Newsnight: Housing shortage the biggest social justice crisis of our times

moneyinmypocket

Graham how much do you think prices need to be in pounds - average etc

grizzly1911

ash28 wrote: »

The trouble the closer to the top you get the narrower it becomes...

There isn't room for many at the top.

Those at the top still need those at the bottom or there would be no top.

Without the people at the bottom "losing "there wouldn't be those at the top "wining". Those at the top often poncing on those below in one way or another.

C*** in one form or another floats to the top.

N1AK

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why not look at the amount in actual pounds? You simply won't.

In short Graham because it would be really stupid to do so. If someone is risking £100,000 and makes back £101,000 I doubt many would begrudge them the margin. If they were spending £5 to get back £1,005 people may rightly feel exploited.

Besides which you already point out that it isn't like building firms can't be compared to other major industries where profit margins are limited.

If building houses really isn't a competitive market then the government should be intervening to resolve that issue not trying to define acceptable margins which it'll invariably fail at and spend a lot of money in the process of doing so.

the_flying_pig

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Rubbish.

It costs upwards of £1000 per square metre to build a house these days...

that figure is too high.

it would certainly cost me upwards of £1000/m if i was building a detached house on a piece of land that I owned & employing other people to design it, build it, & project manage the building work... but if we're talking about a specialist company building rows of terraced houses, or a blocks of flats, then it'd most likely be a good deal less.

IveSeenTheLight

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Oh my good lord ISTL.

Are you seriously trying to go down this route!?

Were not talking about £100 outlays and 50 quid profit here. Were talking £78m profits for one company.

No one is saying they shouldn't make a profit, before you choose to go down that avenue. Just that they CAN reduce their prices if they need to.

And they would, they just don't need to, thanks to the government intervention and direct subsidies.

It's simple business Graham.

Let me ask you a question. If you had a significant amount of money to invest, would you do so in somewhere that gave a low profit return?

Your saying they can reduce prices. By how much?
It's not a charity and 11% profit margin suggests that if they reduced too much, it would not be worthwhile as a business, the owners / shareholders could choose to invest elsewhere.

Remember also that previous years losses may need to be taken into account.

This is why I think it's ok, but not a great return for the investment.

Infact, if the profit margin dropped significantly, what you'd see is the comany would need to reduce their costs, probably affecting direct employees and probably also squeezing their suppliers, resulting in further wagebill reductions.

So before you react and ask people which routes they're going down, try to think what may lie further ahead on the path options.

IveSeenTheLight

the_flying_pig wrote: »

that figure is too high.

it would certainly cost me upwards of £1000/m if i was building a detached house on a piece of land that I owned & employing other people to design it, build it, & project manage the building work... but if we're talking about a specialist company building rows of terraced houses, or a blocks of flats, then it'd most likely be a good deal less.

It's costing me approx £865 / sq m to build a detached house on a piece of land (not including land costs)

With the land it's £1245 / sq m

Both prices include architects, planning, building warrants, labour, project management etc.

I guess it depends where you are building and possibly the size of the property / plot.

RedPoll_2

C_Mababejive wrote: »

See my sig for a clue as to why..

If you want to own your own land then buy it........

Thats what most do to become a landowner, the last ones who were getting it free went and fought Holy Wars wearing armour.

Conrad

I just wanted to mention that I know people now with eyes lit up at the relaxed rules and desperately trying to cash in by selling part of thier garden in the green belt. More concrete and tarmac everywhere, what joy.

PaulF81

Conrad wrote: »

I just wanted to mention that I know people now with eyes lit up at the relaxed rules and desperately trying to cash in by selling part of thier garden in the green belt. More concrete and tarmac everywhere, what joy.

Looks as if that acre of green belt with my pad was a worthy investment. I wonder how many rabbit hutches I can squeeze into it?

Joking. Despite its now considerable futu worth, I wouldn't dream of building on it

Although it makes the resale value of the whole property interesting.

Mr._Pricklepants

As a NIMBY, I find the idea that we can be bribed into allowing undesirable housing quite offensive.

A couple of years ago, we lobbied successfully against a new development nearby us and if someone would have offered us money to change our minds, we would have told them where to shove it.

You can't put a monetary value on several things, and a liveable environment is one of them.