Flamin' 'Eck, English House Prices Are Cheap.....

Generali

robin_banks wrote: »

All I would say to that Gen is 25k in the provinces is hard to come by.

Fair enough. That is what I was digging at TBH.

So the next question is why not? £25,000 is £500 a week or £70 a day or £100 if you want a weekend.

Clearly you won't make that at the minimum wage but even at a tenner an hour that's 10 hours a day.

Radiantsoul

moggylover wrote: »

Because, rather over-simply put, where the prices are cheaper there is very little work and what work there is is more likely to be two on minimum wage.

Even where qualifications come into the mix the wage rates are pretty deplorable because the employers know that they can wave the "high unemployment" flag and keep salaries way below average.

The reality of life and wages BEYOND London and the South East is something that I think is difficult to conceive of until you have actually lived it, and no: a couple of weeks holiday doesn't suffice for that:)

I found that Bristol is quite similiar to the South East in terms of price and employment. But I lived in Salford, near Manchester in the mid 1990s and it really was a different world.

michaels

I think affordability in terms on income multiples is non-linear (as you know I am always banging on about housing expenditure increasing as a proportion of income as income increases; and this is a longitudinal effect as well as a temporal one).

In layman's terms this means that non-housing essentials do not vary that much between the different regions so if these costs are for example 10k, someone earning 20k net only has 50% of disposable income to spend on housing whereas someone on 30k net can spend 66% and thus afford a higher income multiple - hence purely on income multiple measures housing outside London is not as 'cheap' as it looks.

Generali wrote: »

Fair enough. That is what I was digging at TBH.

So the next question is why not? £25,000 is £500 a week or £70 a day or £100 if you want a weekend.

Clearly you won't make that at the minimum wage but even at a tenner an hour that's 10 hours a day.

N1AK

£108,500 is the average price in the East Midlands!? I (genuinely) trust that the data is from a legitimate source and thus accurate; I'm amazed to see that it could be that low. I've lived in 4 different parts of the East Midlands and have friends in a few more, my limited experience has been vastly different to this. http://www.mouseprice.com/area-guide/heatmap property price maps also seem way out of whack.

Having also lived in North Yorkshire and Manchester I just don't buy that those areas are more expensive on average than the East Midlands...

Generali

N1AK wrote: »

£108,500 is the average price in the East Midlands!? I (genuinely) trust that the data is from a legitimate source and thus accurate; I'm amazed to see that it could be that low. I've lived in 4 different parts of the East Midlands and have friends in a few more, my limited experience has been vastly different to this. http://www.mouseprice.com/area-guide/heatmap property price maps also seem way out of whack.

Having also lived in North Yorkshire and Manchester I just don't buy that those areas are more expensive on average than the East Midlands...

It's from a survey of Estate Agents. I can't vouch for its veracity.

Really2

Generali wrote: »

It's from a survey of Estate Agents. I can't vouch for its veracity.

Prices look to be weighted around the price of a terrace house for the areas.

Perhaps this is what they class FTB territory.

Generali

Really2 wrote: »

Prices look to be weighted around the price of a terrace house for the areas.

Perhaps this is what they class FTB territory.

Maybe. It's possible the survey asks, "What's the average house price round your way' and the EA thinks of the modal house price (the most commonly occurring price) rather than the mean (what most people think of as 'average')

IveSeenTheLight

GillM wrote: »

The word 'affordable' should be banned! Just because you can afford something doesn't mean I can, or vice versa. 20 years ago I was struggling to repay a £30,000 mortgage. Nowadays I would need a mortgage 4 times that but I doubt my income would be increased 4-fold!

On the contrary, I believe the word 'affordable' should be one of the mantra's anyone making any type of purchase should have..

Really2

Generali wrote: »

Maybe. It's possible the survey asks, "What's the average house price round your way' and the EA thinks of the modal house price (the most commonly occurring price) rather than the mean (what most people think of as 'average')

Indeed perhaps what throws people is "house", average property price should really be used.

Say house and people automaticly think 3 bed semi+ for some reason?
So as per your example, flats and terraces would no doubt be the most occurring in most areas of the UK.

Generali

Really2 wrote: »

Indeed perhaps what throws people is "house", average property price should really be used.

Say house and people automaticly think 3 bed semi+ for some reason?

Quite possibly. TBH I'm not trying to make a point with this thread for once, I just thought it was interesting that there is an average of some sort showing house prices are not crippling in many parts of the UK.