Times are hard out there...Really?

Conrad

doire wrote: »

Ordinary people? Poeple who speand 25k a year on holidays? People with 3 homes and range rovers. Yeap....very ordinary

I don't live in Essex but I can take you to meet ordinary Essex folk all over the county with such wealth and it realy is very ordinary

Jimmy_31

iandury wrote: »

In the news recently a big deal has been made about the shrinking economy, spending cuts, and how many people are having to cut back with many in severe debt.

Now i am a very privaleged bloke, and i am in a postion where business is good and i am able to draw a decent(not vulgar) wage.

I have read many times on this board how with people struggling in todays hard times that this will in some way effect the housing market.
Now with hand on heart and from where i am sitting and watching with my own two eyes i have experienced very little pain or hard times, if it is happening i have not seen it.

I am not completely naive, i watch the news and can see the jobless figures going up slightly, and i can see a little less traffic on the roads(but thats a good thing though is'nt it):), and we are all being a little bit more sensible these days.

In the last 10 days though i have been lucky enough to doing a little business/pleasure in West London and have been staying at a great place off the Strand. I must say if their is a shortage of money it does not show anywhere around here, there seems to be a lot of flush people around. Then this weekend i have been staying at a friends holiday home on the Norfolk coast, again, full pubs and restaurants, plenty of money flying about.

I see very little of the old image of desperate men with head in hands in dire straits. in really seems to be business as usual for most but just everyone being a little bit more sensible.

Is this picture right?
I would be very interested to know if in other parts of the country my rosey outlook does not fit what others are seeing, is it really that bad out there?

Come to the north and then you will see the difference, i work in the construction industry and im seeing firms go bust on a regular basis, and building sites are a very rare thing to see now so most tradesmen are working for local housing associations doing the maintanence, going to be fun if the tenants start getting the 1k a year to do it themselves, the construction industry is on its last legs and now the last bit of work the working man has got will be given to somebody who gets paid not to work.

ninky_2

Conrad wrote: »

Then there's virtualy the whole of Surrey, Bucks, Berks etc, then accross to the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, Bath area, up to Worcester - wealth just everywhere

how much equity though? it's only wealth if you own more than you owe.

Thrugelmir

Conrad wrote: »

Then there's virtualy the whole of Surrey, Bucks, Berks etc, then accross to the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, Bath area, up to Worcester - wealth just everywhere

No wonder I'm struggling to find a house keeper!

Conrad

Try booking a villa holiday in a non down at heal resort anywhere in the Med for a family of 4 with flights, transfers, meals etc, you are looking at £5000 in the summer hols (cant take kids outside of that time), and that's just ordinary villa hols - there are millions of these offered and you will find most have been booked by now - SO WHO ARE THESE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE THAT CAN AFFORD THIS?

Bare in mind you can easily pay £15k for a 2 week villa hol in summer school hols. We found some in Crete for £65,000 for 2 weeks and they weren't even tip top, and were almost fully booked.

I've seen some real poverty in Liverpool but to be honest most folk I know are failry well off

Conrad

ninky wrote: »

how much equity though? it's only wealth if you own more than you owe.

Of course, but on balance most people are pretty solvent and sensible. Even those annoying property shows often feature a farily run of the mill couple with a budget of c£700k.

Inherited wealth has a big role to play too.

One client recently was this real ordinary East end Butcher aged 75. He had £4m in property alone with just a £100k mortgage.
He would show up in official stats as nothing but an average earner.

I cant stress enough how official stats vastly underplay real wealth.

ninky_2

Conrad wrote: »

Of course, but on balance most people are pretty solvent and sensible. Even those annoying property shows often feature a farily run of the mill couple with a budget of c£700k.

.

as someone who makes such shows we frequently turn away people with small budgets because they are not considered aspirational enough. don't judge life from what is on telly. there is a massive section of the population not represented in these shows - and that is actually reflected in viewing figures. typical property show on a good night get 2 million viewers (if you are lucky). big fat gipsy wedding was getting more than 8 million. yes if you drive around the home counties you will see fancy homes (low density population). you will equally find high density population areas full of people living in multiple occupancy private rentals and other less aspirational properties.

Jimmy_31

Conrad wrote: »

Try booking a villa holiday in a non down at heal resort anywhere in the Med for a family of 4 with flights, transfers, meals etc, you are looking at £5000 in the summer hols (cant take kids outside of that time), and that's just ordinary villa hols - there are millions of these offered and you will find most have been booked by now - SO WHO ARE THESE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE THAT CAN AFFORD THIS?

Bare in mind you can easily pay £15k for a 2 week villa hol in summer school hols. We found some in Crete for £65,000 for 2 weeks and they weren't even tip top, and were almost fully booked.

I've seen some real poverty in Liverpool but to be honest most folk I know are failry well off

Liverpool is pretty poverty stricken but its doing a bit better than its surrounding areas, anywhere between liverpool and manchester is not an easy place to find work in the construction industry at the moment due to nothing being built and things are nowhere near looking up, layoffs are starting again due to lack of contracts or for work being lost or last years contracts not even happening this year due to budget cuts, and forget finding any private work because nobodys spending on improving their homes or gardens so there are plenty of one man bands going under as well.

Its not even possible for people to skimp on this years holiday either because me and everyone else i know cant afford to go on holiday at the best of times.

ILW

Oddly enough, British gas charge about £2500 to replace a boiler, the cost of the boiler is around £800 retail and the fitting takes less than a day. They do a lot of them. There should be a pretty big opportunity to undercut that by a mile (say £1500 or less all in). Why am I not being flooded with leaflets from out of work gas registered plumbers offering it?

Derivative

I'd say it's just the good old north south divide.

I'm up in Hull and along with our massive public sector meaning tons of people already have or will lose their jobs soon, we have store fronts closed (even in the city centre I'd say 10-20% of buildings stand completely empty), and all the while our schools turn out 20% 5 A*-C results, ensuring private companies have basically no talent pool to recruit from.

It's not all about the doom and gloom of the recession. Cuts are just tipping people over the edge that were already balancing.

The solution for a single person like me is clear - get the hell out and move to a more prosperous area.

But to fix the city? Not a bloody clue. I don't envy anyone who is in charge of equalizing society. There is just so much work to be done.