We have a housing shortage if you ignore the 840,000 empty homes

guppy

lynzpower wrote: »

well yes it does. Lenders wont lend for most of the sort of properties that are vacant in decants as
a) they may have a CPO
b) they may have asbestos etc
c) the retentions on mortgages are too large to undertake the renov work

if its a 12th floor flat in a tower block with structural issues at the base, then you wont get a mortgage on it in any case.

I was thinking more of empty privately owned properties but I take your point

before_hollywood

epz wrote: »

its not that nobody wants the abandoned houses but that they are owned by some unknown entity and nobody can buy them to renovate.

if the council reposesed and auctioned off all places abandoned after a set time with no reseve then somebody would buy and renovate them, even just as a btl to farm dss rents.

i'll be realistic, i am from just outside manchester, if you go into certain parts of manc the rents are tiny, cos no-one wants to live there, the rates of crime are stupidly high and people just abandon their houses to get out and the houses get trashed, i could go and buy one of these houses tomorrow, do i want to? no, reason being it doesn't make sense to me. i can't walk down the street safely, park my car outside, any of that stuff, if i can't do that then that to me is not living

IveSeenTheLight

before_hollywood wrote: »

i'll be realistic, i am from just outside manchester, if you go into certain parts of manc the rents are tiny, cos no-one wants to live there, the rates of crime are stupidly high and people just abandon their houses to get out and the houses get trashed, i could go and buy one of these houses tomorrow, do i want to? no, reason being it doesn't make sense to me. i can't walk down the street safely, park my car outside, any of that stuff, if i can't do that then that to me is not living

I'm not saying there is anything wrong in your comment, but this is the reason house prices have increased so much.

Everybody (including myself) is much more picky about where they want to live and what type of accomodation they want.
I have a four bedroomed house for just the wife and I, do I need it no, did I desire it yes so I paid for it. Have I denied a family the oppertunity to live there, maybe but its a place for my family to grow up.

Regardless of how many empty properties there are available, there is a great demand when buying a property because people have decided not to go to the less desireable areas (even FTB'ers).
This is an ideal oppertunity for FTBers to get on the property ladder but chose not to and instead want properties which are outwith their budget.

My parents and in-laws both started with 1 bedroom flats in undesireable areas.
I started with my wife in a 2 bed flat which was over 100 years old and had to rennovate it to make it a nice flat to live in.
My friend bought a really run down place that needed absolute gutting. Bought for 5,000, spent about 55,000 rennovating it and then had a nice 2 bed flat worth double what he spent.

This is what FTBers need to do to be able to afford a place.
People say that demand outweighs supply, but really demand is only outweighing what reduced supply they are willing to look at.

It seems far easier to stay at home with the parent(s) or rent a property and moan about not baing able to get on the property ladder.

Running_Horse

I doubt there are many abandoned houses in the south east. Even ex council houses on very dodgy estates round here sell eventually, if the price is right.

I can think of one apparently derelict terraced house near me, but even that was recently repainted. Maybe it belongs to someone older in care or staying with relatives? They tend to turn up in auction eventually.

Didn't a lot of empty houses used to be MOD? Given the state of forces housing, it is probably likely to be in poor condition.