Pointless But It Does My Head In

you

you

Well-known member
I'm young and have never owned a property, in my current job I have to deal with managing agents a lot - property scares the shit out of me.

If your a young bloke, working in the south you need to be earning a hell of a lot before you can buy your own house without help..... - I think my uncle ( 4 times my age ) did the best thing, he bought land then built his own house, financially smart and manly too!

Guy told me last week he pays £230 in maintenance to the property manager before rent?!?!?! Crazy...
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
It pisses me off that living on your own is so nightmarishly expensive in London, and presumably most places in Britain. When I lived in Paris (albeit ages ago), it was perfectly affordable (OK, so there were barely any flats to rent, but still, point stands). What gives?
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
baboon2004 said:
It pisses me off that living on your own is so nightmarishly expensive in London, and presumably most places in Britain. When I lived in Paris (albeit ages ago), it was perfectly affordable (OK, so there were barely any flats to rent, but still, point stands). What gives?
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It does indeed suck ring. Does anyone know if Berlin is still as outrageously cheap as it allegedly was a few years bacK? Or has the flood of young creative things from the UK pushed up the rent in all the formerly cheap areas?

The price of private rental in this country, and especially anywhere in the south of England (e.g. Oxford is scarcely cheaper than much of London), is an absolute disgrace. There wouldn't have to be massive cuts in the housing benefit budget if govt spending on it wasn't so huge in the first place, which it wouldn't be if there were any regulation of the market. Being able to move out of your parents' house as an adult is not a luxury, FFS. I don't live in a particularly fashionable part of town and over a quarter of my income goes on rent - and while I'm hardly on a banker's salary, plenty of people earn less than I do. Sorry, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but it sure enough Does My Head In.

Edit: obviously Paris is massive and crowded just like London, but property is cheaper in France generally because there's so much more land to go around among a similar-sized population. Also French tax law possibly makes Paris a less attractive location than London for Arab/Russian/HK (etc.) billionaires...?
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
You could still buy a flat in Neukolln for about 25000 euros or something insane a couple of years ago. Think rents are comparatively higher tho, but cheap by London standards.

Yeah, Oxford seems particualrly insane for rents. In London, I considered getting my own place for a while, but the cost was just more than I wanted to afford.

As to Paris, the weird thing is that the peripherique acts as a cap on the number of flats within Paris 'itself' (though obv loads int he banlieue), so that, in my exp, flat viewings attract queues round the block, and yet the costs re quite reasonable, in fact very reasonable.

Mr. Tea said:
It does indeed suck ring. Does anyone know if Berlin is still as outrageously cheap as it allegedly was a few years bacK? Or has the flood of young creative things from the UK pushed up the rent in all the formerly cheap areas?

The price of private rental in this country, and especially anywhere in the south of England (e.g. Oxford is scarcely cheaper than much of London), is an absolute disgrace. There wouldn't have to be massive cuts in the housing benefit budget if govt spending on it wasn't so huge in the first place, which it wouldn't be if there were any regulation of the market. Being able to move out of your parents' house as an adult is not a luxury, FFS. I don't live in a particularly fashionable part of town and over a quarter of my income goes on rent - and while I'm hardly on a banker's salary, plenty of people earn less than I do. Sorry, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but it sure enough Does My Head In.

Edit: obviously Paris is massive and crowded just like London, but property is cheaper in France generally because there's so much more land to go around among a similar-sized population. Also French tax law possibly makes Paris a less attractive location than London for Arab/Russian/HK (etc.) billionaires...?
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grizzleb

grizzleb

Well-known member
What does my tits in is the lack of political will in creating new state-funded housing, or even facilitating the creation of private built housing. The extent to which the countryside is given preference over the needs of individuals is shocking. Sure, limit the extent of building in greenfields, but only once a reasonable threshold has been reached in regard to house pricing, and the shortfall in numbers of households to houses. Of course, the house owning public is in collusion with builders, with estate agents and government. House prices go up making everyone 'richer' (though we've seen the reality of that), and nobody wants to do anything about it.
Young people in this country (incl. me) are fucked...
People who do buy to let are the worst of cunts. Treating houses like just another commodity...
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
baboon2004 said:
As to Paris, the weird thing is that the peripherique acts as a cap on the number of flats within Paris 'itself' (though obv loads int he banlieue), so that, in my exp, flat viewings attract queues round the block, and yet the costs re quite reasonable, in fact very reasonable.
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I guess this could be three things: regulation of private rent so that you can't charge more than a going rate for a certain size of property in a certain area; abundant social housing (as a percentage of the fixed total number of flats) that keeps private rental rates in check by competition; or simply far fewer super-rich people in Paris than there are in London. Or some combination of the three.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Mr. Tea said:
I guess this could be three things: regulation of private rent so that you can't charge more than a going rate for a certain size of property in a certain area; abundant social housing (as a percentage of the fixed total number of flats) that keeps private rental rates in check by competition; or simply far fewer super-rich people in Paris than there are in London. Or some combination of the three.
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Nt sure tbh. The upshot, as in having a flat for £450 a month that i think would've gone for £1000 in London, is bloody good whatever it is.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The charming gent on the District line last night who inquired if I wanted a fist-fight and then generously offered to 'stab the shit out of me'. Ah, London.

Guys with stripes shaved in their eyebrows should be just be arrested on sight and put in a big secure camp for colossal pricks.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It doesn't help that southern England is probably the most crowded area of comparable size in Europe. Still, even given that, the situation would be a lot better with legislation that wasn't so biased in favour of the landlord vs. the tenant.
 
R

routes

we can delay.ay.ay...
Mr. Tea said:
the situation would be a lot better with legislation that wasn't so biased in favour of the landlord vs. the tenant.
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yeah my mate who knows about these things told me that this is the only area of legislation that hasn't seen any significant reform in this country for the last 30 years. it's only very recently agents (and landlords doing private lets) were legally required to use deposit-holding schemes etc
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Edit: obviously Paris is massive and crowded just like London, but property is cheaper in France generally because there's so much more land to go around among a similar-sized population. Also French tax law possibly makes Paris a less attractive location than London for Arab/Russian/HK (etc.) billionaires...?"
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Dunno about property but, as far as I can tell from a brief and unscientific study conducted when I went there (Paris I mean) in December, every single other thing costs approximately fifteen thousand times the price it does here (in London). We went to a fairly average cafe in a slightly posh area and it was twelve euros for a pint of lager! The cheapest we found was five. I dunno how they afford to live - I guess it takes up the slack from the money they've saved on rent. No surprise we went to house parties every day.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Off-licence booze is cheaper in France, especially wine for obvious reasons, but then they don't have the pub culture that we do. Also I'm reliably informed that wine in restaurants there is horribly overpriced (much moreso than over here, even). Basically the way to eat and drink well in France without taking out a second mortgage is to buy good ingredients and wine in a supermarket and cook at home.
 
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