in Cambridge.....
That's got to smart a bit if you're just starting out in life....
However, Centre for Cities found house prices in Cambridge were the third-highest in the country, at an average of £362,800 last year, and that property values had risen more quickly in percentage terms than in any other UK city, including London, during 2013.The organisation said Land Registry data indicated that prices had risen by an average of £35,200, or 10.7 per cent, over the last 12 months.
This increase, almost three times as fast as the national average, meant house prices in Cambridge now stood at [b]more than 12 times the city’s average wage.[/b]
And while Cambridge’s average weekly wage of £556 remained the sixth-highest in the UK, the report found earnings had actually dropped in real terms during 2013 – and by more than anywhere else.
How dare you seemingly criticise the foundations on which the UK economy is based? Did you not know high house prices is a [u]good[/u] thing?
The youth of today should be content with their place and [u]rent [/u].
(this may have been written with a somewhat saracastic undertone).
Rejoice! We're rich, rich I tell you!
If I was just starting out I'd be looking abroad, the UK obsession with ever increasing house prices is what has crippled this country (IMO of course).
Would liked to have stayed living in Cambridge, but impossible with the price of houses.
Could have perhaps moved into one of the surrounding villages like Cottenham, but prices there are still high.
We could have bought a house there, but it would have been a really small place, probably with no garage and on-street parking; and would have cost us more money. For us, it was not worth the compromise.
Quick look on RightMove.....reckon it would have cost us >£205k more than we paid for our place to get a similarly sized place in Cambridge. And that would be in a village like Milton or Cottenham; not actually in the centre of Cambridge. It's a nice place to live, but not THAT nice!!
Blimey.
when I lived in Cambridge, our house was worth about 2.5 times our combined salary..
Edit - that was in Histon mind you, so a tad cheaper...
Kimbers you may as well as a picture of the whole political and power elite establishment in that picture - labour, liberals, conservative. The bank of England, all banks aaaand the majority of the local councils refusing planning permissions and whatever law those decisions are based on. Oh and building companies landhoarding. And buy to let.
2 friends of mine are trying to buy just now - 12% over asking and still no where close......
other friends put their house on the market ... not a very nice one in an area with terrible neighbours.....( its close by to bruneep you see) - and it sold within a week at well over asking.
they have just bought a 369k house out of the city with a 5% deposit and a help to buy loan of 20% - they are banking on it appreciating so they can release equity to pay the loan off..... i see fingers getting burnt - we aint out the woods yet(if we ever get there..... - some high interest rates needed - wouldnt be a vote winning policy mind you and probably bankrupt the banks on the number of defaults that would happen. )
Edit - that was in Histon mind you, so a tad cheaper...
Not much now, whole area has gone mad.
As for new buildings, it's even worse, every business in the town is being given planning permission for blocks of flats, so they're all selling up and moving out to make way for 100s of rabbit hutches starting at £250k for a 1 bedroom flat...
footflaps - MemberAs for new buildings, it's even worse, every business in the town is being given planning permission for blocks of flats, so they're all selling up and moving out to make way for 100s of rabbit hutches starting at £250k for a 1 bedroom flat...
An old housemate of mine moved into a new-build flat in a large development between the beehive centre & the court building.
It was costing them quite a lot & was a tiny flat where the 'bedroom' was on a mezzanine level. I went round in the summer once and the 'bedroom' was unbearably warm as all the heat was collecting up there and had no windows at that level to get it out.
I was stupid. When I first moved to Cottenham in 2000, I could have just about afforded a 2 bed terrace house if I had really scrimped and saved - the one that I was renting with a mate was worth about £120k. Dread to think what it's worth now. There was no way at the time though, I wanted to sacrifice having a life, for having a mortgage!!
Renting and saving myself... I earn an OK wage but i can see it taking a while. In my area though a 360k house would be rather nice!
My ears perked up when I heard about the help to buy too but as above I am a bit frightened about the prospect of paying over the odds for the house (I imagine they are all over-valued?) or the market changing yet again leaving me in hot water.
It's clearly madness that our whole economic world is based on such stupid property values. And the stress of both parents having to work full time to fund it and then pay for childcare on top seems equally barmy and destructive to a lot of people we know.
The question is, would a full on property crash to return things to a sensible level do more harm than good?
Well the reason for the increases is down to lack of supply compared to demand. So we need to build more but we have a problem with where to build, many aren't so keen on losing green spaces. The Gov't is trying to deal with this be allowing Green belt, in the SE anyway, to be changed so lots of those nice villages will find themselves a little bigger with more dense housing. Population is increasing by a noticeable %age, mostly due to immigration. We need the immigration to maximise out GDP growth if that's the main consideration. Also have the problem of an aging population so that big houses are increasingly lived in by 1 or 2 retired people and not young families.
The question is, would a full on property crash to return things to a sensible level do more harm than good?
I imagine it would require a full economic crash for this to happen.
If the banks start lending against 5% of less than deposits again prices will go through the roof again.
A very important point is also that this concerns average wages which are of course total BS - They should give the average wage of a first time buyer.
The question is, would a full on property crash to return things to a sensible level do more harm than good?
Cant see it ever happening. If property didnt fall by 40/50% in the last downturn then it never will.
[i] a sensible level [/i]
I think you'd need to define that?
for anyone with a mortgage a sensible level would have to at least match their current debt. For most they've treated equity on their property as a part of their retirement planning so the impact of a major devaluation could be huge.
Surely the easiest solution is to move to a model where home ownership is not such an economic driver. Most European countries seem to manage this?
Maybe if local authorities had large stocks of housing that they rented out at affordable prices to people who were pleased to live in them and treated the housing stock with respect?
Only one answer - round up all the oldies and...
I imagine it would require a full economic crash for this to happen
I thought we'd just had one....
As for why prices are so high, if supply << demand then prices will rise to the maximum people can afford which is the maximum banks will lend them.
Cambridge has two other problems, one is the rain link to London, you can get to the city faster from Cambridge than you can by tube from Wimbledon, so it's become a London suburb and secondly, there is a lot of investment buying going on with new flats.
Glad it's cheap oop north!
The housing market in this country is completely dysfunctional, and this obsession with ever rising house prices completely skews the real economy.
This government came in saying they wanted to rebalance the economy, never really made any attempt to do that, then said '**** it, lets get a housing boom, fuelled by cheap credit, on the go again instead'
What was the definition of madness? Something about repeating an exercise, and expecting a different result?
What was the definition of madness?
I thought it was voting Conservative.....
I thought it was voting Conservative.....
The snivelling turd that leads Labour does not make me think the alternative party would be a good choice though.
Any place considered as an easy commute to London is pretty much outside of normal house pricing rules though isn't it - London and surrounding areas are becoming almost like a separate country.
What was the definition of madness? Something about repeating an exercise, and expecting a different result?
I thought it was something to do with allowing savoury pastry products to go stale and uneaten.
If you spend a massive proportion of the infrastructure budget in London and the South East instead of spreading it around the regions then you are only exacerbating the "supply vs demand" problem. Spread the load around a bit to where land and property is cheaper and you'd avoid this situation.
home ownership is a modern invention, as a nation we've taken a step back to a time when home ownership was a luxury. simples. now we all moan cos we expect it, it wasnt this way until recent times. get a grip.
Not sure what the struggle is here, we have a high population for the land area - SE particularly bad. France has similar population and a lot more space so lower prices.
We encourage immigration so need more housing - otherwise prices rise right?
conservatives making a mess of the housing market now as values are rising and folks can sell thier home..
just like the poor unemployed.. those no good conservatives finding them jobs..
even the 'sick' are hard done to under the tories, a third of sick people are being told thier okay to work without needing an interview and a further third are been assesed and told thier not sick either.
It is worth pointing out that comparing house prices in central Cambridge with the average salary in Cambridge isn't very fair. A lot of households in the centre of Cambridge have at least one earner commuting to London. And a lot of the private accommodation in Cambridge are investment properties rented to students at very high prices, because students generally have to live within 3 miles of their college.
From my experience, a lot of the people working in Cambridge but paid less well don't live in Cambridge, they commute in (although the statistics imply the mean salary is around £30k which is quite impressive).
If you spend a massive proportion of the infrastructure budget in London and the South East instead of spreading it around the regions then you are only exacerbating the "supply vs demand" problem. Spread the load around a bit to where land and property is cheaper and you'd avoid this situation
Agreed, this country is becoming more and more London centric. Maybe the magic high speed train line will help?
Suitable land is there to build on but why do that when you can build just enough to keep that huge profit margin on construction? Build enough to meet demand and prices fall = more work for less profit.
Lets not see this situation as anything but what it is - a carefully constructed economic situation presented by the financial elite.
its just the way our economic model is built
high house prices= high mortgages = more money for the banks
which is all that the government cares about
unless theres any other reason for gideon and co's efforts to inflate the market
If you spend a massive proportion of the infrastructure budget in London and the South East instead of spreading it around the regions then you are only exacerbating the "supply vs demand" problem. Spread the load around a bit to where land and property is cheaper and you'd avoid this situation.
But the money to pay for that is made in London, it makes economic sense to help that prosperity (with projects like crossrail) and let the poor areas fight for the scraps of regional development/E.U. Funds.
If your favourite son is doing well working as an investment banker why give the idiot second son a new van for his window cleaning business when he spends the rest of the day in the pub after making a shilling in the morning?
home ownership is a modern invention, as a nation we've taken a step back to a time when home ownership was a luxury. simples. now we all moan cos we expect it, it wasnt this way until recent times. get a grip.
The only problem being that rents are based on a massively overinflated house prices.
Edit: I am agreeing with your sentiment in general though.
From my experience, a lot of the people working in Cambridge but paid less well don't live in Cambridge, they commute in (although the statistics imply the mean salary is around £30k which is quite impressive).
Very true, the road into the Science park from the A14 was enhanced a few years back to two lanes to cope with the mass of commuters coming in each morning.
Our CEO commutes from Paris (stays here 3 nights a week) and most of our management team drive in from the M4 corridor. Very few of us still cycle to work now......
If your favourite son is doing well working as an investment banker why give the idiot second son a new van for his window cleaning business when he spends the rest of the day in the pub after making a shilling in the morning?
Are you actually a character out of a Dickens novel? 😆
Did he do comedies? 🙄
I've just done a quick search for houses in Cambridge thinking this was just media hype.
Errm, as you were then. Cripes. If I were on an average wage, I wouldn't live in Cambridge.
It is a supply and demand issue as mudshark points out, but its not because of immigration.
Read this (if you have the time as its about 10,000+ words)[url= http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n01/james-meek/where-will-we-live ]piece on housing crisis[/url] but this grpah says it all
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Suitable land is there to build on but why do that when you can build just enough to keep that huge profit margin on construction? Build enough to meet demand and prices fall = more work for less profit.
This was very true, at least in the areas where property prices were falling (south-east excepted!). This is 'old' news (from 2012) but there are still [url= http://www.local.gov.uk/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/3704026/NEWS ]plenty of plots with planning permission available[/url] that the construction industry will hold on to until they can make a profit they are happy with. Which is why they want to build on green field in the south-east rather than build on brown field or build affordable homes.
Edit: What he said ^
Sorry. Great Analogy though Mr Smith . The rest of the country outside London is a drunken window cleaner?
You are the head of a Tory Think-tank and I claim my ATOS assessment for my Stella-fuelled inability to do my window round 😆
Cheers!
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Are you actually a character out of a Dickins novel?
wannabe tory'joke' writer-- dont you just love the wild imagination !
Interestingly I just had a mortgage call as I'm hoping to move house. They were offering me twice as much money as I'd be comfortable paying. That would be well over 50% of our total take home pay. I thought that they were being sensible now 😯
So long as people can get their hands on silly money like that, prices will keep going up (and then quite possibly crash when the rates go up...)
Here you go..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16235349
TRANSPORT SPENDING PER HEADLondon - £2,731
South-east of England - £792
East Midlands - £311
West Midlands - £269
Yorkshire and Humberside - £201
North-west of England - £134
Eastern England - £43
South-west of England - £19
North-east of England - £5
It is a supply and demand issue as mudshark points out, but its not because of immigration.
Well that's increasing the demand and we're not matching with the supply right? But we have the space issue - how much green space are we happy to lose? I live in a Surrey village and riding around the roads feel busy as it is - and commuting on trains/road is a struggle at best.
Maybe if local authorities had large stocks of housing that they rented out at affordable prices to people who were pleased to live in them and treated the housing stock with respect?
they did have back in the 70's --then some dead brain politicos thought it would be good to sell them off at 1/3 of the price--appeal to greed and selfishness--end result 2million taken out of 'circulation'--and most of them now rented out in the private sector at massive cost to all--wonder of da market !!
Oy binners, I wont hear a word against ATOS - they kindly assessed one of my patients who has a moderate to severe learning disability, schizophrenia, scoliosis and rheumatoid arthritis as being fit for work - can obviously heal the sick better than the NHS.
