TEH DREAM
Mind you, I'd be having that purple barrier out of the skip.

>>445290
That's so much nicer than where I live now.

>>445290
I would be throwing wildflower seeds over the walls of all my neighbours.

>>445294
Within a month of everyone moving in the grass would be replaced with decking, trampolines and hot tubs.

I didn't think images could have sound but every time I look at this I hear a mother shouting at her young children. You can almost smell meat burning to ash on someone's barbeque.

>>445294
Wildflowers couldn't possibly survive on that thin layer of dying grass and frequent flooding. What you need is bamboo.

I'd paint the house white, change the fencing and make the windows larger. I'm surprised Barratt didn't do this considering the houses would sell quicker and go for more.

>>445296
>change the fencing
How feasible is that in a neighbourhood like this, though? I'm in a Midwest equivalent out here in the US, and the "home owners association" insists on a specific fence throughout the entire community of about 3,000 houses. I can only assume the UK has Americanised enough at this point that new-build neighbourhoods are basically the same over there.

>>445297
Housing associations in this country are for social/supported housing. I can imagine it only being a phenomenon in gated communities. Plus I really doubt the kind of 'people' who inhabit these locations will have much eye for aesthetics so long as you don't plant any trees.

>>445295

I haven't a clue why decking is so popular. My mum always does it, because a lawn is too much work? As if a load of wood that gets covered in algae and you have to constantly repaint is less work.

>>445298
>social housing
That's the funny thing about these HOAs in America, you buy the house and pay the HOA to maintain the neighbourhood it's in, to the tune of a few hundred a month. In return, they tell you what you can and can't do with your house - the one I'm in now (and commonly around here) won't even allow a man a shed. All this stuff is dealt with by the council in the rest of the civilised world, but that sort of thing just doesn't fly here, it's much more preferable to fork over what is essentially council tax to a private company based in a state elsewhere with lower taxes.

>>445297
I live on a newish estate, c. 2004, and there's supposedly restrictive covenants such as workmen not being able to park their vans on their driveways but nobody pays attention to it and the developer doesn't give a shit.

>>445299
Unimaginative people love wood in their gardens. There's nothing they want more in their garden than a bit of decking that they can sit on when it's sunny out or for guests to congregate on when they've got people round for a barbecue; if they're pushing the boat out they might get even more wood to make a minibar/karaoke room too. It's either that or having something level for their hot tub.

>>445295
Someone on my road has not only concreted over their front drive but painted the concrete to match their front door and some other bits. Obviously the paint started coming off right away, and the concrete isn't flat so most of the time there's a puddle across 2/3 of the available space. I dread to think what their back garden looks like.

>>445300
>the one I'm in now (and commonly around here) won't even allow a man a shed.

I hear this a lot about HOAs - they sound like a nightmare. All of my radio friends say they also stop them putting up antenna in their gardens; which is strange because when you visit the US the first thing that strikes you is the lack of "planning permission" as we would see it.

>>445302
>>445303
These posts reminded me of my parents' street, which is a casualty of cars becoming more widespread and bigger in size. Both sides of the street have a tenfoot, with every house either having a garage behind on a separate lot, or a smaller garage embedded into the back garden. The latter is much too small for a car nowadays, and the tenfoot offers far too little space to even get in and out, so everyone on that side of the street has been knocking down their front wall, putting a dropped kerb on the street, and just parking in their front garden, which has then made street parking a complete shambles, and makes the whole street look a mess.

>>445304
It seems to be two extremes. If you live outside of an HOA, or in a traditional HOA which is actually run by the Os of the Hs, then you can pretty much do whatever you want (and people obviously do). If you live in one of these private HOAs, there *is* a "planning permission" process, but you're never gonna get approved for anything. A work friend lives in a similar HOA to me, and said that everyone just installed "playhouses" for their kids, since that's allowed, which just also happen to be tall enough for an adult man and completely filled with power tools.

>>445305
>tenfoot

Whatever happened to Hullfa.gs?

>>445306
City of Culture killed it off, Hull's too good to stay indoors now.

>>445295
Unsurprising given how pathetically small those "gardens" are. Hardly seems worth the effort to get a mower when it'll take you longer to get it out and put it away than you spend actually mowing.

>>445308
Where's socialisedlawnmowerlad when you need him?

>>445308
Tall fences and narrow plots are unhelpful for healthy grass, anyway. Far too much dark time, unhelpful rain patterns. The poor stuff is pretty much fucked from the moment they truck the turf in. I'm not sure how much effort it's worth to keep it running.

Next door replaced their small front lawn with artificial grass. I will never be able to understand boomers.

>>445313
Hopefully the idea that having a quadrangle of monotonous green on your property is an indicator of good social standing will die off with our parents' generation.

>>445311
IT JUST MAKES SO MUCH BLOODY SENSE!

>>445315
IIRC, it's thanks to the aristocracy that we have an obsession with lawns in this country; it used to be a status symbol to show off that you had so much money you could employ people to spend their days trimming your grass.

>>445317
>you had so much money you could employ people
Even before that, that you could afford land that isn't producing anything useful.

I think lawns are a bit shite and boring anyway. My front one is too wet anyway, I get mushrooms growing on it frequently.

I might do the wildflower thing, but the people across from me tried it and now it just looks like they have a very small wheat field in front of their house.

>>445320
You want to dig up the lawn then fill it with pebbles and cacti. Failing that, a rockery.

>>445290
It isn't great, but I hate other people, so I could do with this.

>>445321
As a cactus enthusiast and polar-dweller, don't put cacti in your garden in England.

>>445323
Why is this wordfiltered? Are we worried about dolphin rape against ecosystems?

>>445323
They'll be fine with a bit of drainage.

>>445323

These people seem to do okay. I'm not sure if they leave them out in winter. I see pear cacti and a number of agave in there.

If Britons weren't allergic to mid-rise blocks and we hadn't let the leasehold system fester for so long, we could have this instead.

>>445315

It’s a council estate from the 50s. The state of people that can’t manage a few square metres of grass. Hopefully the idea that we can just build huge ugly estates to fix complex problems will die off with our parents’ generation.

>>445328
>Hopefully the idea that we can just build huge ugly estates to fix complex problems will die off with our parents’ generation.
Nah, that's a zombie idea that will go away just as the planet becomes too hot to inhabit and we all curl up and die like pathetic human-woodlice. Woodlouses? Whatever.

>>445329
>we all curl up and die
THE DREAM

>>445329

>woodlouses

I prefer chooky-peg

>>445331

Was this made up to confuse the north-Welsh? They've put real ones on there.

>>445296 'd paint the house white, change the fencing and make the windows larger.

Can't make the windows bigger, energy efficiency innit. Only rich poshos are allowed light. Or ventilation. Or tolerable living standards.

>>445290
Jesus Christ, what the fuck? This is poorly planned and quite ugly.

>>445356
And coming to a street near you soon! There’s nothing to do and nowhere to go for miles too, other than maybe a corner shop.

>>445356
Just wait until you see the front and the two dozen cars blocking all the pavements.

>>445358
Pavements? What human-friendly utopia are you envisaging?

>>445336
>Can't make the windows bigger, energy efficiency innit.

Our architecture is still suffering from the Window Tax.

Reminds me of a new build estate I lived in as a kid. Soulless, poorly built, but sold at a premium. They had plastic mock chimneys instead of actually bothering to build a real chimney, which felt very cheap for a 500k house.

>>445368
Do modern houses even need a chimney?

>>445369
I think it's more that some numpties are willing to pay a lot more for a tiny fake chimney than it costs to install.

The small windows drive me insane. There's no good reason not to have larger windows and they improve the feeling and look of a house so, so much. Good Lord, it's so ugly and they aren't even good houses.

>>445371

>There's no good reason not to have larger windows

Cost of materials? I assume all new houses are built to maximise profits at the expense of the poor fuckers that buy them.

>>445372
It's substantially a thermal thing. Windows are a bastard - they let heat in unless you have shutters. They let heat out unless you buy expensive ones. They're more expensive than wall, as you pointed out.
Enjoy your windowless hovels, Londoners.
https://www.building.co.uk/news/london-homes-to-have-smaller-windows-than-rest-of-uk/5110052.article

>>445372
What's great about these newbuilds is that the buyers get rogered by shared ownership or help to buy, that leave them excitingly exposed if the unthinkable happens or they want to do something unpredictable like sell and move. Being trapped there with a growing family would be a delight.

>>445373

Shutters would solve so many issues, doesn't seem an easy way to get them over here though. If I weren't renting I'd try to make some for myself.

Love my southwesterly windows in the winter but the relentless sun during the heatwave was pissing me off and I couldn't keep it out.

>>445327
Where I live (Welwyn Garden City) there's several new developments, both completed and under construction, that look just like this.

>>445290

There were some brilliant memes about plastic copy paste builds kicking about here last year. Can't for the life of me remember them.

>>445491
>brilliant memes
>kicking about here

>>445494

Sneaky sneaky

>>445496
No.

>>445424

Welwyn is different - it's one of the few serious efforts at building a new town (rather than a slum clearance) and has retained a relatively radical approach to planning. Many of the original neo-Georgian buildings around the Parkway are effectively mid-rise, so it's harder to argue that a new mid-rise block materially alters the character of the area.

Over the past year, the average house price of UK cities has grown by 10.3%, while average earnings for those living and working in cities rose just 2.1%. As a result, the average home in a UK city now costs 8.1 times average earnings (known as the Price to Earnings, or PE, ratio), according to Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender.

Halifax’s analysis of average house prices and earnings, in the 12 months to June 2021, has identified the most and least affordable of 61 UK cities. The research shows that, while city house prices rose to £287,440, up 10.3%, wages in the same locations only rose by 2.1% to £35,677.

This increased gap between house prices and earnings has lifted the PE ratio to 8.1, from 7.5 in 2020, meaning buying a city home has become less affordable for those that live and work in them. After sitting at 5.6 from 2011 to 2013, the PE ratio for UK cities has now risen for eight successive years.

Perhaps contrary to some perceptions, overall cities are marginally more affordable than the average for the UK as a whole, which has a PE ratio of 8.5 (UK average house price: £327,691, average earnings: £38,600). This pattern of greater city affordability has been visible in the data since 2014, and in 2021 the gap between PE for cities and all UK homes increased to its widest point, of 0.43. This widening over the last 12 months may reflect home-movers looking for more space to accommodate homeworking during the pandemic.

https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/press-releases/2021/halifax/londonderry-tops-uk-affordable-cities.html

The ratio between the average city house price and average earnings has increased from 5.6 to 8.1 over the past decade.

Enjoy your shitty newbuild box, peasants.

>>445775
>average earnings: £38,600
uwotm8? Is that the mean rather than the median?

>>445776
It's about that per household rather than per individual for disposable income, i.e. net of tax and benefits.

Trying to buy my grandma a bungalow at the minute. What a fucking depressing sight a new build one is. They look like a sandstone version of the hut my scout troop was in as a kid. And how can you market them as retirement houses when you clearly couldn't fit a wheelchair or walker or zimmer frame dosn the corridors.

But it's okay, because the older more reasonably built ones are 300k+ even here up north. Though one we looked at was entirely fitted with tartan carpets, so that did cheer me up.

>>445778
Shove her in sheltered housing?

>>445779

It's an idea, as it'd probably be good for her to have old biddy neighbours to chat to, but at the same time I'd like to/like her to own the house so we can adapt it fully to her needs. Plus as illustrated, sheltered housing is grim as fuck, and at least until the dementia fully takes over I'd like her to have a nice place.

Lloyds Banking Group is aiming to become one of the UK’s largest landlords by purchasing 50,000 homes in the next 10 years, according to internal documents.

Lloyds last month announced its entry into the private home rental market under the Citra Living brand as an attempt to diversify the bank’s income away from traditional lending, which is being squeezed by low interest rates.

The bank has been tight-lipped about its long-term targets for the business, but an internal job advertisement seen by the Financial Times revealed that Citra has set a “strategic challenge” of reaching 10,000 properties by the end of 2025, with a further aim to hit 50,000 by 2030. It estimated that with 10,000 homes, Citra would have a balance sheet worth about £4bn and generate about £300m in pre-tax profit.

Tax changes have led to a reduction in the number of small-scale landlords who previously dominated the UK rental sector, but a shortage of housing and increase in the number of families renting has encouraged more large companies to enter the sector in recent years.

Insurance and fund management groups, such as Legal & General and M&G, have become major investors, while retail chain John Lewis is planning to convert some of its stores and other land into thousands of rental homes. Lloyds, which is the country’s largest mortgage lender, is hoping that its existing knowledge of the property market will give it an edge.

One risk is competing with its own potential customers. The company’s first property was a recently-completed development in Peterborough, but the bank has said it hopes to build most of its portfolio by developing new sites from scratch to avoid “hoover[ing] up properties owner-occupiers would want to buy”. Earlier this month it agreed a partnership with FTSE 100 housebuilder Barratt.

https://www.ft.com/content/e9dc9617-f059-4de6-b43a-d5e9978d8c0b

>>445808
Well, millennials keep complaining they can't afford a downpayment on a house, this way they only need 3 months rent up front.

>>445808
Developments like this worry me because I'm now in a position to buy a home but would like 6 months of renting in an area first. To top it off there's all the bullshit paperwork involved and being messed around. I can see myself getting priced-out for a number of years and when I finally do get a home the housing market crashes as the baby boomers die-off.

I wonder what will happen in a few years time when people want to trade up to fit a family only to discover they can only have that if they sell and go back to renting.

>>445818

>housing market crashes as the baby boomers die-off.

This isn't what happens. Corporate Landlords are accumulating all of the housing stock and the Government is utterly stacked with Landlords so nobody with power to improve the situation for normal people has an interest to do so.

The future is cities full of empty luxury apartments and us sleeping in capsules in an old Debenhams.

>>445837

We're heading for that future either way, so we may as well relish the delicious salty tears of buy-to-let wankers as they get utterly shafted in the process.

>>445838
I'm not sure how to put this but if you're laughing at BTL fucktards... I agree. But this is not that, this is end stage capialism. They (meaning people with the money) will buy the property because they know that you and I need space to live. So they buy it because it's a long term return, wealth at that level is institutional or generational. It's not an us v.s. them, it's people versus the system. Marx was right.

>>445837
Massive crash around the year 2026 according to some guy who says he predicted the 2008 crash. I've read other economists also predicting a crash around the mid-2020s, which is likely going to be much bigger than any of the crashes we've had in the past few decades due to various factors combining.

>>445839
>It's not an us v.s. them, it's people versus the system.
But the people are the system. Most voters are homeowners; that's why they vote for these fuckers. If banks buy every house, think how much I'll pay to buy your house when it's the only one available.

We need to start breeding frantically so we can outvote them, or alternatively, bring about the violent uprising and mass slaughter that I am legally required to not sound too enthused about.

>>445840
There are always economists talking like that. It's how they pay the bills.

>>445842
Exactly. I've been here since 2010 and there's been people posting every year without fail that the next crash is just around the corner.

>>445843
I still find myself wishing for the next crash despite noticing that my thought process is cargo cult stuff: If the 1973 oil crisis and 1981 recession could kill the political economy of the 40s-70s consensus, surely the 2008 recession, the 2020-21 recession, the 2026 recession, the 2030 recession... will kill off the political economy of the 1980s-present day consensus. Even as it becomes increasingly clear that even if the present system goes away, it will only be to replace it with a system that has all of the downsides of the present while also abolishing the very concept of personal property (just rent it!) I have to cling to my belief: Just beyond the next recession lies a better world. Maynard Frum is going to return one day in a big shiny aeroplane with enough cargo for everybody.

If my favourite scotswoman at MoneyWeek is to be believed, there will be a crash, but only in real terms. Consumer goods and wage inflation will take off and house prices will not keep up. Interest rates will remain for as long as central bankers can keep manage, but the cost of living will rise and so despite low rates people won't be able to afford to pay as much (in real terms) for housing.

I believe everything she says, so I buy into this too, and I think climate change will help by increasing the cost of almost everything.

>>445846
>climate change

Now you've done it.

Where else am I supposed to live?

>>445851

>>445853
Mansield

>>445853
I actually visited Mansfield last week. Did not see the Massive.

>>445861
They must be approaching 30 by now.

>>445862

These Gentlemen do not look massive in the slightest! I demand a full refund.

>>445864
Are you suggesting that the Mansfield Massive is a lie?

I sincerely hope not.

>>445862

>>445864
They're just very far away. They're in Mansfield, after all.

Young people can buy houses if they 'don't go out drinking', says 22-year-old Stockport landlord

A 22-year-old landlord and student from Stockport says there’s no reason young people can’t buy houses — so long as they don’t ‘go out drinking’ and ‘make the most out of living at home’.

Josh Parrott bought his first house when he was just 19, using money he saved up from two jobs he did between school lessons. He rented out the £115,000 house while paying rent to his parents, saving enough to buy another one for £140,000, aged 21. Josh did a £20,000 revamp and saved money by doing most of the labour himself after work, increasing the value by £60,000. He plans to move in soon and is already on the search for his third property. The businessman plans to own ten properties — renting out nine — by the time he is 30, buying one a year so he can finally put his feet up and work when he fancies.

With grand plans on a property empire, Josh has some advice for other people in his position. He said there’s no reason young people can't afford to buy homes — but admits his mates said he was "boring" when he said no to drinks or buying new clothes.

"There’s no reason people my age can’t buy houses,” said the trainee mortgage advisor from Stockport. “You just have to get past the mindset that there are certain things you do at certain ages. It wasn’t about being super bright or anything. You just need to make the most out of living at home: it’s nothing like as expensive as renting privately or through an agency. I just didn’t blow money on going out drinking and I spent almost nothing on cclothes. My mates all said I was being boring. And I don't have the expense of kids yet or anything.

“I was given a Ford Fiesta, which I kept, whereas a lot of my friends are buying expensive cars like Mercedes on finance schemes. I mean they're nice cars but I was able to put-away up to £1,200 a month by the time I went full-time. I could have spent that by going out on the town. Working at an estate agent is a great job for young people and it doesn't require any qualifications."

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/young-people-can-buy-houses-21558111

>>446104
>He also had a cleaning job at the locksmith company owned by his parents Glenn, 55, and Anne Millen, 53, while he did his A-levels.
I don't even have a witty comment, I just knew if I went looking I'd find it.

>>446106
The whole thing is bollocks. Apparently his £14,000 salary when he went full-time means you can buy a £115,000 house with an £11,000 deposit.

If he started working part-time for the estate agents in 2015, had a cleaning job with his parents for a few years, went full-time in 2018 and was putting away £1,200 per month then only being able to save £11,000 for a deposit by the time he bought a house the following year is actually pretty poor going.

>>446104
Bet he's a virgin, though.

Example One: rent in West Yorkshire while you save up for a house in Manchester.

Example Two: save up a £235,000 deposit with a friend so you can buy a house in London in your forties.

Example Three: save up money during lockdown and then buy a house with two friends.

Example Four: save up money during lockdown and then buy a 38 square metre 'pocket home' in London.

Example Five: lend the deposit to your child rather than outright gifting it to them.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/5-ways-get-property-ladder-without-help-mum-dad/

>>449484

I think at this rate I'm definitely just going to end up buying my council flat, fuck it. At least that way I'll have a chance of having my mortgage paid off some time before I'm 75, and it's not like I'll ever need to worry about selling it because where the fuck else am I going to move.

Definitely pinning all my hopes on meeting one of those birds on tinder with "homeowner 🏠" in her bio, then pissing in her arse to rightfully claim the castle as my own.

>>449485
If they still do that council house discount thing you might as well.

>>449484

I love how they couldn't even find the promised number of examples, with number 5 explicitly using the help of mum and dad.

>>449545
The first example hasn't actually bought a house yet, she keeps getting outbid.

Baby boomers say struggling young should cut Netflix

More than half of baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, believe that “luxury” lifestyle choices made by young people are to blame for their inability to save enough money. Among the lifestyle choices identified by baby boomers in a study by researchers at King’s College London were takeaway coffees and food, mobile phones, Netflix and foreign holidays.

A quarter of those aged 25 to 34 on average incomes own their own home, down from two thirds in 1995. It is not only baby boomers, however, who blame this on a mix of youthful laziness and poor financial decisions. Young people themselves, according to the study, are more likely to agree than disagree with the statement that “takeaway coffees and food” are the reason their generation cannot afford to buy a home.

The study suggests that 48 per cent of millennials, those born between 1980 and 1995, believe that young people are too careless with their money when trying to save, just below the 52 per cent of baby boomers with the same view.

At the same time there was a high level of recognition among the public that economic factors were preventing young people from buying a home. The study found that 76 per cent of people agreed that adults aged under 40 could not afford to buy their own home because of issues such as high house prices, stricter lending rules and stagnant wages.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/baby-boomers-say-struggling-young-should-cut-netflix-8pzg372dx

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/housing-hard-work-and-identity-generational-experiences-and-attitudes.pdf

>>445808
>UK house prices will fall by 8% next year and then almost stagnate for the following four years, Lloyds Banking Group has predicted.

>The UK's biggest mortgage lender, which runs the Halifax brand, gave a gloomy outlook for the UK economy. It has set aside £668m to cover bad debts as rising interest rates make loans and mortgages less affordable.

>The banking group announced pre-tax profits of £1.5bn in the third quarter of the year. That was a 25% drop on the same period last year. Banks typically make more money when interest rates rise as the gap between what they pay savers and what they charge borrowers widens, but the rapid increase in borrowing costs seen in the last year has made Lloyds gloomier about the overall economic outlook for the UK.

>The Bank of England's benchmark interest rate is 2.25%, and Lloyds warned that this could peak at 4% in 2024 before falling back. Mr Chalmers admitted that this higher interest rate environment could lead to a slowdown in the housing market in the years ahead.

>An 8% drop in house prices, if it happens, risks putting some recent buyers into negative equity, especially if prices fail to recover for some time. However, such a fall would not actually completely cancel out the increase in house prices in the last year. The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the price of the average UK home increased by 13.6% in the year to August to £296,000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63411783

Hmmmm.

>>454892
It's taken me so long to buy my house that I think prices have risen by more than 8% since I had my offer accepted. Of course, there's no guarantee this 8% will be the only drop we see.

>>454892
You can already see prices dropping fast on Rightmove - if nobody can get a mortgage right now, it's fairly obvious what is going to happen.

>>454894

I mean, yeah, but nobody being able to get a mortgage hasn't stopped prices booming for the past two years anyway.

Prices drop but interest goes up, nobody can get a mortgage. Interest rates are low so prices soar, nobody can get a mortgage.

It's not the mortgages causing the bottleneck.

>>454895

Even fewer people can get a mortgage now, including BTL landlords. Mortgages are definitely the bottleneck - loads of people who were about to close on a property have seen the deal fall through because the lender pulled their offer.

>>454897

>including BTL landlords.

Exactly.

>>454897
>loads of people who were about to close on a property have seen the deal fall through because the lender pulled their offer

Exactly this - it is happening loads - I can see previously "sold" houses coming back onto the market in my area.

>>454899

That was already happening before and has been happening for a while. It's of people have struggled to secure sales because the market price of houses has been rising faster and to sillier levels than mortgage lenders were prepared to lend against, so lots of people have had to pull out. Happened to me, in fact, but fortunately only by a £5000 shortfall; if I was buying somewhere less modest though, a 15 or 20k shortfall is more than most people can work around.

The reason this is a big problem all of a sudden is that it hits the investor side of the market. If investors pull out of property everything goes to shit.

>>454900

>The reason this is a big problem all of a sudden is that it hits the investor side of the market.

Yeah, it's not the affordability of the average Joe making waves, it's the big portfolios and pension funds. Endowments are their bread and butter, but now the margin is being significantly eroded. The US housing market is predicted to slump by as much as 20%, and I suspect the only reason we haven't heard much about it over here is because so much this country's wealth is bound up in housing; so the people who own it are terrified it might spread. I've had a feeling for a while that the dollar skyrocketing against every other currency should be seen as a canary in the mine, but nobody seems to be paying it any mind.

I'm pretty sure things are about to go to shit in a big way and everyone is just burying their heads in the sand about it. I hope the two of you who recently bought property didn't push your budget too far. You'll be fine if you bought something within your financial headroom, but if you scraped through the mortgage by the skin of your teeth you might well be about to get fucked.

Today I was driving round some of the outskirts of my hometown, with it being the first time I've visited that particular area in years. So many new build estates have cropped up, most of them full of little detached boxes spread about a metre apart from each other.

>>454899
I'm gently stalking my old house on rightmove. It's now going round for the fourth time, sold STC three times so far. Perhaps it's not really going to go for £100K more than they paid five years ago?
Talking to an intern at work, he's paying £900 a month for a room in a shared house. A quick check of the maths, and even that isn't enough to cover the mortgage, running it as an HMO. Fuck's sake, world's gone mad.

>>455302
I was outbid on a house in 2015 that ultimately went for £185k, which was well over the asking price. A similar house on the same street sold for £160k that year, which has just gone back on the market for £260k, so they're hoping for growth of about 63% in seven years. I can't see them getting that much, especially as the estate was built over a former mining pit and I've heard that recent soil testing detected poison across the neighbourhood.

I might have said this before because I discovered it months ago, but today was the big day when I finally moved into the house I bought. I paid £178,000 for it. In 2001, it sold for £10,400. So its annual increase in value for the previous owners is pretty close to its entire value when they bought it.

>>455313
Congratulations lad.

>>455313

Congrats m8.

Pretty sure we started buying around the same time, only I'm still arsing about getting the solicitors to pull their fingers out. Had to get an extension on the mortgage offer, and if we're not done by Christmas I think it's just going to fall through entirely frankly.

Such is life. But if the two of you could try and will me some luck I would appreciate it. I am becoming very disheartened.

Imagine buying a new build and doing this to the garden.

>>456626
I hate this country and it's population.

>>456627
May I suggest a career in new estate planning? Make your loathing count.

Also, Fucking hell, please let that not be the future.

Also also, has housebuyinglad moved yet and fucked his garden over?
And what happened to scorchedearthgardenlad who wanted nothing to grow ever again?

>>456628
>Also also, has housebuyinglad moved yet and fucked his garden over?

Probably ran out of money due to vet bills after his girlfriend insisted on buying one of those French bulldogs. You can't complete the new build aesthetic without a dog that can't breathe properly.

>>456626
This is going to be underwater whenever it rains.

>>456628
>Also also, has housebuyinglad moved yet and fucked his garden over?
There were two of us. Mine wasn't a new-build house, but was instead a former council house inhabited by an old lady who'd died. According to the neighbours, and indeed other evidence that has since become apparent, she died at any time up to four years ago, and the house was empty between then and when I moved in in December. I haven't fucked my garden up, but it looks horrific and it has a monumental pile of rubbish in it because I haven't paid for a skip yet. I made a point to insist on the rubbish being left, because it had some very useful tools in there, but the fuckers took all those and just left the paint cans and rolled-up carpets and other shite. So it could be argued that I might have fucked my garden up, indeed.

>>456628
>>456631

I'm the other one, but mine doesn't have a garden because it's an ex-council flat. However I am going to get some bamboo and fake leaves and all that, and decorate the balcony like a faux tropical cocktail bar, for the summer. My partner bought me a little lime tree to grow, also.

In fact to me having a balcony is posher than having a garden. It feels like being on holiday, because at all other times in my life I've only ever had a balcony on holiday, and there's zero maintenance.

>>456630
Going by what they've done to the garden it won't be the only thing underwater about that house.

>>456631
>>456632
There were 3 of us. I ended up whinging about how expensive it all is but as it turns out once I finally got to the position of buying a house I've not been arsed. Worried about finding a partner outside of the M25 now I'm in my 30s, I'd have to mess about getting a car and the thought of selling off my investment at the moment makes me angry.

>>456632
Did you get one of those ultra-rare freehold ones or go up to Scotland?

>>456633

Nah, it's a leasehold, but the term is still for another 100 years, and it was so cheap relative to a house of comparable interior space that I don't give a fuck. I spent a while looking into it before I pulled the trigger and really, there's pros and cons like with anything. There's a service charge on top of the mortgage, which means you pay a bit more each month, but on the upside that money goes into a communal fund which covers structural repairs and upgrades etc so you're never going to suddenly out of pocket for a leak or something. Ground rent is apparently a thing of the past now.

If it wasn't ex-council I'd be a bit more apprehensive because you'd know the management company are going to be robbing bastards who are just out to gouge you on everything, but when it's a local authority or housing association, I reckon it's a pretty safe investment. And also it's not a massive tower block thing, I definitely wouldn't buy one of those, it's one of those low-rise blocks full of pensioners.

>>456634
>If it wasn't ex-council I'd be a bit more apprehensive because you'd know the management company are going to be robbing bastards who are just out to gouge you on everything, but when it's a local authority or housing association, I reckon it's a pretty safe investment.

Sorry to burst your bubble ladm8 but I've definitely heard of flat owners having to fork out decent chunks of money for their share of repair work the council are doing as freehold owners.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/28/right-to-buy-repair-bills-council-tenants

>>456635

That is a seven year old article and legislation has, believe it or not (and I know it's fucking shocking considering our government, but it has) been introduced to stop, or at least mitigate, such practice- That's why the service charges now go into a shared fund, which the management are obligated to give you fully transparent accounts for, and there's no such thing as ground rent any more. I believe it was a Michael Gove pet project, and discovering that made me rather rethink my assumptions of him.

On mine there's work to be done on the cladding but they sent through all the plans and estimated costs and showed that it was to be paid for out of the reserve fund. They're also obligated to consult with leaseholders on who does the work, so if they do try to pull a fast one with some money-pit contractor, the tenants can collectively tell them to do one and hire somebody else.

I'm not too worried, frankly. A step on the property ladder is worth the risk, better than continuing to piss my money up the wall to a private landlord.

>>456642

>legislation has, believe it or not (and I know it's fucking shocking considering our government, but it has) been introduced to stop, or at least mitigate, such practice

This is cynical but I'd imagine it was done for the benefit of investor landlords not to have massive unforseen bills suddenly spoiling their cash cow portfolio, and the fact it benefits owner occupiers is just a happy accident.

I don't know if it's specifically a newish build estate thing, but I've noticed a lot of houses round here have started putting coloured LED strips in their bedrooms. On my street there's at least three houses with rooms glowing red, two glowing blue, one purple and one which changes colours.

>>456903
It's an e-person thing, init. Internet culture.

>>456903
I have one guy on my street who has blue LEDs on the front of his house.
Looks fucking awful at night.

>>456904

I think you might be partially right. This has become a trend for themed rooms, e.g. gaming, collection, or hobby rooms. Doubly so if that person takes videos or pictures in that room for social media.

This is apparently the main headline news of the day.

>>457073

I do hate plastic lawns. Just imagine how foetid the whole estate will smell in summer when there's no natural biodegradation. You just have everyone hosing dog shit off their astroturf in the baking heat of the sun, with nowhere for it to go.

I assume that dirt will accumulate on it, weeds will grow on that and through the fabric, and you'll have to spray it with roundup (or fire) after a couple of years. Yay.
(I have some offcuts here that I use as pathways over gravel to stop horse hooves picking up so many stones, so I'm probably a cunt, too, but at least I'm not pretending it's grass, or anything other than a reasonably sturdy fabric. )

>>457076
>>457074
They are pretty awful, here's a good pdf about the many ways: https://capabilitycharlotte.com/TimeForTurf%20Artificial%20Grass%20Report.pdf

>>457073
Let it die, let it die

>>457084

Well lads?

>>457090
She tweeted some more risqué stuff a while back if you want to trawl through her profile, I can't be arsed to do it for you.

>>457092

I'd fertilise her natural lawn IYKWIM.

>>457090
I absolutely would. Corrr. What absolutely beautiful women. There is no way I could ever not be attracted to such stunners.

>>457092
Fuck! It's Eddie Izzard! Abort, abort, abort!

>The number of homes available to rent in the UK has fallen by a third over the past 18 months.

>The sharp drop in the number of listings has helped drive up rents for new tenants by 11%. Lettings agencies typically have 10 rentals compared to over 16 before September 2021, figures shared with the BBC by property website Zoopla show.

>The number of rental properties UK hasn't actually fallen. In fact, it has barely moved since 2016. But people like Ruth are finding it difficult because they're competing with far more other people in their search for a home. Demand for rented accommodation has risen to more than fifty per cent above normal levels, Zoopla's figures show.

>Zoopla draws its information from listings on its website, which cover 85% of UK properties listed for rent. People who want to move but can't find anywhere new are having to stay put. That means their old place doesn't become available for someone else to move into. And with people unable to move, fewer properties become vacant and appear in the estate agent's window. And even if people are lucky enough to find somewhere suitable, they're likely to have to pay much more than they did before.

>"We've seen a big increase in demand for rented housing from record high immigration, the economy reopening [after the pandemic]," said Richard Donnell, executive director for research at Zoopla. "But at the same time, we just haven't seen much new investment by landlords in rented housing. And that's creating a real crunch in availability."

>Though the number of people needing a rental property has soared, landlords haven't able to meet that need. Higher mortgage rates, tax changes and new regulations for rented properties have made it more difficult and less profitable to buy houses and offer them for rent.

>Large numbers of landlords are leaving the market - 11% of homes for sale on Zoopla were previously rented. For others, short-term lets such holiday lets or Airbnb offer better returns than long-term tenants. Zoopla has seen a three-fold increase in short-term lets since 2019. But with private renters spending on average almost a third of their income on rent, Mr Donnell and other experts believe rents can't go on increasing, as people simply won't be able to pay any more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65090846

ITZ

The dream.

>>459010
I'm not homophobic or owt but why couldn't they just build it straight?

>>459010
>>459011
Best £350,000 you can spend.

>>457196
>short-term lets such holiday lets or Airbnb offer better returns than long-term tenants

Do people even use Airbnb anymore? I'm willing to bet Mr Zoopla has a vested interest in rolling back some of Gove's new tenant rights more than anything else.

>>459010
It's interesting when you think of how humans are hardwired to prefer landscapes that project feelings of security and plenty. The classic tree of a hill surrounded by woodland. But this, this just fires all the neurons in your brain about getting out because you're going to be cornered in one of those boxes.

You'd think if you were going to take a picture like this you would sort out the garden first or at least move your makeup kit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9n0_5p8XKo

>>459015
> You'd think if you were going to take a picture like this you would sort out the garden first or at least move your makeup kit.

Sometimes a picture is just a cry for help, sometimes the inclusion of a virgin Mary figurine is also a cry for help but you feel better about it.

Mum stunned after buying second home in Cornwall village to find locals 'hate' her

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-stunned-after-buying-second-31258557

Fancy a bit of ragebait this morning?

>>460931

I've always had this fantasy that I'd be successful enough to own multiple properties globally.

It would be a bit shit to buy somewhere, do it up and then realise the locals think you're a cunt.

How do I avoid being a cunt? Is it as simple as just not buying anything in areas already struggling with housing? What about places that have largely been abandoned, am I a soulless opportunist if I buy a near-ruin in a lovely bit of Italy then pour money into making it nice?

>>460952
I don't know if you can be a landlord without being a cunt but if you wanted to try, I'd suggest buying properties that don't fit the local aesthetic, either because they're run down or the previous owners had shit taste. Use local contractors to do them up to not just be nice but look like they belong there; their original styles of you can. Then rent them out to locals at rents they can afford, don't price them out or make it holiday lets.

>>460953

In this case I actually didn't mean as a landlord, I'd like to have these properties for myself as holiday homes or to do work in those countries.

Is this Britain's tackiest garden? Homeowner slammed for ripping up family's 'beautiful' lawn and laying fake grass but says he had 'no choice' because it was 'a jungle'

https://archive.ph/1219Q

Before.

After.

>>462754
>>462755
And I thought my neighbour pulling out the wall growing plants and mowing the lawn too close was bad. It's an absolute shame to think the ammount of wildlife lost to that - not just bugs and insects but birds and small mammals too.

Someone should print and post this image through their doorbell.

It does make sense that the bloke doesn't want to keep up the garden - it would take a lot of time especially if you've no interest in doing so .. but this is a travesty.

>>462758
>It does make sense that the bloke doesn't want to keep up the garden - it would take a lot of time especially if you've no interest in doing so .. but this is a travesty.

How much does a gardener cost anyway? Putting myself in his shoes I'd definately feel overwhelmed to take on maintenance for a garden that has taken decades to cultivate and which has the neighbours peering over the fence and tutting. I bet the garden isn't the only thing they talk about either, I hear that sometimes he doesn't bring his bins in until the next day and seems to know a thing or two about computers too. No wife either which I'm not too surprised about, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, what I'd so is a slow conversion that turns it into mostly meadow with a small plot for things I'm messing about with. I'd keep a gardener to maintain what I've inherited while I slowly turn it into my own garden, year-by-year more and more meadow so that the neighbours gets used to it first instead of chasing me out of the community. Although I probably wouldn't buy a 3-bed for myself in the first place as maintaining even a small property by yourself has enough odd jobs to keep it ticking over.