry about upsetting a landlord/selling a property.

Have to admit I've informed my oh that if I don't have a job there in 12 months time when the lease on the house he shares with his brother runs out (itself now 90 miles from where he works I have absolutely no idea why he resigned the lease last month), we'll rent somewhere together and he'll just have to support me until I have a job and can start pulling my weight but its far from ideal!

dizziblonde

It's quite hard to shift geographical area in this country unless you've got a bolt hole to use while you find accommodation etc. I've done it (fancied a change after losing my job in the north east) but I'd have struggled (and spent a helluva long time up and down the M1) if I didn't have a friend in the area who lent me her spare room for a few days here and there while I looked for rental flats etc.

Thankfully I've got very geographically transferrable skills - so managed to get supply teaching work pretty quickly and some money coming in and make the move work for me (I can hit up 2-3 cities for work from where I'm based), but I can understand how people struggle to move around the UK without a support network already in place.

princeofpounds

A lot of the above reasons are probably true, particularly land value.

However, more generally workplace mobility has always been a big issue in the this country. We have a remarkably high housing owner-occupier rate (almost the inverse of many other countries like Germany if I recollect correctly). This has very real consequences in that it is not easy for our population to be mobile for work.

C_Mababejive

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You should emigrate, we'd miss you tho.

Ah but thats another thing the US does. It controls its borders well and has tight controls over who comes to live there. I'm not saying I'm undesirable but it would be very difficult for me to go live and work there. Even if you have lived there for years or have married an American,it takes ages and a lengthy admin process to get citizenship which finally guarantees your right to live there. Until then,you are just a guest.

Unlike the UK which is wide open to the Flotsam and Jetsam of Europe and which acts as some kind of Black hole,drawing everything in all around it and sucking the life out of the country. The only thing that the UK is at the moment is a floating Investment fund. Once all the assets have been stripped or it is no longer profitable, it will be deserted, a floating empty husk..rather like a ships biscuit invested with weevils.

Blacksheep1979

G_M wrote: »

Would you want their healthcare system for example?

Yes - at the moment I need a referal before I can go private, over there it would be straight off and I wouldn't need to sit around for hours in GP waiting rooms like here. I'm also fairly sure that in the states they don't suggest you walk to get an x-ray when they think you may have broken your ankle...

Mini_Bear

Also the US have quite a big motel culture - people staying in ratty motels for $10/night - i guess its one up from a trailer park.
I think as others have said its down to the UKs high percentage of owner-occupied homes rather than rentals.
I know a few people who move regularly for work in the UK, they do very well from it but they are definately not seens as "normal".
Also US homes are mainly constructed from wood which is nice and cheap compared to our bricks and mortar, and the lower land prices.
Im envious of a friend who has emigrated to vegas. though the healthcare situation worries her as she gets older.

SingleSue

In our little tiny town, we do actually have a B&B type place that is low rent..think it's £8-12 a day or something like that.

Ok maybe not as cheap as the USA but still an awful lot cheaper than a full whack B&Bor hotel.

seven-day-weekend

I got a room in central Granada (Spain) for 8 euros a day in 2007. It was in a 'hostal' (similar to B&B but without the breakfast).

It was small (but big enough), dark (but Spaniards don't mind that) and you had to go up four floors of stairs to get to it (lift unreliable) and I had to share a bathroom with one other person.. But it was clean, cheap and perfect for one. I had it for five days.

Are there not comparable places in the UK?

RAS

I am only aware of one local provider who offers very short-term rentals, by the week or month.

The other option in the summer is to check out if the local university lets out halls. Some do on a fairly low daily rate.