How we can fix the 'housing crisis'?

Person_one

marksoton wrote: »

I've said it before and i'll say it again.

London living. You're bonkers in my opinion.

Why am I bonkers? I don't live in London!

It is mad, I can't imagine living in a halls type situation in my thirties, its a wonder there aren't regular murders, but London needs its low paid people and lots of them still want to live there.

Person_one

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Ditto - and speed up the research on the male Pill. It's long overdue for men to have that means available to them to stop women having pregnancies they haven't agreed to on them.

marksoton

Person_one wrote: »

Why am I bonkers? I don't live in London!

It is mad, I can't imagine living in a halls type situation in my thirties, its a wonder there aren't regular murders, but London needs its low paid people and lots of them still want to live there.

I didn't mean you!

I meant those that do. It really is a mugs game. And i did it ( Albeit with subsistence payment from my employer )

surfer9

Crashy_Time wrote: »

This idea is not workable, I would never buy a flat because you can`t control who your neighbours are, so who the beep want`s to spin the dice on having total idiots in the next room to them, without being able to exit quickly? Can you imagine doing viewings when the Spanish punter in the next room has twenty of his friends round for "drinks". Total nonsense idea, the young need to wake up, stop taking on student debt and stop aspiring to bail out mortgage debtors by paying inflated prices for property.

People do buy flats and don't worry enough about neighbours to put them off buying a property. Same with houses - can still have annoying neighbours.....

Your analogy of people being put off by Mr Jose Sanchez Martinez bringing back his 6 girlfriends can happen in many situations in life. You buy a new flat and the first day you move in Mr Jose Sanchez next door is playing loud music. You move into a house-share and Mr Jose Sanchez is walking around the house butt naked smoking pot. Your a student and you move into halls accommodation and Mr Jose Sanchez is banging around in the kitchen every night making his Paella. You buy a house and your neighbour Mr Jose Sanchez is always outside making bonfires and letting off fireworks.

I believe that there would be a high demand for this kind of living. It will bridge that gap between renting and that first property, so people will go for it, plus youngsters want to live with others and socialise with Mr Jose Sanchez and his 6 girlfriends. Some don't - I get that.

£40,000 to £80,000 a room. You can stay there for a maximum of 5 years. After 5 years - you'll have a crap tonne of a deposit and be able to afford your first proper property.

I guess this concept doesn't necessarily have to be a buy concept, but could be a discounted rent concept. The Government could rent the rooms for 50% less than the typical rent of a room in the area and make it mandatory that any renter has to pay the other 50% into a scheme in which the money will only go towards a deposit for a house, but then you won't save as much money as you would if you were to buy the room.

I'm therefore keeping this concept as buy not rent, but you could do both.

Why wouldn't banks take on these types of mortgages?

The Under 30's have parents in work who could guarantor the mortgage.

davidmcn

surfer9 wrote: »

£40,000 to £80,000 a room.

It was worth £100,000 only a few hours ago - that's a volatile market, isn't it?

Why wouldn't banks take on these types of mortgages?

As above - there isn't a market for this sort of property, so it doesn't offer acceptable security for the banks.

At least with a rented house share you know when you'll be able to leave - who wants to risk being stuck for years in negative equity, unable to escape your flatmates from hell?

Cornucopia

I think to be fair we have to accept that the Planners, New House Builders, New House Buyers and lenders have all been incredibly conservative over the past 25 years or so.

New build estates are generally indistinguishable by any regional difference in build style, and tend to be the classic mix of low-rise flats and boxy executive houses all in brightly coloured brick and tile.

It would be nice to consider the OP's idea (which I think works well for office re-purposing) along with a number of other suggested solutions for regaining some momentum in home-building. The big builders have shown themselves to be unworthy of the trust being placed in them as far as addressing our housing shortage is concerned.

moneyistooshorttomention

Certainly re-purposing offices is something we seriously need to think about.

Thinking of the two locations I know best:
- last area - too many offices that no-one wants
- this location - firms want them but the language factor prevents firms coming here and taking them up (Welsh).

Either way - the offices are available.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

surfer9 wrote: »

I wish they would ruddy build and get on with it, but it hasn't happend and isn't happening.

The British population need to take things into their own hands. Buy massive plots of lands between us and take our share of the plot to build our own houses on. Would surely be cheaper and we'd get it done, unlike this Government or the building companies holding onto land.

Bless your heart. I work in housing and regeneration and believe me, it is not as simple as "cracking on and building houses". Frankly, it's damned hard work for the professionals, imagine what a screw up it'd be if the general public just decided to 'build something'.

You must be very young as you are extremely idealistic.

moneyistooshorttomention

I think they are referring to self-build "hobbit home" type houses of the "back to the land" variety.

If I were in that age group - I'd be giving them serious thought myself actually - as I'd see it as pretty much my only hope (bar moving to an industrial city in northern England - and wondering where the job was to come from to pay even the low mortgage I'd have on it). Hmmm...I did contemplate having to move to Lincoln years back (ie before a very timely stroke of luck meant I could buy a house where I was). Thank goodness I didn't have to. Bradford - yeh right.....and so on...

AdrianC

And, of course, everybody wants all this new development... just not right next door to them.