Sledgehead Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 (edited) Recent story inspired me to start this thread on London WODO (Wealth of Dubious Origin) property owners. The thread should serve to : 1. explain the ridiculous prices paid for London property; 2 . highlight the fact that we'll accept all types of scum so long as it props up London prices and keeps the footfall up in Gordon Ramsay's & other poncy eateries. 1. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Location : Hampstead Price paid : £10,000,000 Through : British Virgin Islands company ( Capitana Seas ) Source of Funds: ? Rental charged : £40,000 pcm Reference : Telegraph, 22 Feb 2011, Evening Standard, Edited February 23, 2011 by Sledgehead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Your post already shows "edited". How about making your "reference" a link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehead Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 (edited) Your post already shows "edited". How about making your "reference" a link? Tough crowd. I was hoping this was just gonna be a list of peeps fave london WODOs, but you put paid to that straight off. Links added and pic attached. Edited February 23, 2011 by Sledgehead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WageslaveX14 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I think this is a great idea for a thread, and I'd love to see a newspaper article investigating the wider problem in depth. Prices in London are disconnected from all reality - the average London wage is around £40k, but of course there are loads of people with huge amounts of wealth, and with very high salaries. If you look at prices of 4/5 bed terraced places in Primrose Hill or Hampstead, £3-4 million is not uncommon. Even if prices fell by 90%, you'd still be looking at £300-400,000, which is out of reach for the vast majority of Londoners based on earnings. In my opinion, the only way to explain the prices is that Britain is (rightly) seen as a country which respects property rights, and which is not going to seize assets, regardless of where the money to buy the assets has come from. Even though the value you get is terrible, and your rental yield is miniscule, and even if prices were to fall by 50% (unlikely, yes), dictators, bankers, oligarchs and anyone else who didn't earn the money, but rather stole it from their home country, would happily lose a portion of this money - whether in real or nominal terms - rather than have it seized by their own governments. Latvian property may be cheaper, but private property rights didn't exist there 25 years ago. London has respected the rights of robber barons for centuries. The source of this money has to be acknowledged before anything is done about restricting ownership of dubious foreign nationals (similar to restriction in place in Switzerland, as I undertand it). Change is unlikely, but without collecting the info, no one has a chance of learning about the cause of the eye-watering cost of living in London. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Loblaw Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 On the recent 'You and Yours' phone-in one amazingly London centric EA was on stating that prices were not too high and if the locals did not want to pay the prices then foreign money would come in and snap them up. Still waiting for some rich Arab or Chinese factory owner to snap up the 'bargain' 3 bed semi at the end of our street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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