Affordable Housing London-Style

MARTYM8`

princeofpounds wrote: »

Of course an interesting question is - if 'affordable' housing is being listed at these prices and transacting... who is doing the buying?


Of course what actually happens with a lot of these places is that they are bought by a married couple where one is exceptionally wealthy and the other is a so-called key worker.


Which rather defeats the object, as these couples could almost always afford to live in London anyway at market terms. And certainly if they are buying a million squid flat.

There is shared ownership scheme in Fitzrovia (London W1) which allows up to 17 lucky people earning as little as £29,000 to buy a 25% share of a one bed flat costing between £780,000 and £920,000 (i.e. a £200k mortgage and heavily subsidised rent on the rest).

Only snag is you will need a deposit of at least £88,000 and already be renting in Westminster. Not sure how someone earning £29k living locally currently would be able to raise a £88,000 deposit - unless of course they had a generous parent/benefactor.:D


http://www.octavialiving.org.uk/assets/0000/0881/17_Cleveland_Street__-_W1_-_Final_Affordability___Price_List_05.06.15.pdf

lisyloo

I could qualify by increasing my pension salary sacrifice and reducing my income. Would that work?

missyrichards

I wish I had moved to Hackney when a lot of people were scared to go there!

lisyloo

I wish I had moved to Hackney when a lot of people were scared to go there!

I don't really know what is was like, but I don't think I would like to live somewhere undesireable for many years just to get a good investment.

I have looked fairly recently at living in some less nice areas of London and I've chosen not to do that (gated community always rings alarm bells).

I know this is a money oriented site but money isn't everything and if you are living there then you will be experiencing the downsides day-in, day-out and of course without the benefit of hindsight you wouldn't know that your "bit of a dump" area is going to up and coming. It's easy to see now, but many years ago you'd never have forseen Brixton becoming gentrified.

missyrichards

lisyloo wrote: »

I don't really know what is was like, but I don't think I would like to live somewhere undesireable for many years just to get a good investment.

I have looked fairly recently at living in some less nice areas of London and I've chosen not to do that (gated community always rings alarm bells).

I know this is a money oriented site but money isn't everything and if you are living there then you will be experiencing the downsides day-in, day-out and of course without the benefit of hindsight you wouldn't know that your "bit of a dump" area is going to up and coming. It's easy to see now, but many years ago you'd never have forseen Brixton becoming gentrified.

But I don't like where I live now and the house prices haven't increased here.:D I went to a party in Hackney a few years ago and it is just amazing to me how much it has gentrified since then. There are some very lovely houses there and Victoria park is nice.

regprentice

wymondham wrote: »

IT makes lots of jobs location independent so people could save an absolute fortune and improve their quality of life if they just got over the 'London' thing......

IT makes a lot of jobs location independant...but in the eyes of most employers this means those jobs can be done in India/Poland/China not the north of England/Scotland.

If they are going to go to the capital expenditure of accomodating these changes they will do it to save as much as possible for shareholders...not to make your life easier. And if you are lucky and they do you will probably find you need to start buying your own work specific it equipment (Laptop printer etc) under their BYOD policies.

lisyloo

But I don't like where I live now and the house prices haven't increased here

:-)
Presumably there is some reason why you chose to live there. Either work, family or affordability?

Picking somewhere "dodgy" where you have a chance or being mugged or worse just to get a good deal seems to be going too far to me. I'm female and I think it's important to feel comfortable and not have a curfew where you can't go out unescorted after a certain time. The worse end of the spectrum doesn't bear thinking about but continual anti-social behaviour (more likely) can be very wearing.
I used to go to a posh girls school in a dodgy area of Bristol. We were flashed at, occassionally shot at, w**ked at (when I was 12 and didn't know), continually asked "how much". I think the St trinions outfit didn't help. Nothing bad happened but it was quite unpleasant.

I don't know the areas you mention that well and if there was a guarnatee of huge HPI then I might go for it, but taking a chance and sending your young daughters to a train station where there will be men mas***bating is not really very nice to face on a daily basis.

Of course I'm sure there are people who've had great experiences and had huge HPI, some by pure chance of circumstances and I say good for them, but I think it's a big risk to take deliberately with your day to day life.

lisyloo

IT makes a lot of jobs location independant...but in the eyes of most employers this means those jobs can be done in India/Poland/China not the north of England/Scotland.

Absolutely. Bangalore not Balckburn.
No employer is going to move to make things easier for other people, why would they. They will act in the interests of their shareholders - that's capitalism.

Generali

lisyloo wrote: »

train station where there will be men mas***bating

Do men actually do that in public?

If a man was doing that where my daughter was getting the train to school I'd be sorely tempted to cut it off.

missyrichards

lisyloo wrote: »

:-)
Presumably there is some reason why you chose to live there. Either work, family or affordability?

Picking somewhere "dodgy" where you have a chance or being mugged or worse just to get a good deal seems to be going too far to me. I'm female and I think it's important to feel comfortable and not have a curfew where you can't go out unescorted after a certain time. The worse end of the spectrum doesn't bear thinking about but continual anti-social behaviour (more likely) can be very wearing.
I used to go to a posh girls school in a dodgy area of Bristol. We were flashed at, occassionally shot at, w**ked at (when I was 12 and didn't know), continually asked "how much". I think the St trinions outfit didn't help. Nothing bad happened but it was quite unpleasant.

I don't know the areas you mention that well and if there was a guarnatee of huge HPI then I might go for it, but taking a chance and sending your young daughters to a train station where there will be men mas***bating is not really very nice to face on a daily basis.

Of course I'm sure there are people who've had great experiences and had huge HPI, some by pure chance of circumstances and I say good for them, but I think it's a big risk to take deliberately with your day to day life.

My husband has his job here and he works shifts and doesn't drive so it's convenient for him to get to work. I've lived in dodgy parts of London so I'm quite used to antisocial behaviour. I worked in Kings Cross when it was a cesspit too, I'm not easily intimidated.:p

It is hard to predict what areas will see HPI but Hackney wouldn't have been a place I ever thought would have. Oh well.