BOOMTOWN - House prices rising thanks to Olympics

doire_2

Aberdeenangarse wrote: »

The Dorset Echo - a right riveting read :rotfl:

I thought posting articles by the Express was bad but this takes the biscuit

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

doire wrote: »

I thought posting articles by the Express was bad but this takes the biscuit

Nah, articles by Moneyweek take the biscuit.

This isn't even close.;)

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why would house prices rise due to the olympics?

As a result of regeneration of the areas concerned.

Massive new infrastructure spending, be it on parks, roads, rail links, stations, the stadium, velodrome, aquatic centre, etc, provides a much more amenable place to live with better facilities for the residents to use afterwards.

This obviously increases the attraction of those areas versus comparable areas in London, and makes them more desirable, hence house prices should rise more in those areas than they would have otherwise.

tartanterra

As with most newspaper articles, there is a bit of truth in this and plenty of embellishment.

On the plus side:D, Weymouth is in a lovely location with outstanding sailing, watersports, diving and fishing. A lot of money has been spent on infrastructure because of the Olympics and there is definitely an "Olympic legacy". Many will make a short term gain out of the Olympics - i.e. some holiday lets have quadrupled in price during the events and quite a few of my friends have been letting their houses or having their B&B's filled up by the competitors during the build up.
Quality houses in quality areas have at least held their price, and in some cases have increased in value, although it could be argued that this would happen anyway as people will always pay a premium for quality.

On the negative side:(, Weymouth has remained a "minimum wage" town with very few employment opportunities and a constant exodus of youth who have to leave the town to gain decent employment. Many year on year visitors will be avoiding the town during the Olympics due to the inevitable traffic chaos that will ensue - I know two B & B owners whose bookings are way down next summer due to this. Most of the tradesmen in town have not gained from the infrastructure improvements as contractors have been brought in from elsewhere and many of us are considering closing down over the period of the Olympics as it will be almost impossible to get around town.
Additionally, whatever the statistics may say, most of the people who I know that have recently sold their house have sold for quite a bit less than they could have gained a few years ago.

Finally, a bit of balance could be added by a swift glance at this article which appeared in Fridays Echo:

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/9385642.Weymouth_train_station_plagued_by_drug_using_gangs/?ref=mr

As someone who actually lives here, I am certain that the fact the town appears to be a magnet for chavs, alkies, druggies and wasters:mad: is not good for the average property price.

Cleaver

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

As a result of regeneration of the areas concerned.

Massive new infrastructure spending, be it on parks, roads, rail links, stations, the stadium, velodrome, aquatic centre, etc, provides a much more amenable place to live with better facilities for the residents to use afterwards.

This obviously increases the attraction of those areas versus comparable areas in London, and makes them more desirable, hence house prices should rise more in those areas than they would have otherwise.

I agree with this. The other side of the coin though is that areas become a bit 'white elephant'. Lots of areas in Manchester, especially those on the East side of the city, were regenerated for both the Commonwealth Games and when they built the City of Manchester stadium. House prices went up, people bought them, then all the excitement left and you're left with poor quality buildings that are looking awful just ten years later and lots of people in negative equity who just have a cycling track and a giant new ASDA as local entertainment. I think you have to be really careful buying in to 'regenerated' areas.

geneer

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Nah, articles by Moneyweek take the biscuit.

Well they deserve a nice snack after being one of the few pundits who called the bubble and saw the bust up coming.

You never seem to want to mention the numerous others who failed so badly that they had no absolutely no idea it was coming at all.
A position which, ludicrously, led to you bigging up a well know property bull who stated "house prices are unlikely to fall" IN SEPTEMBER 2007.

I think you kid yourself most of all Hamish.

doire_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Nah, articles by Moneyweek take the biscuit.

This isn't even close.;)

The same Moneyweek which someone quoted a few weeks ago and you thanked them for their post.

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

As a result of regeneration of the areas concerned.

Massive new infrastructure spending, be it on parks, roads, rail links, stations, the stadium, velodrome, aquatic centre, etc, provides a much more amenable place to live with better facilities for the residents to use afterwards.

This obviously increases the attraction of those areas versus comparable areas in London, and makes them more desirable, hence house prices should rise more in those areas than they would have otherwise.

This article talks about Dorset.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

geneer wrote: »

Well they deserve a nice snack after being one of the few pundits who called the bubble and saw the bust up coming.

Given that this whole mess was caused by American sub-prime excesses and subsequent housing crash crippling the global financial system, I'd say they did a spectacularly poor job of "calling the bubble".

US housing: it's not a bubble
"American house prices are not about to crash. If you want to fear a housing post-bubble crash, there’s no need to look as far afield as America."
~Moneyweek Dec 12, 2005

Of course that legendary quote was written just 6 months before the US market started imploding.