Monday 19 April 2021

Driven out

For some years now there have been angry complaints from people in more desirable parts of the country that their children are being driven out of the area by wealthy incomers pushing up property prices to levels the locals can no longer afford.

Politicians are taking all sorts of counter-measures but none of them seem to have much effect, and the proliferation of expensive second homes and holiday homes in attractive areas continues apace.

It seems to me that as long as outsiders can afford hefty prices for local homes, and as long as residents can enjoy a large profit by selling up, the trend to "colonise" picturesque villages and towns - and appealing parts of cities - can only continue.

I think the politicians who are trying to turn back the tide are onto a losing battle, but they're reluctant to make the obvious suggestion - that if the locals can no longer afford the rocketing house prices, then there's actually nothing wrong with moving some place where property is cheaper.

After all, that's what Jenny and I did, and it's worked out very well for us. We gave up on Islington, one of the most expensive parts of London, because we couldn't afford to move from a flat to a house. We sold our flat and left for Belfast, where we were able to buy a semi-detached house for cash, with plenty of money left over.

A lot of Londoners defeated by the property prices are now heading for cheaper cities and towns where not only are houses affordable but the quality of life is better - less congestion, a slower pace, friendlier people and lots of nearby beauty spots. Often they wonder why they didn't make the move much earlier.

Being driven out could be a blessing in disguise.

22 comments:

  1. A lot of people are leaving NYC and San Francisco here, due to horrific costs of housing. Unfortunately, places like Denver are now seeing the same thing. I have a friend who left the Bay Area a few years ago for Boise, Idaho and now it seems to be the latest hot spot. And I thought that was the middle of nowhere!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bijoux: Idaho sounds like an interesting place - "The Boise River Greenbelt is a series of tree-dotted trails and parks hugging the water's edge. In an art deco building, downtown’s Boise Art Museum has contemporary works and an outdoor sculpture garden. The Old Idaho Penitentiary contains 19th-century prison cells and gallows, plus historic military weaponry."

      Delete
  2. It depends on the situation. I moved out of a metropolis to a smaller town thirty years ago to find a quieter lifestyle and today that town is a metropolis in its own right. Luckily for me, the suburb that I chose to buy property in has stayed a quiet place but has been expanding in all directions due to migration of the kind that you have written about from Mumbai the most expensive real estate in India.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ramana: Lucky that your neighbourhood is still quiet although Pune is now quite a busy metropolis. This part of east Belfast is very quiet too - except when the schoolkids come and go!

      Delete
  3. I heard that cry in Norfolk some fifty years ago and in rural France about thirty years ago. One response was that of a feisty elderly french neighbour...well, she said, who sold them the houses, then?
    The question which troubles me is the trend in London byboth councils and housing associations to move people out of settled comunities in order to facilitate high priced housing, leaving them far from their work, and forcing children to change schools.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fly: A lot of Londoners are now being rehoused in places far away from the capital - like Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. Quite often they end up feeling isolated, lonely and depressed.

      Delete
  4. "Gentrification" is happening in many places. We don't see it where we live. We find, when we travel, that in many of the places we like to go, locals sometimes find it harder to make ends meet when taxes and cost go up because of the new, more affluent people moving into and/or developing their area. We've been visiting one such place, Jackson, Wyoming, since the early 70s. It totally amazing how much that place has changed in the years since. It's still a nice area to visit. We mainly go there because of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and stay in a campground in one of the parks, but generally make into Jackson at least once during our visits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike: It looks like Wyoming is still quite a small place (population 10,660) so still a good spot to visit, as you say. Gentrification is going on all over London, but not much in Belfast, except for all the swish apartments in the new Titanic Quarter near the Titanic Belfast tourist attraction.

      Delete
  5. I don't really see that happening a lot where I live but some of the lower priced neighborhoods here are just bad to live in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary: I know you have a constant succession of alarming incidents in your particular area.

      Delete
  6. Being priced out of your home can be good only IF you can afford to move to somewhere good. We have friends who were excited to be among the first of a gentrification move. What happens when the neighborhood fails to meet its promise? They could no longer afford to move back into their previous neighborhood. But, their new neighbors could afford to stay put.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda: That's a common problem. If we wanted to move back to London, which we don't, it would be impossible because property prices in London are now much higher than when we lived there.

      Delete
  7. It's happening here too in the Atlantic provinces, driven by Covid alarm and with so many now working remotely. Like everything, there is pro and anti this. But really, it's the RE market everywhere. Nothing stays the same.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. www: I blame estate agents as well as incomers. They work on commission, so it's in their interest to keep pushing up property prices. Another £10,000 here, another £10,000 there. And then there's bidding wars....

      Delete
  8. What you have posted here, Nick, is sadly true in so many areas. Here in New England as well, buying property has become a bidding war with people willing to pay well above an asking price. Friends in NJ recently sold their home, bought 6 years ago, and received in excess of $25K over list. Who wouldn’t take an offer like that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beatrice: $25,000 (£18,000) over the asking price is quite something. We were once drawn into a bidding war on a house in Belfast with another potential buyer. The price rocketed up but the sellers were left with egg on their faces after both of us possible buyers withdrew (for different reasons).

      Delete
  9. I could just about afford to buy the house I was born in, but it's a lot smaller than where I live now.
    I wouldn't want to move back - the area isn't the same, and all the people I knew are long gone.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ms Scarlet: Same here. My parents bought their first three-bed house in 1946 for about £1,750. The house was sold in 2018 for £485,000. And that's in a very ordinary road, nothing special about it. We could afford to buy it now only by using a big chunk of our savings.

      Delete
  10. Housing costs going up here east of Los Angeles, too, with a shortage of homes or any affordable living establishments, little area left for new housing to be built. Our city has altered some regulations to now allow some homes to add a second smaller abode behind their house. I think moving to a new area is best when a person is not too old, still quite active to easily get to know the area, maybe participate in community activities and meet new people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joared: Backland developments, as they're known here, are quite common. People with huge back gardens often sell off part of the garden for new houses.

      Yes, it's best to move to a new area when you're young enough to make a fresh start and get to know some of the locals.

      Delete
  11. But what about people for whom moivng would provide an undue financial hardship. Or who are tied to an area by their job? Or who have family they don't want to leave behind? I think there is some privilege behind the idea that people who are getting squeezed out should just move.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agent: Good points. For some people, moving would drastically affect their quality of life, and possibly be a financial liability. Yes, we're not all privileged enough to simply move somewhere else.

      Delete