How do any single buyers manage to afford houses when only able to borrow 4x income??

ukcarper

Windofchange wrote: »

Take a reliable car then. 10 year old Audi for 3 grand, bit of insurance and petrol. Might not save you much time over the train but again, your own space, no pushing, no cancellations, no leaves the line, no strikes. I honestly don't know how people do public transport on any sort of regular basis. Even on a night out I'd rather Boris bike home than sit on a train.

I think if I drove into central London it would take me at least twice as long as going by train.

beecher2

Windofchange wrote: »

Take a reliable car then. 10 year old Audi for 3 grand, bit of insurance and petrol. Might not save you much time over the train but again, your own space, no pushing, no cancellations, no leaves the line, no strikes. I honestly don't know how people do public transport on any sort of regular basis. Even on a night out I'd rather Boris bike home than sit on a train.

Each to their own. I can catch up with twitter, read the papers, have a quick sleep or read a book. Don't have the stress of driving or the hassle of finding a parking space. Easy to fit in an hour's walking as part of my commute so keep fit too. Plus there's sometime a good story to tell due to how mad some members of the public are!

kabayiri

Seriously, scrap the £60bn - £100bn that HS2 will cost and embark on a massive commuter train upgrade program for London (especially) and the other primary cities.

It's capacity that is needed, not speed.

Also, subsidise commuter fares. Areas outside London would become much more attractive.

Or...reintroduce slums into London. Invite a few of us scummy Northerners down there...that should do the trick

zagubov

ukcarper wrote: »

I think if I drove into central London it would take me at least twice as long as going by train.

When I worked in West London I spent three hours a day watching traffic lights change. Public transport would have taken longer and required walking (30 mins), two trains and a bus or walking (30 mins) one train and three tube trains. I could use a walkman/ipod to play comedy shows or music or play talking books on tape.

Driving, I could plug my walkman then my ipod into my car's cassette radio. Used to listen to audiobooks. Long ones like Lord of the Rings, short stories by Dorothy Parker or O. Henry.

I switched to a more local job to knock two hours off my daily commute. Involved a pay cut, but I was glad to get more of my life back.

ukcarper

zagubov wrote: »

When I worked in West London I spent three hours a day watching traffic lights change. Public transport would have taken longer and required walking (30 mins), two trains and a bus or walking (30 mins) one train and three tube trains. I could use a walkman/ipod to play comedy shows or music or play talking books on tape.

Driving, I could plug my walkman then my ipod into my car's cassette radio. Used to listen to audiobooks. Long ones like Lord of the Rings, short stories by Dorothy Parker or O. Henry.

I switched to a more local job to knock two hours off my daily commute. Involved a pay cut, but I was glad to get more of my life back.

A lot depends on where you work and public transport links, that's why I said central London, but in general the further in you go the more the train comes into its own.

GreatApe

kabayiri wrote: »

Seriously, scrap the £60bn - £100bn that HS2 will cost and embark on a massive commuter train upgrade program for London (especially) and the other primary cities.

It's capacity that is needed, not speed.

Also, subsidise commuter fares. Areas outside London would become much more attractive.

Or...reintroduce slums into London. Invite a few of us scummy Northerners down there...that should do the trick

there are too many social homes in London and especially inner London. A part of London called inner east London which is parts of hackney and tower hamlets is 60% council flats/homes which is ridiculous.

London should sell off 250,000 council flats mostly the ones in zone 2 by the block. If that happened London would go towards the UK average so it would still have no less social housing than an average English region.

Those 250,000 flats can be knocked down and rebuilt as 500,000 flats for a million working people.

Its much better to have these million workers within walking distance of the three big London employment hubs, than to have a million people commute on trains 30 miles each way every day so some poor folk who dont work can be within walking distance of Zone1

economic

GreatApe = cells

Doshwaster

Windofchange wrote: »

Take a reliable car then. 10 year old Audi for 3 grand, bit of insurance and petrol. Might not save you much time over the train but again, your own space, no pushing, no cancellations, no leaves the line, no strikes. I honestly don't know how people do public transport on any sort of regular basis. Even on a night out I'd rather Boris bike home than sit on a train.

Try drinking a gin and tonic and then having a doze while driving or being on a "Santander Cycle" (why Santander took over the sponsorship from Barclays is anyone's guess as everyone still calls them after the former mayor)

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I bought 3 years ago (London, zone 4) as a single person and was offered 5 x my salary (secretary in higher education so hardly a top earner). I took this deal as it meant I didn't need to use all my savings for the deposit. I turned down an offer from BoMaD, as my financial independence is important to me. I could probably have bought a couple of years earlier if I'd realised such deals were available.

Note that during the past 3 years I've pretty much nearly saved up the original deposit amount up again, whilst overpaying the mortgage.

Conrad

beecher2 wrote: »

Each to their own. I can catch up with twitter, read the papers, have a quick sleep or read a book. Don't have the stress of driving or the hassle of finding a parking space. Easy to fit in an hour's walking as part of my commute so keep fit too. Plus there's sometime a good story to tell due to how mad some members of the public are!

I find the environment on a tube carriage oppressive - all that second hand air, the coughs and germs everywhere, the heat, the close proximity.


Also just on this thing about walking keeping one fit - a very common comment - I do wonder about this - I've known Posties, Nurses and Bin men that are on their feet all day walking, some fast walkers but they are unfit and wobbly.