Prices Stable or Rising in 94% of the UK....

[Deleted User]

carolt wrote: »

As we've discussed before, your personal experiences are totally at odds with mine.

Both my parents and my brother bought houses (not flats) in nice areas, as their first properties (the former in the late 50's, the latter in the mid-80's) and both were on lower than average wages.

Neither put down anything like 50% or saved for a decade to get a deposit together.

Nothing I've read elsewhere suggests the examples you refer to were anything other than highly atypical.

Well assuming you are telling the truth (and I expect you are) it just goes to show that peoples experiences differed back then just as they do now. I consider the example of your parents and brother to be highly atypical.

So now the tables are turned. Some people are finding that it's not as easy for them as it was for their parents so they're complaining. In the fifties I expect some people had it easy (your parents for example). Others found it very tough (my parents for example). A lot of those who found it hard to get funding complained and decided it wasn't worth buying houses. Others saw the benefit in owning property, knuckled down and worked hard for it. And now they're sitting pretty and have been able to leave nice little nest eggs for their kids.

Some are lucky and screw it up anyway. Some have the odds stacked against them and succeed. To a certain extent you make your luck.....or not. That's how it's always been in the past and that's how it is now.

carolt

Deleted_User wrote: »

Well assuming you are telling the truth (and I expect you are) it just goes to show that peoples experiences differed back then just as they do now. I consider the example of your parents and brother to be highly atypical.

So now the tables are turned. Some people are finding that it's not as easy for them as it was for their parents so they're complaining. In the fifties I expect some people had it easy (your parents for example). Others found it very tough (my parents for example). A lot of those who found it hard to get funding complained and decided it wasn't worth buying houses. Others saw the benefit in owning property, knuckled down and worked hard for it. And now they're sitting pretty and have been able to leave nice little nest eggs for their kids.

Some are lucky and screw it up anyway. Some have the odds stacked against them and succeed. To a certain extent you make your luck.....or not. That's how it's always been in the past and that's how it is now.

I'm sure that's true.

[Deleted User]

Charterhouse wrote: »

Hamish. With the greatest of respect, I do not believe it was the norm until very recently to buy flats. London is now nearly 50% flats, but around a third of those were converted from existing houses, and the rest purpose built since the second world war. Other towns have lagged behind with the move towards flats. Unfortunately (I have no evidence for this but it's my suspicion) the move towards flats is actually a result of the spiralling of house prices.

Isn't it more to do with lack of space?

In Scotland there's always been a lot of flats. Whereas homes in industrial areas (where lots of people had to be concentrated into a small area) in England tended to be brick built back-to-back terraces in Scotland it was Tenements.

I think it's the case that traditionally tenements were built for poor people. But nowadays some of those tenement flats are highly desireable. In England I expect there are houses that were originally built for poor people and many of them will no doubt be desireable now. My mum-in-law lived in a little terraced back-to-back house in Batley, Yorkshire. The equivilent of a Glasgow Tenement. But those houses never became desireable and at peak it was only worth £70k for a two bedroomed house.

My parents held out to get a 'nice' terraced house in Surrey. They had to save for years to build up the morgage they needed. They could have settled for whatever 'poor people' lived in in London at that time - a flat, tiny terrace etc but like many youngsters today they weren't prepared to live in these places. Although ironically, given that some of these places are now highly desireable it might have paid off for them. What was a slum back then might well have been worth a small fortune now.

Actually, the room-over-a-paint-shop that my mum and dad rented off my grandad while the saved for a house in the 50's was occupied by my auntie in the sixties. She lived there with her hubby and four kids for 6 years before emigrating to Australia! I remember visiting them as a five year old. It was just one single room with a tiny landing at the top of the stairs big enough for a sink and a cooker.

Charterhouse

Yes, you make a lot of good points, and I think those are factors as well. The "gentrification" of some of these areas is definitely very apparent, especially some of the small cottages just south of the Thames near Waterloo which were once very unappealing but now are very much in demand. Kennington, even Clapham to an extent have benefitted from this. Interesting stuff.

nollag2006

Deleted_User wrote: »

... we got our first house aged 36. That was ten years ago. A few people on this board have commented that I'm 'wealthy' and 'lucky' but at age 35 I was living in a flat that had a kitchen, lounge and double-bed-sized-alcove off the lounge and a long, thin bathroom where you had to step over the toilet to get to the bath. It's all we could afford.

This is the problem scarter... so many of the bears here have this victim view that the world owes them the right to buy a house at 21!! Like you, I had to save long and hard to buy my first home (less so for later ones, due to pay rises, promotions, etc)

Message to bears: it's never been easy for anyone - grow up and lose the Kevin the Teenager attitude




It's sooooo unfair !

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Charterhouse wrote: »

Hamish. With the greatest of respect, I do not believe it was the norm until very recently to buy flats. London is now nearly 50% flats, but around a third of those were converted from existing houses, and the rest purpose built since the second world war. Other towns have lagged behind with the move towards flats. Unfortunately (I have no evidence for this but it's my suspicion) the move towards flats is actually a result of the spiralling of house prices.

Glasgow, Dundee, etc, are full of thousands, or tens of thousands, of "Tenement flats." All built in the 1800's......

The Maindoor flats common to Edinburgh and Aberdeen (basically terraced houses designed and purpose built as two levels of flats) were very commonly built in the 1900 to 1930 time frame. Some earlier.

Certainly in the late 80's and early 90's, almost all of my peers started out in a flat. My parents generation did the same in the 1960's, and my grandparents generation in the 1940's.

Flats may well be more common in some parts of the country than others, in large parts of the North of England, for example, I am aware that a two bed terrace is a more common (and equally cheap) entry point to the property ladder. In some rural parts, rows of terraced one and two bed ex farm labour cottages are common.

The point remains, all of these properties are small, cheap to buy, and not really suitable for modern family life. They are starter properties, primarily for singles or young childless couples, and provide the stepping stone to build equity before upgrading later on to the "average" house.

Using them as such has been common for several generations, and is not a new construct.

googler

Yes, yes, but what about the RICS report?

Does the small sample size contained therein REALLY justify extrapolation to suggest that their figures represent the whole of the UK ....???

nickj_2

we have been in a h/p bubble for years , when the credit crunch hit they took a dip , so the govt talks of rising h/ps as a recovery , if they rise beyond what they were before c/c will this be a recovery or making the bubble even bigger to burst

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

nollag2006 wrote: »

Message to bears: it's never been easy for anyone - grow up and lose the Kevin the Teenager attitude




It's sooooo unfair !

:rotfl:

That so perfectly encapsulates the bear mentality on here, I would thank it 1000 times if I could.

Mr.Brown_4

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

(On witnessing a picture of a comedian)

That so perfectly encapsulates the bear mentality on here, I would thank it 1000 times if I could.

Which perfectly encapsulates the bull mentality.