Wrong. High house prices are simply the result of lack of houses and easy access to cheap capital.
A few years ago you could buy a house for a couple of grand in a welsh mining village. There were the spare houses. Good ones too.
House prices will rise as long as people can just afford to buy them: The only reason to lower the price on a house is if it won't sell.
IMM's solution would be to flood the whole countryside with cheap cardboard houses all the same, on huge estates built over farmland stolen from some toff. Or flood plains.
It is just as easy, and ecologically far more sound, to build high rise apartments, concentrating population where public transport is, and facilities are - especially as most people ruin their gardens anyway for car parking space and 'decking'
And Bockwurst. And Bratwurst at the weekly market with a dab of mustard on the side and a fresh, crispy Brötchen served up by a busty Mädchen. And Kartoffelklöße. And Spätzle. And Rheinischer Sauerbraten with red cabbage with apple bits in. And Eisbein with Saukerkraut and mashed potato. And mayonnaise on your chips. And cheap wine and beer. And shopping a third less than in Britain...and political awareness... and Sundays still like Sundays used to be...
God one? In a Welsh mining village. Get real. Only fit enough for the dogs.
They have Hobson's choice.
Er nope. Good quality eco houses in the countryside.
Well if 27% of the land is re;leased becacasues it is uneconomonic, then no houssing estates would exist as there is just far too much land to fill. The existing urban footprint is actually 6.6% of the total land.
Build house boats.
For those who want that, yes. But maybe they can have a weekend house in ten country too.
If 27% of the land is available then gardens would be much, much bigger.
No thank you - lived in plenty of them and only survived in one by wearing rubber gloves when going near unearthed washing machines. The 25kW instant water heater that made the TV picture shrink and the light go out was something else as well.
That's because the 2ATAF slum clearance programme concentrated their minds and in 1949 it became a mandatory requirement on all new builds. In Germany anything which is not mandatory is prohibited.
True, blame the RAF as usual :-)
and 150 year mortgages.
True - the only country where having a child is essential to getting a mortgage (someone has to pay the last 100 years).
Of course something like 80% of the population don't own a house - they rent.
Questions you need to ask, why did it need underpinning trees -drains - weather/clay sub soil. When was it done, the longer it has had to resettle the better without further movement. Was it an insurance job, renowned for only doing the bear minimum to satisfy clam. If it was recent ie last year personally I would run a mile.
and BTW early Victorian Era is only considered "very very old" by our American cousins.
The home ownership figures for Germany are about 50% and almost all of these are houses.
In the UK 10-12% of all houses built are selfbuilds, which is about 12,000 houses. In Austria and Ireland it is about 70%. In Scandinavia, Germany and France about 60%. The USA is 30%, which amounts to millions of houses per year. The UK has the lowest level of selfbuilds in the western world due to the Draconian planning laws, land not being re-distributed and favouring the large developers who oppose all increases to the building regs
I have relative who live there and I give the place a miss. The level of trades quality must be the lowest I have seen in the UK. The people are generally unprogressive, relying of subsidies for industry and direct. The old mining villages should have been bulldozed decades ago.
Enough trees can be planted on much of the surplus 27% of the land. You have to see the big picture.
< snip mentalist drivel >
Have you looked at figure? No. Read "all" the post of mine on land. the figures are there.
You should look at a map. Only 7.1% of the south east is built on. The Home counties are underpopulated. The urban footprint is only 6.6% of the land mass. Kate Barkers figures.
There is so much land we can't "concrete over the countryside" even if we wanted to. The countryside population is falling. Releasing land and allowing people to build in the countryside will reverse this trend.
You should get out more. Get off the M and A roads where most development naturally exists, and you see virtually nothing for miles upon mile. Just subsidised field after subsidised field. And LOOK at the FIGURES. Don't imagine things.
Just one weekend house would do most people as in Scandinavia.
They would
They do.
Don't be silly. Garden Centres are booming.
< snip mentalist derogatory babble about people in general >
A relevant point is that people don't pay excessively high mortgages throughout their lives and can have a nice big house and more expendable income. In the UK we are skint most of our lives paying for a house. When it is ours with a supposedly higher income because of no mortgage, we are too old to matter.
The self build figures are questionnable based on what your definition of a self build actually is.
I know numerous homeowners in all of those countries and it is popular to buy a piece of land and have a house built on it. However, this does not mean that the homeowner rolled up his sleeves and did any of the physical work. Usually here, it does mean that there was some practical involvement.
In Scandinavia it is popular to buy a house from a prefabrication factory. The customer selects what he wants from a catalogue (within the constraints of what is allowed for the site), and that is constructed in the factory. Needless to say the more expensive ranges have more choice. At the site, a concrete foundation and plinth with services is prepared and the whole lot delivered to site and assembled. However, they certainly have planned developments, especially at the entry level. These are more planned and restricted in terms of facilities and what you can do than the UK. For example in some, the residents association determines what colour you paint your front door.
In Germany and France, the typical way is to employ an architect and builder and have the home constructed within the allowances for the site. It is still highly regulated and far from a free for all.
The main differences are that there are more individual as opposed to houses built en masse by developers as we have here. If that is the meaning of self-build then OK, but it certainly doesn't mean that more people in these countries get their hands dirty.
A selfbuild is where someone buys their own plot and has a house built on it. It can be a turnkey operation or do it themselves or partially do some work. See TV prog Grand Designs.
Schweinshaxe is roasted, Eisbein is boiled. But it is the same hock part of the leg. Eisbein puts a lot of people off because of the huge, enveloping band of wobbly fat. But cut this away and the meat inside is so tender, it eats itself. You don't have to chew. Pure heaven on your tastebuds! Also, many British people think of Sauerkraut, and immediately believe it can only be disgusting. It is an acquired taste, sure, but can be delicious when boiled up with a tasty beef or vegetable stock. Its tartness admirably offsets the richness of many dishes.
On Sundays in Germany almost no shops are open and millions of Germans take their leisurely stroll after lunch through the local woods. As there are woods and forests all over Germany, nowhere, except in the centre of big cities, are you all that far away from a well-trodden path through the forest, often to a glade in the middle where some enterprising soul many years ago opened a cafe serving fresh coffee, beer, ice cream, and a huge range of cakes and tarts with whipped cream. There is not the hustle and bustle on German Sundays that is commonplace now all over Britain. And people relax in their often much larger gardens well away from the neighbours, as they prepare themselves for the week ahead. We in Britain just allow the rat race to continue 24/7/365. When I tell my German friends and relatives how Tesco and Asda near me open at 8:00 am on Monday and *do not close* until 10:00 pm the following Saturday (only to reopen again for six hours on the Sunday) they think I must be exaggerating, as no one in their right mind could possibly wish for such a state of affairs to exist.
They are everywhere, not just in Bayern. Yes, folks! Those who don't know Germany might be surprised that the Germans have completely different words for Cologne, Bavaria, Munich, Brunswick...
I only started drinking beer when I moved to Germany. I loathe English beer. It's disgusting. Not something like Samuel Smith's lager, though. That is as good as any of the Continental beers.
Well, curry sauce, ketchup, yes, but mayonnaise, too. At least I have had it frequently, both in Germany and in Belgium. Don't get me wrong! I think Belgium does some fantastic food, too! Know how to drive a Belgian mad? Put him in a round room and tell him there's a bag of chips in the corner.
We could have that if the near 27% of the uneconomic land we have is released for the people to enjoy. We live in urban areas and have to drive to see the country, often not being able to walk on open land.
When I was kid Sundays were like in Germany, except no forests. My mother always managed to buy he shopping and we never ran out of anything.
The English make the best bitters by a mile. Germany is good for larger, which my Dad described as boys beer.
You can mow the lawn on Saturdays, or on any evening during the week when most Germans are not workaholics and presenteeists who stay behind to impress the boss. German employees come home on time and spend time with their children. Family is still a very strong concept in Germany, as it is in Holland and Italy and many other states in the EU. Is there anything like the degree of binge drinking and antisocial behaviour in Germany that there is in the UK? As for "no bloody shops open", if you knew what organising one's life meant, you would not need to rely on Sundays for shopping. We did use to do it this way, too, and Britain was a much happier, laid-back place for it. Now we have become a nation of stressed out, sullen, overworked road raged, trolley raged, queue raged monsters.
You may wish to drag the rest of Europe into a British netherworld of "we never close" consumerism, but the vast majority of EU citizens know how to spend their far greater amounts of free time far more wisely than us. Also, their kids know who their fathers are.
And of course this is true for *all* German houses...
Well, I wouldn't say no to that kind of "mandatory" if it meant having an extra downstairs for free! What other kinds of prohibitions are you thinking of?
Eh?
Yep. You're exaggerating of course, but it's true that Germans have to be far more committed to owning property. And because they nearly always build to their own preferred designs on large-ish plots, they stay put for life. This ecourages a community to be established, rather than the situation that persists in Britain where newcomers are always coming into the area and destroying by their very presence any sense of community. Without a community to fight for, no one cares whether the post office or local butcher closes. They have no ties to the place and will likely move on again in a few years anyway. Is this a good way to establish a society, do you think?
Now, whisper it quietly so that the EU doesn't hear: Britons' personal debt now runs to one trillion pounds!
Children are also essential for replacing the huge numbers of generations lost on the battlefields, and in the towns and cities in World War II which, hopefully, with the establishment of the EU, will never be repeated.
And what is so wrong with a system where everyone can rent somewhere to live? Would that Britain were so admirably equipped with such affordable alternatives!
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