Pointless But It Does My Head In
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
In your cheaper flat...
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
It's another case where it feels a lot like a ladder being pulled up. Looking around Cambridge, you really get the feeling that to own some of the reasonably nice victorian terraces you either have to be super rich or just have bought it thirty years ago. And I can't imagine that it's going to be long before a lot of young people start to ask why they're working their guts out and making big sacrifices to be able to afford half as much space as the old lady next door has...
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Drinkin ur wine.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
And the incongruous thing is, houses are the only commodity that have increased massively in value over the last generation or so without either getting appreciably 'better' (possibly with the exception of the luxury-flat/loft-convo end of the market, which clearly accounts for a minority of homes) or even that much more scarce. I mean, how many times over in real terms has the cost of the average house in this country increased since 1970 - something like five times, I think? The population's bigger than it was then, but it's not five times bigger, and while more people live alone or in small nuclear families, that can hardly account for the increased demand by itself. And lots of homes have been built since then. I think it's largely the result of the distortion of the top end of the market by the appearance of a new echelon of super-filthy-rich, mainly in London, which has a knock-on effect all the way down to the bottom end.
That, and the pernicious influence of Location, Location, Location and Kirsty Allsop's plummy voice and hypnotic tits.
Memes from five years ago - love it.
Last edited:
The first two apply to Amsterdam, where 50% of all houses (!) are social housing. As for privately owned houses, there is a set of criteria for which points are allocated and come with a corresponding rent level. Above a certain amount of points you're in the private sector, but that is hardly done. As for social housing, the rent levels are very low, but then you have to wait at least ten years to get a crappy place. Expensive by my estimates. At least flats are affordable to buy for double earners...
matt b
Indexing all opinion
Actually houses are getting worse- average square footage has decreased for many new builds whilst number of bedrooms (which developers use as a key guide to price- estate agents use square footage) has gone up.
We've just moved out of our Victorian terrace into a 1970s house and the difference in build design aesthetic is alarming (low ceilings, room compromised due to poorly designed stairwell, box like rooms).
It has got even worse since then (up to the late 1950s were the golden age iirc).
The commodification of house buying has driven rising prices as well as the fact that people don't understand how the house market works and feel that increased equity in current house= £££££ (hence increased household debt), without understanding that all houses are rising in price and if they move the debt is transferred to the new house rather than paid back.
Banks, of course, don't mind this one bit as they have the property as security (we don't have the subprime issues the USA does).
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, there was a report a year or two back saying that new dwellings being built in the UK are the smallest in Europe.
Reminds me of a house I lived in for half a year or so a while back. Big ugly red brick thing, might have been built as recently as the '90s, and it just felt so shoddy - the stairs creaked and palpably bowed as you trod on then, and I had a room on the second floor but could hear every word when people were talking in the kitchen. It also had those infuriating little windows above each internal door (what *exactly* is the point of them, does anyone know?). While I was living there an identical house next door was on the market for £450k.
Exactly. Simply owning a house at a time when prices are rising is not the same as earning money. One of the papers today had a headline that prices are due to fall back to 2004 levels this year - now watch the Daily Fail make out like this is the end of the world...
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
British houses and Kirsty Allsopp - this thread is too depressing.
On a lighter note, genocide really does my head in.
On a lighter note, genocide really does my head in.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
Rather boringly, i think I might
I would guess they are a hangover from a replaced warm air heating system and the owner, rather than plaster over the gap left when it was replaced with radiators, thought it was an excellent opportunity to annoy anyone who ever lived in the house again.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Maybe in some cases, but I grew up in a house built in the 70s that had these windows. I think their real purpose is to alert parents to their offspring's status of awakeness/asleepness, thereby allowing them to exercise further draconian control over them.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
Warm air systems are mainly found in 1970s homes, fact fans
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Really? OK, I'm sure the house was fitted with radiators from when my parents bought it though. Maybe not.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
They fell out of favour pretty quickly, so if it was bought in the 1980s or later, the system may have already been replaced
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
They don't build houses any more, only units.
I thought those windows are for letting light into windowless hallways.
I thought those windows are for letting light into windowless hallways.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Christ, that's a depressing sentence.
We have electric lights for that though, innit. In any case, you often find these windows above the doors to bathrooms or toilets that don't even have an external window. I'm sure it's just spite on the part of the architects to ensure that everyone in the house gets woken up when someone goes to the toilet in the night. See also: very loud extractor fans that come on when the bathroom light is switched on and stay on for about an ice age after it's been turned off.
Cor yeah, i recently moved flat and the one in my new bathroom actually turns off with the light. I was so happy when i first found that out. Then i thought, i must be getting old.