Selfish Britain

Out,_Vile_Jelly

A._Badger wrote: »

As for comments that one bedroom flats are 'too small' I'm having to fight the urge to type: 'in which case - tough!'.

Oh, look, I typed it anyway.

Size isn't an issue; living in a ghetto wasteland of feral scum is if you ever want to sell or rent your property.

The kind of cheap areas affordable by FTBs in the past may have been a bit rough around the edges, but were they populated by drug-dealers, knife-wielding teen gangs and swathes of unemployable benefits claimants? Council estates may have been a bit shabby but they were at least respectable, as the majority would have been in work, albeit not well paid. The council estates of SE London today where you might be able to buy an ex LA 1 bed for £110k are something else.

jimibaboza

I really cannot understand why people are comparing the situation now with the one in yesteryear. The two are completely different.

To all those people who worked hard to buy a house in 196whatever. Would you have still be able to get one if some rich guy came in and offered 500 pounds more every time you put an offer in? Or if some chancers who were able to get easy credit were hovering up all of the houses so they could rent them all out, driving up prices. What if every newspaper article and wireless program was screaming about renting being a fantastic source of income and a replacement for your pension?

I suspect that if the above had happened back in the day then the people of the time would have just as much trouble buying a house as the youth of today.

A._Badger

jimibaboza wrote: »

I really cannot understand why people are comparing the situation now with the one in yesteryear. The two are completely different.

To all those people who worked hard to buy a house in 196whatever. Would you have still be able to get one if some rich guy came in and offered 500 pounds more every time you put an offer in? Or if some chancers who were able to get easy credit were hovering up all of the houses so they could rent them all out, driving up prices. What if every newspaper article and wireless program was screaming about renting being a fantastic source of income and a replacement for your pension?

I suspect that if the above had happened back in the day then the people of the time would have just as much trouble buying a house as the youth of today.

If you believe gazumping was invented somewhere around the year 2000 you are badly mistaken.

As for the comparisons - they begin with the incessant whining 'it's not fair' from people who, in many cases, have levels of disposable income and commensurate lifestyles that were undreamed of even 25 years ago.

A._Badger

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Size isn't an issue; living in a ghetto wasteland of feral scum is if you ever want to sell or rent your property.

Well the mosquitoes need to get their story straight, because someone earlier was saying size very much was the issue. As if producing offspring was as inevitable as night and day and birth control remained an impossible dream, forever in a distant, happy, future.

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

The kind of cheap areas affordable by FTBs in the past may have been a bit rough around the edges, but were they populated by drug-dealers, knife-wielding teen gangs and swathes of unemployable benefits claimants? Council estates may have been a bit shabby but they were at least respectable, as the majority would have been in work, albeit not well paid. The council estates of SE London today where you might be able to buy an ex LA 1 bed for £110k are something else.

Of course, there were no drug problems, no violence, no socially undesirable Neanderthals back then. We all lived in Miss Marple villages where the only social problem was Mrs Miggins nobbling the vicar to get the 'best jam' rosette at the annual fete.

Well, that and the occasional ever-so-literary poisoning.

Tell that to anyone in their first flat in Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow or any other big city back in the day.

ukcarper

jimibaboza wrote: »

I really cannot understand why people are comparing the situation now with the one in yesteryear. The two are completely different.

To all those people who worked hard to buy a house in 196whatever. Would you have still be able to get one if some rich guy came in and offered 500 pounds more every time you put an offer in? Or if some chancers who were able to get easy credit were hovering up all of the houses so they could rent them all out, driving up prices. What if every newspaper article and wireless program was screaming about renting being a fantastic source of income and a replacement for your pension?

I suspect that if the above had happened back in the day then the people of the time would have just as much trouble buying a house as the youth of today.

I bought my first house in the 1972 and gazumping was common place I lost a couple of properties when people offered more that I had offered, which was the asking price.

I did have a lot of trouble buying couldn’t save as fast as property was increasing in value the average house price increased by 43% in 1972. As already said got gazumped, had house value 20% lower than asking price by building society so contrary to what you might think there have been times in the past when it was very difficult to buy.

ukcarper

A._Badger wrote: »

Of course, there were no drug problems, no violence, no socially undesirable Neanderthals back then. We all lived in Miss Marple villages where the only social problem was Mrs Miggins nobbling the vicar to get the 'best jam' rosette at the annual fete.

.

Perhaps everybody under 30 should be made to watch Quadrophenia to show them that the 60s were not all about peace-loving hippies.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

A._Badger wrote: »

Well the mosquitoes need to get their story straight, because someone earlier was saying size very much was the issue.

I don't need to get a story "straight" as I'm only speaking on behalf of myself; on a single salary of course I don't expect to get anything more than a 1 bed flat in London.

lostinrates

A._Badger wrote: »

But, cars aren't really the issue. Pubbing, clubbing, takeaways, restaurants, taxis, foreign holidays - anyone who was an adult around 1970 will recall that, other than for the wealthy. these were rarities.

My dad worked in a VERY ordinary job until in his thirties.

My received knowledge is that there was no serious pupping then among young working age men. The tales are legendary of things they did and the amount they drank, and how often they drank. A few have lost the fight with their livers before hitting my dad's age, the culture was to drink hard and fast in the 60s and 70s (btw the fewer among them who did have cars could park them on the street in London pre metres saving a cost now that metropolitan drivers have) . Many of them lived in workplaces,like a load of them were PCs and lived in police housing,till they got married and the ate in restaurants regularly and the ones who didn't and had flats hosted parties that sounded hilarious and great fun and regular! My mother talks of skimping to feed herself and her child, having no heat and little money, but was at parties at least twice a week. My parents met at a party, and now think they both must have been drunk.:D

It seems to me life is always hard in some ways and cushy in others for some. Personally, I'd rather have a tougher young age and a padded retirement. I think I would have felt the same in the 60s if I were alive.

blueboy43

A._Badger wrote: »

But, cars aren't really the issue. Pubbing, clubbing, takeaways, restaurants, taxis, foreign holidays - anyone who was an adult around 1970 will recall that, other than for the wealthy. these were rarities.

There were thousands more pubs in 1970 than there are now.

Pubs for the wealthy ? Don't think so.

IveSeenTheLight

ukcarper wrote: »

Just to stick up for younger people I had a car then and would not have been able to do my job without one, perhaps people want better cars now but I’m sure that a car is essential for a lot of people.

Another anecdote from the 70's.
My F-I-L back then developed a problem with his car and hard to work through the night in the rain to resolve so that he could get to work in the morning.

Who would do that nowadays? (hypothetically given that cars nowadays are computerised and the options for repair are limited)