I feel bad for the people renting in London. Most people I know there simply can't afford buying as it is prohibitively expensive (>300k pounds I think?)
Country? No the country is fine, the problem is that so many want to live in hotspots. In the U.K. Central London is super expensive but there is plenty of cheap property in the North.
OK let me sell my shitty zone 6 flat and buy one in Mayfair instead. The problem with London is that it's no longer a city for the middle class or even upper middle class. Instead properties in London have become commodities like gold, oil and diamond for world's millionaires. You lot work in IT, sell up, get a remote work and work from sandy beaches of wherever suits. Still a better solution than saving up to buy a flat, coz you fucking can't anymore.
And in other Guardian news: I bought a 2-bed flat in London (with the help of my rich parents) for ONLY £1.5million. The housing market in the UK isn't so bad after all!
Why is almost all housing in London so shitty? It was my big shock when i first came there. Almost all except the very top of the market (over 2000GBP per week, and there are few flats that expensive) appear so terrible... Is that only London or all of the country is like that? Why? Something like tax laws making it prohibitive to renovate housing? Why there is still a lot of 100+ years old rotten houses in London, definitely bearing no historical significance, their planning clearly showing they were build before electricity? I was very surprised since i came from a country many times poorer than the U.K. and yet the housing stock looks so much better there.
Yes I definitely agree with you - obviously terrible housing everywhere. London now has many built to rent firms though with purpose built brand new fairly high spec buildings, so it's easy to go to them rather than trawl through loads of Zoopla listings. Me and my friend who moved to Lisbon recently found it very different. I have up and got a fairly average apartment, my friends apartment is a lot nicer but he's paying more and did nearly 30 viewings. It still has problems with noise insulation and is extremely cold in winter despite being virtually brand new refurbished.
I do agree with you on air conditioning in the UK though, for sure.
The housing crisis in London is far worse. Salaries are (vastly, in many cases) lower and rents (pre brexit GBP/USD crash, at least) are very similar in nominal terms. You do have washers in nearly every flat, though.
The UK is awful. Worse than American cities. No property tax, non existent/weak tenant laws, and renters have to pay the council taxes (in the US the owner is usually responsible for all HOA and taxes). The deposit protection schemes seem more designed to benefit landlords too.
Not all housing in London is like that. Like any city it's hard to find the best areas and nicest deals as a newcomer. A lot of the nice/cheap flats are snapped up very quickly by people in privileged positions (i.e. nice flats may be passed around within friendship groups or within a workplace). There are loads of lovely, old, well renovated flats, you just need to be lucky or well informed to find one. We pay GBP1300 per month for a newly renovated, spacious 1 bedroom flat in a Victorian terrace. Give me a period property over a flimsy/shabby new build any day of the week.
I live in London, it is expensive for sure.. I have seen some pretty ridiculous flats for around the same cost as the one in the article, one with a shower cubicle in the bedroom comes to mind... not quite as bad as toilet but still you don’t want a wet bedroom.
Some of the landlords are just taking the piss, there are much better places for better value in decent areas just don’t get tricked by the snakey estate agents like foxtons and look around you can find reasonably good value..
Yea, London is a total joke, as is Dublin - I have a few friends who rent in Dublin, and they live in a shoe box for a lot of rent (don't really know anyone in London)!
I am in Belfast, where the property prices only ballooned about 2 years ago, so I got lucky. Only a year or so after I got my house, friends were buying similar sized places that are less central for twice what I paid, not good!
It's not like housing is much cheaper in e.g. London. In London you can be on the top 2% of earners in the country and still not be able to afford somewhere decent to live
I live in London. The main reason for this is that government generally doesn't allow buildings higher than 3 stories. Everyone wants to live in central London but there just ain't enough flats. This situation is somewhat similar to the zoning thing in the US. Supply is lower than demand, so prices go up, who would have guessed?
reply