UK property owning families increased wealth by 20% last year - don't make me laugh!

lukeh23

We are a lopsided country. Its ridiculus that someone would pay 450k for a two bed flat when in suffolk / norfolk you could buy a nice 4 bed detached with a big garden and fresh rural air.

We need to rebalance the economy across the whole isle.

I know what will fix this to a degree....technology.

Internet connected self driven cars will nulify most traffic jams and reduce travel times and make them more predictable time wise. Long commutes will become more tolerable, as will home working become more adopted. You will be able to jump in the car and make calls, answer emails or watch a movie while floating along an A road on a dark cold winters morning.

buglawton

Regret I can't agree on auto driving cars being a magic solution.
If you'd said in the 70's, let's solve all London commuter traffic problems by building a massive orbital motorway round it, it sounded believeable.
The M25 turned out to be a commuter magnet, attracting people to new job opportunities that involve commutes that no one would have contemplated in the 70's. Auto driving cars would just be an extension of that.

Abolish stamp duty to encourage more relocation and make Internet access as ubiquitous as electricity and running water would even out earning opportunities.

wotsthat

lukeh23 wrote: »

We are a lopsided country. Its ridiculus that someone would pay 450k for a two bed flat when in suffolk / norfolk you could buy a nice 4 bed detached with a big garden and fresh rural air.

We need to rebalance the economy across the whole isle.

Are you planning on taking advantage of the cheap housing outside of London?

I suspect most people who say this are determined to stay in London and suggest this only in the forlorn hope other people will move out instead.

padington

Every time I go into the countryside with London friends, I often dreamily suggest how tempted i am to move out given that you could get a small holding for the price of a 2 up 2 down and I always, always, always get the same London chorus back - ' it's great for a short while, but I certainly wouldn't want to live here'.

buglawton

Some people would not know how to hold a job down living in the 'burbs. It takes all kinds.

Generali

buglawton wrote: »

If you are referring to post 3, it means that Zoopla values all houses in my locality based on the 2 or 3 sales that took place over the last year, then it adds a bit. Were I or most people to apply for a mortgage on the house I live in/currently have the deeds of, even with a 25% deposit it'd be laughed out.

But there's a significant, small minority of people - think inheritance + 2 prof salaries - that can afford to buy the occasional property. It's those few that Zoopla is building it's price estimate edifice on.

No, I was pointing to the original premise. If assets for this group haven't risen by 20%, how much have they gone up or down by?

wotsthat

Newspapers love data releases like this. Hardly anyone measures their net worth over time so it gives them chance to tell people they're better off (or not) without much fear of them bothering to check.

My net worth has increased by 19.7% in the last 12 months to date. Just under half that can be attributed to increases in property values. Not sure if that's good, bad or neither.

lisyloo

We are a lopsided country. Its ridiculus that someone would pay 450k for a two bed flat when in suffolk / norfolk you could buy a nice 4 bed detached with a big garden and fresh rural air

Yes we are lopsided, but why is it ridiculous for someone to pay say £450k for a flat where there are £100K jobs on offer, rather than get a detached house where there are £20K jobs on offer that they don't want or possibly NO jobs they can get.
This sounds very similar to a situation we were in recently.
and no it isn't easy to get ANY job when you're fifty.

How many cosmetic brands say -
"Suffolk - Paris - New York"
rather than
"London - Paris - York".

Don't get me wrong I think a better spread of business/housing would be better for everyone, but I know that my employer isn't going to move out of London where there are skills, airports, infrastructure and qudos.

We would love to move out, but "gis a job".

ruggedtoast

buglawton wrote: »

Regret I can't agree on auto driving cars being a magic solution.
If you'd said in the 70's, let's solve all London commuter traffic problems by building a massive orbital motorway round it, it sounded believeable.
The M25 turned out to be a commuter magnet, attracting people to new job opportunities that involve commutes that no one would have contemplated in the 70's. Auto driving cars would just be an extension of that.

Abolish stamp duty to encourage more relocation and make Internet access as ubiquitous as electricity and running water would even out earning opportunities.

The M25 isn't massive. If an American city the size of London was served by a titchy interstate that at best infrequently has 5 lanes and shrinks to 3 or even 2 lanes when there are roadworks, drivers would be rioting.

That said Londons problem isnt a lack of roads. People desperately need affordable mass transit in order to commute 100 miles to their sh1tty, poorly paid jobs in Zone 1, otherwise employers might have to start paying a living wage. And none of those Tory donors are Tory donors because they expect to have to pay a living wage.