FedupTeddiBear Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 (edited) Thought this article quite interesting – developers are not building for those who need homes but for those who will pay the most money! Although there are claims that affordable housing is being provided, there not enough truly affordable homes available, and many labelled as such are not really affordable. DEVELOPERS exploiting Cambridge's housing boom by concentrating on expensive and exclusive properties are leaving average earners high and dry.The News revealed yesterday (Tuesday, 18 July) how house prices in the city are set to rocket further still, with some predicting a 50 per cent increase in the next five years, despite a massive rise in the number of developments in the city. Now worried residents have warned the trend of building expensive, money-spinning properties which price many out of the market is ignoring the desperate needs of a large swathe of the community.” In addition, a lot of young people are leaving college with large debts and are finding they can't afford anywhere to live, forcing them to spend a large amount on private rental which only adds to their financial problems. and AHEM... "We are scrapping away for a few homes, and people are getting into unsustainable debt to get on the property ladder which, if house prices crash, will be absolutely disastrous." Oops, link Edited July 19, 2006 by FedupTeddiBear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjamin Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 some people seem as if they are waking up to it all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geneer Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Funny how the luxury homes are still thrown up in minimum spec timber kit cardboard frames. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frugalstar Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Remember...I am 27 and I was the last University educated academic year NOT to have to pay tuition fees. All the 26 year olds, who will be 27 from September are a generation saddled with debt like never before. FTB's will only be reducing from here on in. When do people naturally think about buying their first house, 25, 26, 27 ???? None (most) of these guys will be able to...and as for the ones behind them!!!??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Hatred Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Funny how the luxury homes are still thrown up in minimum spec timber kit cardboard frames. Yep. Reminds me of some new 'luxury' apartments that were being built near me. Building work was 3/4 of the way through, then they burnt down last month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedupTeddiBear Posted July 20, 2006 Author Share Posted July 20, 2006 Yep. Reminds me of some new 'luxury' apartments that were being built near me. Building work was 3/4 of the way through, then they burnt down last month A developer is a (greedy) businessman who wants to maximise his profits – “luxury” apartments are the way to do this. But everyone is now jumping on the same bandwagon and there are only so many “executives” who can buy these! Many of these developers are waking up to the fact that they won’t be able to sell as many as they hoped! So either these apartments will have to eventually be sold as “affordable” flats, or, proving more profitable, blocks can “mysteriously” burn down. At some stage, the government is going to have to take responsibility for the affordable housing problem. Leaving it up to private industry can never work. By avoiding its responsibilities, the government is storing up huge financial costs for itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 At some stage, the government is going to have to take responsibility for the affordable housing problem. Leaving it up to private industry can never work. Right. Like leaving the 'affordable food problem' to private industry can never work, or the 'affordable car problem' to private industry can never work. The problem with affordable housing is not private industry, it's government interest rates and government planning control. If anyone could buy a piece of land and build on it, decent housing would become affordable tomorrow... of course prices of crappy terraced houses and flats would fall through the floor, which is why no government will fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedupTeddiBear Posted July 21, 2006 Author Share Posted July 21, 2006 Right. Like leaving the 'affordable food problem' to private industry can never work, or the 'affordable car problem' to private industry can never work. Yeah, well I’m glad YOU think it’s working. Haven’t exactly seen private developers throwing up thousands of affordable homes, have you? What they call “affordable” are blocks of poor quality matchboxes sold at a still ridiculous price. The government needs to work more directly to sort out this mess – the way they are doing it now is not working. The way to solve the problem is NOT by trying to get more “affordable homes” squashed into the already overcrowded towns by private developers (who will want a profit on these), but by more direct action on house prices – a rise in interest rates, heavy restrictions on buy-to-let and second homes, freeing up more space to build, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Shower Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 Yeah, everyone thinks they're Posh & Becks these days. Either that or I am underpaid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm9ai Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 Remember...I am 27 and I was the last University educated academic year NOT to have to pay tuition fees. All the 26 year olds, who will be 27 from September are a generation saddled with debt like never before. FTB's will only be reducing from here on in. When do people naturally think about buying their first house, 25, 26, 27 ???? None (most) of these guys will be able to...and as for the ones behind them!!!??? Good point, I'm 26 and was the first group of people to get stuffed by this government - And it will only get worse with the current students facing upto twice as much debt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearwithaconscience Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 True. But student loans have been around for a while. At 32, I was the first batch to have SLs through my whole university years - admittedly they were a lot lower then, but those of us without rich parents still ended up (including overdraft, graduate loan etc) with about 15k each. In real terms that might be about 20k by now. But starting salaries were about 11k in those days. You are right to be p'd off. I am ashamed of the society we live in, making the younger generation pay so much for something the older ones had for free. Let's hope that once buyers are frozen out on the bottom rung, BTLs will see the light, and the market will correct. Meanwhile, for god's sake rent. If even the RICS is playing down future growth it must be risky. Read the excellent thread on the US housing market. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=33058 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okonu Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 Yeah, well I’m glad YOU think it’s working. Haven’t exactly seen private developers throwing up thousands of affordable homes, have you? What they call “affordable” are blocks of poor quality matchboxes sold at a still ridiculous price. The government needs to work more directly to sort out this mess – the way they are doing it now is not working. The way to solve the problem is NOT by trying to get more “affordable homes” squashed into the already overcrowded towns by private developers (who will want a profit on these), but by more direct action on house prices – a rise in interest rates, heavy restrictions on buy-to-let and second homes, freeing up more space to build, etc. Think you missed the point, somewhat. They can't build 1000's of cheap houses because the gov't won't let farmers (for example) sell their land for housing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedupTeddiBear Posted July 21, 2006 Author Share Posted July 21, 2006 HUH? No, what I was saying is that the government needs to relax planning laws so that empty fields (there are lots that have not been used for years!!) can be used rather than developers being relied on to try and squash thousands of homes into the non-existant space available in overcrowded towns! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 No, what I was saying is that the government needs to relax planning laws so that empty fields (there are lots that have not been used for years!!) can be used rather than developers being relied on to try and squash thousands of homes into the non-existant space available in overcrowded towns! Well, gee, that's exactly what I was saying in the post you claimed to disagree with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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