It's Grim up north, Well not if you are a FTB. Home buyers 'younger in north'

baileysbattlebus

Pobby wrote: »

I know. One of my God kids has also bought the same kind of house in Lower Early. Same price as well. Mortgaged for 40 years at a grand a month. Down here in the West country I would think that £130k would be the price but heck, you would still need a few bucks coming in to do it. Kind of scares me.

When i lived up there housing never seemed desperately silly in price but now. However thinking about retiring up there. Seems to be an abundance of retirement flats at much more realistic prices.

It is scary, I agree.

There do seem to be very reasonably price retirement flats around Reading - there is a newish one in Woodley - Douglas Bader Court - looks nice it's built on the site of an old people's home and prices start at £179k for a 1 bed flat - can you believe that. Plus a service charge of about £2k a year plus council tax of £1350 a year - they aren't all sold and they've been there about 2 years.

Can't imagine why!!

phil_b_2

I'm from up north and genuinely beleive housing here is affordable to most. If prices do fall they wont fall far.

Those single folk on minimum wage shouldnt be going anywhere near a house purchase so basing affordability on them is incredibly naive.

I'm constantly amazed at house prices down south, but then you have loads of bankers getting half a million quid in bonuses alone who can buy whatever they want. b@stards.

We had london friends come up a few months ago who paid twice what we did for a house half the size of ours in comparable areas. They were blown away at what we have.

chucky

carolt wrote: »

What's interesting about this thread is that we all take for granted (a) that house prices are cheaper in some parts of the country - always have been, always will be.

Yet we also take for granted (b) that the minimum wage is the same across the country.

Clearly a should not lead to b - it's the reason many London jobs come with London Weighting; it's the reason why when my 2 eldest brothers were at Oxford in the 70's they got the same grant as London students - higher than the rest of the country (as Oxford rents basically = London rents). Doubt very much if that still applies though! For those few students lucky enough to still get grants.

Clearly there is an argument for wages esp minimum wage to vary more to allow for an equal standard of living for the poorest across the country.

i agree Carol