House Building everywhere, Can it Continue?

mateyboy

Do we need all these houses that are being built ?

I am concerned about the new dwellings that are being built and not sold, There are loads of properties in the south east that have been built in the last year and are ready to be sold, but are still empty.

Some say they are putting off buying until Brexit sorts itself out.

I think we are heading for a new property crash like they had in the Costas a few years, I realise that was second home holiday properties and they overbuilt on borrowed money.

The new properties in some areas are not selling whether its flats or houses and that's the bottom line.

What we need is affordable social housing not overpriced private housing.

I wonder how this is going th pan out in the next 2 to 3 years

PasturesNew

Where I live there are no large developments. Most new houses are small infills, small builders, 2-8 houses typically.

I am looking to buy a house - and none of these are suitable for me because they are built to optimise builder profit and do not make good houses to actually live in.

Houses are overpriced... but they're also building houses people don't want to buy/live in.

There are several new build houses right where I want to buy - several are all in budget. I don't want them..... because they're pants.

spadoosh

Round here its crazy the amount of houses going up.

A 2000 house village has just more or less finished being built. Its a good example of how you should build houses i think.

Closer to my house weve got plenty of smaller developments (20 houses or so) popping up in any field of an acre or more.

Theres some greenbelt near here and the farmer who own it has just got permission to build 500+ houses on that land right up to the greenbelt border. So far it seems like they want to try and be nice around the public but theres lots of questions relating to Dr's, schooling, traffic etc that are going unanswered.

I suspect were an area that might find it has an oversupply soon enough. Although its difficult to judge as their does seem to be a fair amount of development work going on locally (particularly on the creating jobs front) which generally attracts people to fill empty houses.

bertiewhite

New houses are being built like crazy in Lincolnshire at the moment and like Spadoosh briefly mentions, how the infrastructure is going to cope is anybody's guess as there are no new doctors surgeries or schools being built at the same time.

Mistermeaner

And yet there's a housing crisis ?

He interesting to see some facts that indicate over supply and new vacancies - local observations are anecdotal at best

I hear a lot about poor quality housing or lack of infrastructure but if it's so bad why do people build them (and other people buy them)

Perhaps to your eyes they are bad houses with poor infrastructure but for the people buying them it's an improvement on what they had before

Folk Generaly do try to try to better their lot - I'm always amazed how those who already have nice stuff are against sharing

Not saying that's you guys but a lot of nimbyism is based on its nice here and x y z will ruin it

lisyloo

I'm always amazed how those who already have nice stuff are against sharing

Why are you amazed that people don't want traffic congestion, not being able to get a doctors appointment, not being able to park etc.


I think those are genuine concerns.

triathlon

What the UK does not need is more housing, if we start building too many we will crash the UK economy. I do not know anyone that does not have at least one spare bedroom, many have two. I have seen Polish with double the occupants in a property than any Brit would stand for and they seem to lead happy comfortable and civil lives.

We do NOT have a housing crisis in the UK, we probably do have delusional expectations though. Property has never been more plentiful and comfortable and the choice of high quality rental is huge, please folks, just open a history book and see how some people lived in the recent last century.

michaels

triathlon wrote: »

What the UK does not need is more housing, if we start building too many we will crash the UK economy. I do not know anyone that does not have at least one spare bedroom, many have two. I have seen Polish with double the occupants in a property than any Brit would stand for and they seem to lead happy comfortable and civil lives.

We do NOT have a housing crisis in the UK, we probably do have delusional expectations though. Property has never been more plentiful and comfortable and the choice of high quality rental is huge, please folks, just open a history book and see how some people lived in the recent last century.

Weird - most places locally housing costs are at a historic high as a share of income which would suggest that there is an imbalance between supply and demand on the supply side. When housing costs are closer to build costs ten I will buy your argument but there is a lot of the country where this is far from the case.

Herzlos

Can house building continue? Whilst people are buying them, yes. There seems to be plenty of demand for most of the 'normal' family houses out our way with largish (~100 house) estates filling pretty quickly. There have been a few huge places on the market for a long time, possibly because the builder misjudged the market - If I was buying a 5/6 bed house I'd want it to be more than 10ft from my neighbours house and not on a main road. Houses being thrown up anywhere there's space, and more impressively a few developments of the dreaded council houses.



I echo the sentiments about resources - there's been a huge increase in housing in our town over the last few years, but no increase in school places, doctors etc. The train station car park had a huge upgrade, which is at least something.

triathlon wrote: »

I do not know anyone that does not have at least one spare bedroom, many have two.

That's because you don't live in the real world. I'm currently at -1 spare rooms*, and most of my colleagues/social circle at either at 0 spare rooms or -1.
It may be a generational thing though - my parents and most of my retired neighbours have 1 or 2 spare rooms.

We do NOT have a housing crisis in the UK, we probably do have delusional expectations though.

I'm not sure it's delusion to want to have a similar house to our parents when at an equivalent age / job / salary. I earn more than my parents peak salary combined and still can't buy their house. But they did get lucky with a few moves over the last 40 years.





*Because we don't really need another room yet, and I'd rather save up and make a big jump to a nicer area instead of a small jump.

Sapphire

Herzlos wrote: »

I'm not sure it's delusion to want to have a similar house to our parents when at an equivalent age / job / salary. I earn more than my parents peak salary combined and still can't buy their house. But they did get lucky with a few moves over the last 40 years.

Well, due to circumstances beyond their control, my parents never owned a house, or even a flat, and didn't even aspire to be property owners. And when I bought my first tiny one-bedroom flat, I remember really struggling to pay the mortgage (despite not engaging in spending much at all), making Christmas presents for my family, etc. Salaries were much, much lower than they are now (as were benefits), and inflation was very high, but then expectations were also lower.

I have moved a couple of times since getting the first flat, and now live in a two-bedroom maisonette (still not a 'house').

One really shouldn't make generalisations about people. I know quite a few people who have experienced similar things to me, or 'worse' if they had children, when it comes to property buying/living accommodation, etc. Nor will they be receiving any inheritance, like so many people currently expect to. I've never heard them complain, but then they are not particularly money or status orientated.

Malthusian

Herzlos wrote: »

I'm not sure it's delusion to want to have a similar house to our parents when at an equivalent age / job / salary. I earn more than my parents peak salary combined and still can't buy their house. But they did get lucky with a few moves over the last 40 years.

So your position is that everyone should be able to get lucky as your parents did. That's not what lucky means.

Most people who think they should be able to buy a similar house to their parents are not at an equivalent age / job / salary. Or they are not actually looking at a similar house to their parents (i.e. one which requires significant costly upgrades to the central heating, insulation, kitchen etc etc to bring it up to 2018 standard).