Housing in South West now 11.6x average salary

Graham_Devon

Hamish & Co would have you believe that actually, it's never been cheaper to buy a house and actually, house prices are only 4x average wage.

But they are not, not in the South West anyway, where the average house is now 11.6x the average wage for the south west.

90% of 18-30 year olds are now locked out of the market in the South West, not helped by those who are already wealthy coming in and buying up second properties.

The solution? Government homebuy schemes.

Theres also a family and friends advantage scheme been set up. Not by BT, but by Taylor Whimpey. This is an arrangement where you can scrounge of your parents, grandparents, friends....well anyone really, in order to get the go ahead to buy your own house.

Even better are these homes are affordable. A one bedroom apartment ranges from £150-155k. But you can sign up to an easy start scheme, which rips you off, but means you only have to pay 5% deposit. The developers will top up your deposit with an interest free loan (for x years) and then you only need a mortgage for 80%.

What a nonsense. £150k for a one bed flat? And this is the "affordable housing" that's being built? It's still approximately 8-9x average wage. Yet councillors and builders all congratulate themselves on their miraculous wizardry.

ukcarper

Are these figure right the avenge wage for south west is £23,499 that’s mean or £19,831 median source ONS and the average property price is £173,331 source Land Reg.

So even using median the figure is 8.7.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

Are these figure right the avenge wage for south west is £23,499 that’s mean or £19,831 median source ONS and the average property price is £173,331 source Land Reg.

So even using median the figure is 8.7.

The NHF use the average house price of £228,000. I assume they are using the local government and communities thingymebob, which is apparently a better overview of the situation, but I don't know to be honest which is best.

Always use land reg myself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/newhomes/8852984/First-time-buyers-get-a-step-up-down-south.html

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

What a nonsense. £150k for a one bed flat? And this is the "affordable housing" that's being built? It's still approximately 8-9x average wage. Yet councillors and builders all congratulate themselves on their miraculous wizardry.

Just mentioned this on a separate thread...

Jenny Allen, South West Lead Manager for the National Housing Federation said: "Lack of supply is at the root of the problem. Ministers need to act now to implement a range of measures to turn the tide on the current housing crisis, ensuring that homes continue to be built at scale in the region, that affordable housing options remain, and that housing is properly regulated across all sectors."

Combine areas that people want to buy in with a shortage of supply and that's going to lead to higher prices.

This is an area with higher levels of unemployment, higher levels of council tax subsidy, more reliance on benefits and lower average wages so there are problems on both sides of the affordability ratio.

Then to cap it all the councils in the South-West are useless. I imagine they are like vicar of dibley parish council - if Taylor Wimpey have managed to convince them that £150,000 for a 1 bed flat is affordable why do people vote for them?

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The NHF use the average house price of £228,000. I assume they are using the local government and communities thingymebob, which is apparently a better overview of the situation, but I don't know to be honest which is best.

Always use land reg myself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/newhomes/8852984/First-time-buyers-get-a-step-up-down-south.html

There is a problem in the South-West but the NHF, and the Guardian, lose some credibility by choosing figures which makes it appear they are over-egging somewhat.

Doesn't help also that we have to have 'victims' to add some emotion to the narrative. i.e. FTB's cannot afford the average house - when was it otherwise.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

There is a problem in the South-West but the NHF, and the Guardian, lose some credibility by choosing figures which makes it appear they are over-egging somewhat.

Doesn't help also that we have to have 'victims' to add some emotion to the narrative. i.e. FTB's cannot afford the average house - when was it otherwise.

I realise what you are saying, but I think it's pretty easy to figure out why the NHF would use government figures. Just as other bodies do.

It's just another report. People can choose to believe that everything is much better than this and use the Halifax average earnings to average house prices if they wish, and they do.

StevieJ

Young people in the South West do appear to have the worst of all worlds with regard to housing

doire_2

Tell the banks to turn the taps back on. That will sort it

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

doire wrote: »

Tell the banks to turn the taps back on. That will sort it

The only thing that will sort it is building an awful lot more houses.

Which won't happen if builders can't sell what they build, because of the mortgage famine.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The NHF use the average house price of £228,000. I assume they are using the local government and communities thingymebob, which is apparently a better overview of the situation, but I don't know to be honest which is best.

Always use land reg myself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/newhomes/8852984/First-time-buyers-get-a-step-up-down-south.html

It is obviously difficult for young people in the Southwest but I think it would be better if we could have some consistence in the figures. I don’t particular care what sets of figures are used but I would like the figures quoted to be consistent. You quote one set of figures then you compare them to Hamish knowing full well he is using a different set of figures.

CLAPTON

the sw is realtively under populated and has plenty of land for building

it makes sense to build properties that people want to buy and can afford to buy
if that means 4 bed detached houses then that's better than building nothing which sadly seems to be the polical mantra.
some-one buying a 4 bed house is probably moving from a 3 bed house
some-one buying a 3 bed house is probably moving from a cheaper 2 bed property which may well be affordable as it lacks the 'new' mark up.

seems common sense to me