The London property market is doomed, doomed I tells ya

kabayiri

Thrugelmir wrote: »

London isn't representative of the UK as a whole. If people want to spend silly money to live there, up to them. I for one don't care. A million buys a lot of property elsewhere. Not just a four bed terrace with no parking in Greenwich.

You need a decent variety and I think we have it up here in the NW.

You can buy a cheap terrace in a poorer area or move a few miles and pay quite a lot more for something not a lot bigger.

How do you create variety in the London marketplace?

Thrugelmir

kabayiri wrote: »

You can buy a cheap terrace in a poorer area or move a few miles and pay quite a lot more for something not a lot bigger.

Sounds as if people are far more content. Don't need material things to make them happy. Which seems to drive a percentage of the population these days.

Generali

kinger101 wrote: »

I don't think Brexit makes any difference. There are plently of examples of slavery in the UK from people who are both legally entitled to work here, and those who are not. The mechanism for creating it is a debt, and the threat of violence against the individual or their family if it is not repaid on the creditors terms.

The one thing that might make a difference is if people think twice before getting their car washed with the equivalent of of couple of hours labour for a fiver.

If anything, I think the perception that someone eastern european is willing to do work for peanuts has stopped people doing a reality check when they drive into these car washes.

The thing we've found in Australia is that the threat of being exposed as an illegal immigrant or having breached the terms of a visa is an extra vulnerability.

kabayiri

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Sounds as if people are far more content. Don't need material things to make them happy. Which seems to drive a percentage of the population these days.

As an outsider to my village, the thing which struck me is the desire for people who were born in the village to live here.

It seems to flatten out the peaks and the dips a bit. You can find other places within commuting range of Manchester which are a bit more dynamic.

kabayiri

Generali wrote: »

The thing we've found in Australia is that the threat of being exposed as an illegal immigrant or having breached the terms of a visa is an extra vulnerability.

The UK (& EU) government have spent a lot of money trying to encourage people into work, and that includes giving them skills like English language.

It's widely recognised that lack of English is a limiting factor to accessing better jobs.

What surprised me were the number of comments on forms which show that some women are not encouraged to even learn English.

This is also a form of suppression of freedom.

Generali

kabayiri wrote: »

The UK (& EU) government have spent a lot of money trying to encourage people into work, and that includes giving them skills like English language.

It's widely recognised that lack of English is a limiting factor to accessing better jobs.

What surprised me were the number of comments on forms which show that some women are not encouraged to even learn English.

This is also a form of suppression of freedom.

Shamefully in Australia it's been the newspapers that have been exposing this stuff, not the Government for the most part.

kinger101

Generali wrote: »

The thing we've found in Australia is that the threat of being exposed as an illegal immigrant or having breached the terms of a visa is an extra vulnerability.

Clearly this doesn't work for the Romanians within the EU. In reality, the gangmasters confiscate all travel documents from the slaves anyway.

Generali

kinger101 wrote: »

Clearly this doesn't work for the Romanians within the EU. In reality, the gangmasters confiscate all travel documents from the slaves anyway.

The only solution is to try to understand the supply chain. I pick one company over another in Aus because of our engagement with them on their supply chain. I guess I'm in a privileged position in that I work with people that get to talk to the CEO about this stuff.

Yolina

kinger101 wrote: »

The one thing that might make a difference is if people think twice before getting their car washed with the equivalent of of couple of hours labour for a fiver.

But they won't and that's a big part of the problem. Give someone the choice between paying £5 to get their car washed or paying £10, chances are they'll go for the cheaper one.

People want both higher wages and lower prices, which isn't possible.

AG47

London has a long way to fall. Lots of worried property owners trying to sell at the same time now