Action must be taken on house prices in London

ukcarper

cells wrote: »

about 8% or so of the kids of this country go to private schools, ie their parents are rich enough to spend £30k+ per year per child on schooling alone. That is £400k PER KID for their school years. If you have 3 kids that means £1.2 million for education

If a family can afford £1.2 million to send their kids to a private school they can sure as hell afford more than £1.2 million to buy a house!

So yes I am in agreement with you, I dont know many people who could buy a £1m house but they are out there and represent about 10% of the population

How do you get 10% if 8% of kids go to private school, if that's 2 kids per family that's 4% and if 3 like your example it's 2.6%.

Loughton_Monkey

cells wrote: »

about 8% or so of the kids of this country go to private schools, ie their parents are rich enough to spend £30k+ per year per child on schooling alone. That is £400k PER KID for their school years. If you have 3 kids that means £1.2 million for education

If a family can afford £1.2 million to send their kids to a private school they can sure as hell afford more than £1.2 million to buy a house!

So yes I am in agreement with you, I dont know many people who could buy a £1m house but they are out there and represent about 10% of the population

Good comparison.

Most people seem to forget that London house prices aren't fuelled by first time buyers. I caught snatches of a 'London Tonight' program the other day where they had a few Chinese all boasting about buying houses in London "as a toy". OK, only a small percentage of Chinese are mega rich, but a small percentage of 3 billion is a lot. [and people complain about the gap between rich and poor here!]. London houses are extremely cheap compared to many of the large Asian capitals and large cities.

London prices have always been high. They have just about always risen higher than elsewhere. People in every city buy houses >£800K all day every day. Why should this be different in London? I suspect the majority of these are older people who are on their 4th house and struggled [like the rest of us] to buy their first sh1thole of a house 30 years ago.

Those who don't get on the property ladder as soon as they possibly can - in whatever property they can - will never be the ones buying the best houses 20 or 30 years later.

chucknorris

I'm certainly taking action on London house prices, I've decided to immediately do nothing!

We tried to arrange viewings for two houses in N17 this weekend. We were told by the agents that there was enough interest in one of the houses and they didn't feel the need to encourage even more interest. The other agent said that there was so much interest that they were only having open group viewings. I really don't want to get involved in a market where people are falling over themselves to bid the price up. I think as far as picking up real value I have missed the boat, but I'm happy enough with what I have and I'll just stick with plan A for now, which was to move towards a more diversified investment portfolio.

Graham_Devon

chucknorris wrote: »

I'm certainly taking action on London house prices, I've decided to immediately do nothing!

We tried to arrange viewings for two houses in N17 this weekend. We were told by the agents that there was enough interest in one of the houses and they didn't feel the need to encourage even more interest. The other agent said that there was so much interest that they were only having open group viewings. I really don't want to get involved in a market where people are falling over themselves to bid the price up. I think as far as picking up real value I have missed the boat, but I'm happy enough with what I have and I'll just stick with plan A for now, which was to move towards a more diversified investment portfolio.

I wonder if other, stronger investors, such as yourself are also now taking a back seat, leaving the scrabbling to bid prices up to others?

Jason74

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Good comparison.

Most people seem to forget that London house prices aren't fuelled by first time buyers. I caught snatches of a 'London Tonight' program the other day where they had a few Chinese all boasting about buying houses in London "as a toy". .

Which is of course why meaningful action is needed to stop foreign investors buying up London property is needed now, As many people on these boards (from all sides of the debate) have pointed out, London property is a scarce resource, and one that needs to be used for maximum social benefit (IE being lived in full time, ideally by its owners). The idea that people can buy up that resource "as a toy" is frankly obscene.

chucknorris

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I wonder if other, stronger investors, such as yourself are also now taking a back seat, leaving the scrabbling to bid prices up to others?

I do think that there is money to be made Graham, but there is also risk, and as I get closer to retirement (I'm 56) and also (possibly) the time when (if) I sell up, I think that the potential upside for me is less. If I was younger I would probably buy now but property is a long term investment. It isn't impossible that anything I bought now I might end up wanting to sell in only 10 years time. Also of course property isn't a passive investment, it requires input and I'm not a good delegator, that is one of my faults, I always envisage others messing things up and prefer to be 'hands on'.

Bantex_2

chucknorris wrote: »

I'm certainly taking action on London house prices, I've decided to immediately do nothing!

We tried to arrange viewings for two houses in N17 this weekend. We were told by the agents that there was enough interest in one of the houses and they didn't feel the need to encourage even more interest. The other agent said that there was so much interest that they were only having open group viewings. I really don't want to get involved in a market where people are falling over themselves to bid the price up. I think as far as picking up real value I have missed the boat, but I'm happy enough with what I have and I'll just stick with plan A for now, which was to move towards a more diversified investment portfolio.

I do find it a little depressing that many now consider houses to be an investment rather than a home.

MFW_ASAP

Bantex wrote: »

I do find it a little depressing that many now consider houses to be an investment rather than a home.

Yes, because there wasn't a rental market until 1998.

Bantex_2

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

Yes, because there wasn't a rental market until 1998.

There was very little BTL competing with buyers though. I seem to remember that going back 20 or so years, it was cheaper to rent an equivalent house than to buy it.

chucknorris

Bantex wrote: »

I do find it a little depressing that many now consider houses to be an investment rather than a home.

The diversification that I refer to is to move away from property and invest more in shares and pension.