I’ve often wondered this when in Scotland in the middle of nowhere, but quite a few houses dotted around in the distance (Kinloch Hourn springs to mind, 50+ miles from fort bill). What the hell do these people do to earn a living?
Came here to say this. Done a bit of touring round Scotland and you'll come across a decent sized town in the middle of nowhere - not touristy, not industrial, few thousand houses and I just can't figure what all those people do.
heroin</trainspotting>
Most of it is age - the people in million pound houses didn't buy it for that. We are currently in the process of buying a house for a fairly decent budget, but looking at the house price, the people they we're buying it off brought it for half what we're paying about 10 years ago. Salaries haven't doubled in that time. It's not fair, but it's life I guess - I know people in their 30s on large salaries (100k plus) who live in 3 bed semis and people on more normal salaries who live in million plus houses, just because they're 60 and brought at the right time.
Cars are a terrible indication of how much someone earns! I have apprentices at work who have nicer cars than me because everyone rents the car these days.
We keep looking at North Yorkshire, which is probably at a similar house price level to Berkshire 30 years ago. Loads of housing around £30k-£50k
Where in North Yorkshire is that?????? I can't think of anywhere in North Yorkshire where you could get anything for less than £100k.
A brother in law bought a house in North London for 450k 10 years ago, now it's a million give or take. He smiles a lot.
Wind?
I don't wonder what the OP wonders about down south, there seems to be a lot going on for those people to work in. I do wonder it about some of the surprisingly large remote communities in the Highlands.
Edit:just seen the other similar comments!
We could do with moving to a three bed house, but I have no idea how. Unless we move to Stoke or a ropey estate there’s little chance of it happening. I need to befriend a lonely widow
I totally hear the comments of cars not being representative of wealth due to lease etc -
but ultimately you still need to pay the monthly repayment whether its lease/pcp/whatever. For some 60k+ cars that can be 500/600 or more a month which baffles me. I earn 'quite alright' by any measure but the thought of paying 500 quid a month on a car seems mental. So surely they've got the income to support that...
I earn ‘quite alright’ by any measure but the thought of paying 500 quid a month on a car seems mental.
But some people think that dropping £8,000 on a pedal bike is mental. Fortunately we aren't all the same.
We keep looking at North Yorkshire, which is probably at a similar house price level to Berkshire 30 years ago. Loads of housing around £30k-£50k
Where in North Yorkshire is that?????? I can’t think of anywhere in North Yorkshire where you could get anything for less than £100k.
They must be looking in Hull 😉
As well as all the headquarters for large multi-nationals in the area the OP pointed out, there is some manufacturing around Reading etc. Heathrow is a huge employer in that area too, directly employs about 80,000, including service providers they quote 120,000, then there is the BA/IAG headquarters and all the immigration services and logistics companies in the same area. Who then need services, sparkies and plumbers, schools, hospitals, communications and utilities, some of whom will be on good salaries and may have bought their houses 20 years ago.
But some people think that dropping £8,000 on a pedal bike is mental.
Most proper riders do as well TBH.
But some people think that dropping £8,000 on a pedal bike is mental. Fortunately we aren’t all the same.
Yeah - this. The grads / apprentices i mentioned above all like cars, so they spend 250-300 a month on them. Other than tax, I think I spent less than 250 quid on my car in all of last year. Will probably spend even less this year as nothing has worn out. The difference is I don't care that I drive a 14 year old shitbox.
But some people think that dropping £8,000 on a pedal bike is mental.
I think even the most seasoned riders think spending £8k on a bike is mental, difference is we absolutely love riding.
I don't think that many people are absolutely in love with a Volvo XC90 yet you see them everywhere.
I suspect a lot are company cars. We have a brand new car sat outside, but only because it's the wife's company car.
I think EXACTLY the same thing when I'm in the middle of nowhere and go past random houses seemingly with nothing nearby, what do they doooooooo?!
I know one person may not be representative of the whole population in the South East but it does at least serve as a data point for you OP. Well, my sister works for a website called onlyfans.com most days. Seems to do alright by all accounts. Nice house in Dorking. Owns a fast car too.
In my neck of the woods, an average former market town in north Wiltshire, it’s not difficult to find a sixties-seventies or even newer regular three/four bed house fetching north of 1/4 million pounds, there’s a lovely thatched cottage in a nearby village, said village is the setting for the Agatha Raisin comedy-drama series, that recently sold for a shade under £1million, £1/2 million houses are common. Thing is, many people have owned those houses for years, the current value doesn’t reflect what the owners may have paid for them. My 3-bed semi is valued at around £200k - I paid £30k for it.
Kinloch Hourn springs to mind, 50+ miles from fort bill)
my friend lives right at the end of that road - two hour round trip to the nearest shop. In his case living there is his job.
In the SE We're basically all working on Cross Rail and HS2 so the "London commuter Belt" can expand and include, well all of the UK... You lucky people!
The truth all of those big conurbations you see on the maps outside of the M25, they're just like any other town anywhere else in the UK, there are industrial parks and retail centres and local government authorities and petrol stations, schools, hospitals and pubs, etc, etc. They all employ people, mostly from the surrounding area pretty much just like you do oop North.
Anyone who bought a 3 bed semi in central London 40 years ago for about 100k will have found themselves with a property worth millions.
I would have assumed many ordinary folks doing not massively paid jobs in London decide to escape with a huge wedge of cash from selling some shithole in Wimbledon and buying some multi million pound house in countryside, morgage free.
Certainly that's what I'd be doing.
Born & raised in Guildford - my parents' first house (bought the year before I was born, they were in late 20s) cost £12k iirc. 3 bed Edwardian semi walking distance from the train station. Now sells for £550k upwards - can't imagine young couples affording that now so no idea who's buying then!
They sold the family home (4 bed detached) on the outskirts of Guildford 2 years ago and upped sticks to the Malverns into a bigger place for the same money, both now retired. I think most of the similar size properties in the area are owned by similar people.
If I'd had the nous to buy in my early 20s instead of spending my money gigging, pubbing and clubbing then I'd have bought something at £100k that's now worth £400k, more fool me. As it is, self and OH both work in engineering (me for an EV R&D company, her as a manager for a bus manufacturer) and live in a modest 2-bed terrace on the Surrey/Hants border. Our 1970s estate is mostly £450k+ detached, seem to be split between older families (parents in their 50s) and retirees. The fewer smaller places like ours seem to be young professionals, a few builders/plumbers/etc. Just normal people.
This is a very strange thread.
Basically, in that area you are within communing distance of a huge numbers of employers: anything in and around Guildford, staines, farnham, Farnborough, aldershit, fleet, basingstoke, bracknell, reading, slough, and then most places in S and SE london.
I've commuted to Southampton every day from that area too: 45 minutes each way.
For example, almost the entire British pharma industry is in that area (apart from a few outliers).
@idiotdogbrain: My grandmother lived on Guildford park road until she died - right opposite the station entrance, I shudder to think how much that place must be worth now.
Anyone who bought a 3 bed semi in central London 40 years ago for about 100k will have found themselves with a property worth millions.
Really, your figures seem a bit out. There aren’t really many 3 bed semis in Central London (Westminster, the City, pretty much zone 1) if you mean Greater London the vast majority if not all still won’t be worth millions. Anything with multi millions in Wimbledon now won’t have been affordable to the reasonably paid forty years ago either.
The father in law is a good example, he bought his village house back in the 90’s, £290k, now worth well over £1m. He is the owner of two medium sized business and countless smaller ones. His neighbours are all very similar to him, business owners at close to retirement age and lived in the village for a long time. Only one person I can think of who recently moved into the village commutes to London, he’s quite senior in a technology company.
Father in laws main business is owning large petrol service stations with mini supermarkets. Also leases two of his out to a well known retail chain for ridiculous sums of cash, 20 year deal and he doesn’t do anything apart from take the yearly payments from them.
My wife recently joined the family business, she looks after his property portfolio. Nothing major, 5 flats and 3 houses.
Father in law also has a house in Florida, on what is known as Millionaires row. His neighbours are an ex Olympic athlete, a former politician and a casino owner.
As a bit of an interesting aside, the father in law comes from money but he did everything of his own bat. Wouldn’t take any family money. He’s East African, was sent to the UK in the 1970s during the Idi Amin troubles, aged 12 with no direct family over here. Was looked after by the African community in North London. left state school at 15. Got a job working in a petrol station at 16 and vowed he would one day own one.
I usually wonder what people do when I am in places I go on holiday, like part of Cornwall, the Lake District or out in the French country side or up in the Alps where there isn’t any obvious signs of big industry anywhere near close
Generally they are commuting into London during the week from their houses in the Home Counties. Second and holiday home ownership takes up a lot of property within the Lakes. Most of those 'residents' in village cottages are visitors. Then you have a lot of people who retire to the Lake District. The people who work in a National Park don't always live in it - too pricey.
Awesome story wOOdster.
I'm another Guildford resident, albeit in the crappier part (OK, it's not inner city Tottenham but Guildford does have rubbish areas and sink estates too) I guess I'd count as one of the lucky ones; my first house in Woking cost £68K that I had a 5% deposit for, I sold that 5 years later for £170K and then bought a do-er upper for £210K, so my mortgage at that time was £130K to give the funds for the doing up.
It's now worth around £400K. The problem I have is that I was (mis?)-sold an interest only mortgage and standalone endowments so my interest at current rates is about £100 a month. My endowments however are also crap and so any disposable income I have now goes into paying down the capital. I still owe about £65K with 10 years or so to find it, so although we live OK, we're not exactly rolling in it - 6 year old average car, my bike cost me £1000 not £8000 (and it's also 7 years old, etc.), we did save up for a decent holiday 2 years ago but equally having to pay for private counselling and medical for my son costs a lot.
On paper I'm + £300K but no means to access it, and if we looked at moving/remortgaging I wouldn't get the same rates and my repayments would go up substantially, leaving me in the same position as I am now doing my own repayments but paying a chunk more interest. Only way out is when the kids move out, we can sell up and move away, or just wait to die at which point the insurance pays it off.
(not a bad option for the wife - then the insurance covers the house and my death in service benefit and the endowments not being needed for the mortgage - she'd be sorted. How much does it cost to employ a food tester?)
Ace story w00dster
Off topic, but https://www.geoguessr.com/ sounds right up your street OP
That’s the rest of my day gone.
As a curtain maker I have for many years gone into these sorts of properties to measure up for quotes.
Many are owned by business men/women. Many were owned by surgeons and dentists, many homes were either passed down or bought with inheritance. Many are owned by footballers, famous people (high earning actors or popstars), some by retired people who had good jobs and bought at the right time and never sold up when their children left.
The biggest property I made curtains for was an old hall hall near Knutsford, Cheshire so in a rural area but still not far from Manchester, the owner was some big business man.
There are plenty of houses I used to visit in the golden Cheshire triangle (Wilmslow, Prestbury, Alderley Edge) all huge and some owned by young couples and with the younger owners I never really got to know what they did.
Luckily for me these people were rich enough to keep having me back for more work over the years.
WFH revolution is driving up house prices in more rural and remote areas so I suspect I’ll be priced out of the market.
Before the violins start, could I just point out that the same WFH rush is actually pricing almost every young person who lives in these places out of the market too?
Wish I had the grit to start a business like that! I wouldn't even know where to start let alone actually be able to run a business to success.
Well, my sister works for a website called onlyfans.com most days. Seems to do alright by all accounts. Nice house in Dorking. Owns a fast car too.
Very interesting website thank you, I spent a good afternoon doing research and my bank account seems to be £500 lighter.
Jokes aside, seems the themes are:
1 - They're all old(er) and bought the houses for 200k in the 80's. The cars are all on lease because they cleared their mortgage years ago, so £500 a month for an XC90 is ez money.
2 - They do all commute to London, after all
3 - Theres a bunch of industry i'm not aware of in these areas eg, Pharma.
4 - They've all started their own businesses.
Seems I'm on completely the wrong track. That said I don't miss driving 30 minutes each way to get to work. Maybe I'll stick to getting the tube...
I think even the most seasoned riders think spending £8k on a bike is mental, difference is we absolutely love riding.
But some people do spend that money on bikes (and they also love riding).
I don’t think that many people are absolutely in love with a Volvo XC90 yet you see them everywhere.
I think you might be surprised then. Just like some people like to spend lots on nice bikes and love them, some people spend lots on nice cars and absolutely love them – if they love cars like XC90s so what?
I think it's an incredibly fair hypothesis to say "More people are in love with cycling than there are people in love with Volvo XC90's"
I think it's another incredibly fair hypothesis to say "The Volvo XC90 is not a particularly popular car among car enthusiasts".
It's a very safe, very capable, alright looking car. But enthusiast or cult vehicle it is not. I don't see people meeting up in Tesco Extra carparks on a Sunday night to meet other Volvo XC90 enthusiasts.
Yet, you see them everywhere. Ergo, you can reasonably assume those who buy XC90s are not buying them out of love or enthusiasm like you might an £8k road bike. Therefore you extrapolate that the money they spend on a monthly repayment is not significant enough to represent an 'emotional purchase'.
If it was an RS4 or BMW M4 I'd totally see your point. But you're arguing for a Volvo XC90.
One thing that I've noticed is developers seem to do well.
Buying a crummy house in a decent area and doing it up, until they end up with a really big pile in the country.
When I first moved south from Ayrshire to London/Surrey I thought the same thing. Now live in one of those areas albeit in a semi on a corner plot so much smaller garden therefore much cheaper. When we bought our place 2 years ago the house 2 doors along was up for double the price of ours.
Wife and I both work in the NHS and have done since graduation 15+ years ago. I look around the area when I get out for my 1 hour excersise a day and there are some fairly hefty houses with 100-200ft gardens and swimming pools aren’t uncommon. For an substantially extended 1930’s detached or a place thats been knocked down and rebuilt you are looking in the 1-1.5million region.
Occupations of friends/neighbours all in late 30’s when property bought
Property developer
IT consultant
Engineer
Senior manager in building company
Roofer
Electrician
Plumber
Builder
The people in the trades have small businesses and most of them have worked up from a smaller place that they extended and sold on.
The strangest one I heard was a guy with detached house on a big plot in zone 6, with the 2 range rovers and a house in Marbella and his business was doing mastik in new builds.
There is a lot of money out there, the rest of us just need to figure out how to get it....
But you’re arguing for a Volvo XC90
No I am not. I am merely making the point that some people like different things than other people and are prepared to spend more money than others would on such things be it bikes or cars (or holidays or first edition comic collecting or whatever).
Please can someone point to the North Yorkshire property for 50 to 100k?
I live in Richmondshire North Yorks and property is very expensive. Plenty cheap property in Durham but not in places you would probably want to live
Look at Leeds property values.. scary ex council houses in challenging areas start at £250k and need 50k to make them reasonable.
Chepa property is only ever available for 2 reasons..
1. No work available
2. Challenging area
I am merely making the point that some people like different things
Right, but without getting argumentative the whole premise of this discussion is that we're not talking about 'some people' - we're talking about hundreds of thousands of households across the entire South East of England.
Households that have 4 bed houses, middle of nowhere outside of London, two luxury vehicles on the drive, etc etc. It all costs money, where do/did they get it?
Please can someone point to the North Yorkshire property for 50 to 100k?
All these (beware, it pretty much means living in Middlesbrough or Selby)...
🙂
It all costs money, where do/did they get it?
I dunno - ask the next person you see riding an £8k push bike and ask them 😂
The big detached houses commutable to London, well chauffeurable I suppose, say coombe hill Kingston, have overperformed the mainstream market as executive pay has outperformed average pay.
I always look at the historic prices of nice houses as I am nosey...the big whoppers on coombe hill are now c5mn, they were c500-800k in the 90s as our md lived there. Saying that he was md of a ftse 100 so in terms of affordability i suspect its the same.
Remember though in the early 90s interest rates were 15%. I think the stamp duty now on 5mn is c400k.
