A row of Georgian town houses that once belonged to JF Kennedy has reportedly been sold for £70 million. Developers want to make it into one giant pad or 2 large ones, Wich would then be worth close to £300 million according To "The mirror" mind you "the Mail on line" puts it at worth £150 million, bit of a difference in value there ? The stamp duty alone will come to £17.9 million..
I suppose we shouldn't be too suprised when it was stated recently that the richest 1% in the world own 99% of its wealth.
its not so amazing to get into the top 1% you dont need much more than £500,000 and if you own your own home outright you are well on the way , im in the top 10% and most of us here probably are .
I would not be so sure about how well posters on here are fairing. There are plenty who lack job security, who struggle to afford to get to games and inflated house prices, push home ownership out of reach. Too many people have become property developers and not home owners, seeing a home rise in value is not always a good thing for society. I live in an area where starter homes are out of reach and private rented accommodation is on the increase. My Grandchildren will never be able to buy a property as prices rise higher than they could ever save for. I was caught out by a housing boom after coming out of tied accommodation in the late 70's and it is not a pleasant experience. We where gazumpted several times and one particular house went from17.5 k to 25k in eight weeks. Not much by today's standard, but when you could only have 1.5 times your basic wage (mine was 10k, which was high at the time) was impossible. The same house sold two years ago for 175k.
High property/land prices are a major problem in this country. They take up a huge % of income - far more then in countries with which we compete. We should have had a massive correction in 2008/9 but that would have meant even more banks going bust and that would have meant the wealthy taking the brunt of the collapse (Government only underwrote first £50k savings back then) but we would have had cheaper houses and general re-setting of the market. The housing bubble (allowed by Blair/Brown after the relaxation of financial rules in the City) has never been allowed to deflate because so much of the countries wealth is linked to the property prices. The Baby Boomer generation (and the generation born in the 60/70s) are enjoying an affluent lifestyle to the cost of young people. Unfortunately, most of this young generation have not been sufficiently educated to understand this or there might be riots on the streets.
I do hope we all realise that the only real comments anyone can make on this subject will lead to closure, as it can't avoid becoming 'political'.
I very much think that in this area of the country we are protected from that. I understand it is different for perhaps yourself as you may not live around here. However take Beverley for example, a fairly expensive part of the East Riding but still some brilliant starter homes out there for first time buyers. The issue isn't necessarily saving i think its some people my age (22) fritter money away and actually don't save. I am coming up to around 25% equity in my house now due to over payments and still have considerable amounts in my offset savings. Getting on the ladder really isn't an issue if you are switched on especially given the amount of lenders giving mortgages with 5% deposits.
Different worlds mate different worlds. I live near Southampton. On the edge of the New Forest. 130k buys you a studio flat.
