2024 Election thread

What is your view?

Lol. He was previously a senior civil servant at the Treasury in his 30s and his wife was a successful journalist at the time. Someone calculated that a couple at the same position now would have a combined income of ~£160k. Not too shabby. But it would afford you a scruffy bungalow in Hackney Wick, E9.

Davies has been ridiculed pretty much across the board for that interview

Or maybe Rick doesn't want to address the point that that restricting housing demand by reducing net immigration can help to reduce house prices? But let's allow Rick to answer my point.

I'd also like to hear Pangolins view. If he has one.

I was referring to the author of the opinion piece in the Telegraph (former editor of Country Life and architectural historian Clive Ashley). Just the man if your idea of a house has staff and grounds. Somewhat ironically, his own website features a little brag about dividing his time between his homes in Pimlico and Ramsgate.

Which takes me back to my point above. The number of people needing housing is a relevant factor, but there seems to be a marked reluctance to discuss the demand side of the equation by limiting net immigration.

Meh, I think by and large, that was still possible for a sizeable chunk of millennials particularly outside the SE. If you coupled up with a second professional then you could get on "the ladder" and you'd probably find that you felt weather, as your mortgage repayments were lower or similar to the rent, and no longer had the pressure of saving for a deposit.

For singletons, or for people with less well paying jobs bit of a shit show really.

I think the lack of new builds may be a localised problem as every area around me is forever expanding.

It's got to the point where people are asking where everyone is coming from. Commuter trains are overloaded though so a lack of infrastructure is a big part of the problem.

Pray do tell which party you think is going to solve this.

Thanks for the reply. I think buying property is easier now than 12 months ago as real wages are up, house prices are down and so too are interest rates. Rick's graph stops at the end of last year.

Also, I don't think it has been particularly easy to buy since 2007 when property was particularly expensive, but mortgages were easy. Other factors do have an impact such as job security and the overall economy.

So, really, the period in history when it was easy to buy is probably limited to 1995-2005. During that time a friend bought a place with another friend. Their lodger covered the entire cost of the mortgage.

Older posters are saying it wasn't great in the 80s either.

I think understanding the history is useful if you want others to buy into something and shouting it down as noise is about as helpful as dismissing legitimate complaints about property costs due to avocados.

My view is that it is not possible to expect everyone to be able to buy a property and inherit one (or half of one), so society needs to make a choice on that front. I've made my views on this clear.

It's also tricky if the population increases rapidly; however, I think this means people should accept smaller properties more densely built than endlessly expand all towns and cities. Others will disagree.

Because that's not where the pressure is coming from. And simply stopping all immigration creates significant other problems: we have a birth rate of 1.56 so without immigration the country fairly quickly becomes a nation of out-of-work benefit claimants (pensioners). Building more houses is essential to the future prosperity of the country.

I think saying things are better than last year is a little like the conservatives claiming they've just reduced tax. Yes but with a huge asterisk next to it. I take your point though.

Not sure I follow your point about not everyone being able to buy and inherit? I mean yes we can't all collect homes, I imagine they don't all sit vacant though?

Exactly. Anyone who has had building work done since 2020 at least will know a) how hard it is to find someone decent to do the work and b) how expensive materials have become (although that has eased slightly). If you suddenly increased new builds by a significant factor both of these would become even worse and cost would increase faster (anyone looking to extend or refurbish an existing property would really struggle). We could make it more attractive for foreign builders to come and work here again but then they would also need places to live.

The easy politician solution is to make the planning process easier and free up more land and they are definitely vital parts but still only the beginning of a solution.

Looking at it the other way you can try to boost the economy so wages increase (which is another easy sound bite that is much harder to deliver) but that is likely to just result in house prices increasing.

What makes you think that immigration isn't creating pressure on housing. If there is no change in housing supply then the approx. 700,000 per year coming into the country will definitely increase demand. So while building more houses is clearly part of the solution, so is limiting net immgration.