The UK doesn’t have a housing shortage

redux

Let's get slightly political for a moment.

David Cameron promises that if re-elected the Conservatives will increase the number of starter homes being built.

Only a few weeks ago he was declaring relaxations in planning so that developers don't have to provide as much so-called affordable housing.

cells

jjlandlord wrote: »

You are making a lot of assumptions in order to try to justify what is plain incorrect, for some reason.

France builds much more flats than the UK, and French cities tend to have denser housing than British ones.

Arguably, the UK should move towards more flats, because that's how you deliver more homes on less land.

im not sure that is correct, the French do indeed have twice as many flats but they also have twice as many detached homes as us. so the higher density flats probably offset the lower density detached.


and if you look up frances second largest city as you seem to disagree about paris, it states a density of 3500 persons per km2, vs birmingham our #2 city at 4100 persons per sqkm

Loughton_Monkey

mayonnaise wrote: »

We don't have any of those. :huh:
Mrs mayo never fails to convert unneeded or underused bedrooms into highly needed and overused hoarding rooms and walk-in wardrobes.

Indeed. Mrs LM is of the same ilk...

Round here, you can rent out your garage for people who want to park cheaply and commute daily on the Central Line.

Sadly I can't rent mine out as it's so full of gin, wine, Champagne and other goodies obtained abroad at a much more viable rate of tax.

.... all of which leads me to another "cunning plan" to ease all our traffic problems....

I notice that 90% of cars cruise slowly around our roads being impeded by busses, taxis, and the like. Let's get rid of all public transport. Make it a law that we all fit an LED board to our roofs to show our destination and make it compulsory to pick up any passenger hailing us down.

At least this limits us to about 40 minutes of having to suffer unknown, smelly, poor, potential murderers and rapists in close proximity, rather than the months/years we would have to suffer the same 'living' in the next bedroom.....:D

purch

redux wrote: »

David Cameron promises that if re-elected the Conservatives will increase the number of starter homes being built.

Only a few weeks ago he was declaring relaxations in planning so that developers don't have to provide as much so-called affordable housing.

That is the wonderful world of politics.

setmefree2

Killerseven wrote: »

The upshot is that nearly 70% of households in the UK have at least one bedroom more than they need (or use). So we have less a shortage of floor space in the UK than a (presumably generational, and so short term) misallocation of the floor space we already have.

As a nearly empty nester (with a four bedroom home) I can honestly say that stamp duty will definitely put me off down sizing. So I doubt it's that short term - I'm 52!

Killerseven

I always compare the situation, to the overcrowded slums in the world. Yes demand is higher than supply, but if people cant afford the high asking prices then it matters not if there are more people wanting to buy a house than houses available.

But the reality is, there is no shortage of houses in the UK.

CLAPTON

redux wrote: »

Let's get slightly political for a moment.

David Cameron promises that if re-elected the Conservatives will increase the number of starter homes being built.

Only a few weeks ago he was declaring relaxations in planning so that developers don't have to provide as much so-called affordable housing.

what have 'starter homes' got to do with 'affordable (i.e. subsidised social) housing

except of course, that starter home buyers pay more for smaller properties to pay for the social housing

how is that fair?

CLAPTON

Killerseven wrote: »

I always compare the situation, to the overcrowded slums in the world. Yes demand is higher than supply, but if people cant afford the high asking prices then it matters not if there are more people wanting to buy a house than houses available.

But the reality is, there is no shortage of houses in the UK.

makes no sense

supply and demand are broadly equal : the result is the price of the product.

if people couldn't afford to buy, then the properties wouldn't sell at that price: the result would be a fall in price until the number of people able and willing to buy equals the number of people willing to sell at that price

in reality, there is a shortage of property to meet people wants:

'need' for more than a bed in a multiple occupied room is a matter of opinion.

westernpromise

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I notice that 90% of cars cruise slowly around our roads being impeded by busses, taxis, and the like. Let's get rid of all public transport.

You say that as a joke but there is in fact a strong correlation between increasing bus and bike journeys into London versus falling car journeys and falling traffic speeds.

Buses and bikes slow traffic down by, in the first case, driving slowly and stopping every 100 yards; bikes slow it down by cycling practices. Getting cars off the roads does not reduce congestion - it makes it worse.

NorthFin

setmefree2 wrote: »

As a nearly empty nester (with a four bedroom home) I can honestly say that stamp duty will definitely put me off down sizing. So I doubt it's that short term - I'm 52!

Give it time, property prices will fall eventually until you are under the limit.