The silver bullet to fix the housing market

ukcarper

JamesSmith2000 wrote: »

The point has been made 96% of land in UK is not used for anything. That 4% used includes roads, rivers car parks everything.

The figure for urban land is much higher over 10% in England and in the south east it is higher still the 4% figure is meaningless.

CLAPTON

ukcarper wrote: »

The figure for urban land is much higher over 10% in England and in the south east it is higher still the 4% figure is meaningless.

what are the correct figures?

ukcarper

CLAPTON wrote: »

what are the correct figures?

I've found it hard to find out I'm sure you could if you have more time to waste than me I have seen figures ranging from 10 to 20%. I suppose it depends on what you call urban I believe the 3% figure often quoted is just buildings where as the higher figures are the who urban area including gardens etc.

CLAPTON

ukcarper wrote: »

I've found it hard to find out I'm sure you could if you have more time to waste than me I have seen figures ranging from 10 to 20%. I suppose it depends on what you call urban I believe the 3% figure often quoted is just buildings where as the higher figures are the who urban area including gardens etc.

so depending upon how you count it, then it may be less than 3%

ukcarper

CLAPTON wrote: »

so depending upon how you count it, then it may be less than 3%

Yes so why not build on the 7% that is urban and not built on.

IronWolf

There is no shortage of land. Look at the price of normal land, then compare to the price of land with planning permission to build. Not hard to figure out what the problem is.

ukcarper

I agree there is not a shortage of land and with careful planning a lot more property could be build in the more overcrowded area. But to throw around the 3% figure when that includes the Pennines, Scottish highlands, people gardens etc is pretty meaningless.

CLAPTON

ukcarper wrote: »

Yes so why not build on the 7% that is urban and not built on.

It is obviously true that no single figure can possibly give an accurate description of anything so variable and complex but the 3% is a counter to the 'concrete over the SE' set.


and talking of meaningless figures, 100% of the building in London is on brown field sites.

antrobus

CLAPTON wrote: »

land...................

Well there is still plenty of space knocking around. There was a time when it was said that the entire world population could Stand on Zanzibar. I imagine it might be a slightly bigger island these days.

CLAPTON wrote: »

...
there is no long term shortage of bricks

You could say that about almost anything. Sort of misses the point though. When you talk about the 'resources' required to build a house; yes, you need a plot of land to put it on, but you also the need the materials, and the labour to build it, and the infrastructure needed to make the house habitable, on top of which the capital to fund this investment.

With one sweeping gesture of the hand, one can dismiss all these resourcing issues by claiming that they aren't long term problems, but that doesn't get amy more houses built. If you want to build more houses you have to do more than simply make the plots available; you have to make lots of other things available as well. Or at the very least, give the market the time and encouragement to make them available.

antrobus

JamesSmith2000 wrote: »

The point has been made 96% of land in UK is not used for anything. ...

Not used for anything?Are you sure? Doesn't producing food count?