At the risk of stating the obvious the big thing is that they aren’t portable.

If gold cost less in Hull then some one would buy it in Hull and move to some where it was worth more. Demand in Hull goes up so the price rises. With gold the price is universal. With cars the regional variations are small or people just move them

I am not sure how complete houses with land costs are being sold for £70K. Have had a few quotes for a single story extension with kitchen getting close to that it doesn’t really add up.

As trail_rat says, bulk operations. The strap broke on my Casio watch; £10 for a few inches of plastic strap or £20 for a new watch.

the new builds I saw in Newton Stewart for £70 000?

But you’d have to live in Newton Stuart, only ever stayed there for Kirroughtree but got the impression every night was fight night just to kill the boredom.

but with houses It’s the price one person will pay. One person opts to pay more than anyone is is prepared to pay for that house

Not even that’s true, chains, mortgage offers, cash, sob stories, sellers impression of you probably all affected the price (and the other way around; repossessions, the seller in a hurry, probate, divorces, etc all affect the price).

Also plenty of houses probably never get multiple bids on them. I live in Reading where stuff sells in days if it ever makes it to market at all, the agent knows what a house is worth and probably knows someone that will buy it. Conversely, we keep looking at North Yorkshire as her job has the potential to work from home and I’m jobless yet again. Not uncommon to see the same houses still for sale 6+months. I suppose you could argue that Reading prices are a [properly functioning] “market” price. Whereas the North Yorkshire prices are “intrinsic values”.

It’ll be interesting to see what Covid does to house prices. Fewer people needing to be in city centre offices has to affect demand. I can see the availability of a decent broadband connection being more important than location to the office or commuting options (e.g. distance to station).

My suspicion on covid affecting values is that if yo want or need to sell quickly it will be a buyers market but if you can afford to wait then you will still get a good price from someone who wants that particular house / flat.

My flat will only ever have a limited market. Too expensive for first time buyers and more expensive than a better flat half a mile away – and the 104 stairs will put people off. But someone who likes it will pay for it as there isn’t another flat like it – location and odd shapes

My suspicion on covid affecting values is that if yo want or need to sell quickly it will be a buyers market but if you can afford to wait then you will still get a good price from someone who wants that particular house / flat.

Short term… Like the next 4 weeks your probably right.

Medium term the music is certainly sounding like it’s going to faulter due to job losses and redundancies affecting affordability .

I have a soft spot for The Shore. The first flat I rented when I moved to Scotland was on Sandport St. The area around the foot of the walk, Great Junction Street and Duke Street is still a shit hole though.