The Student Room Group

What do you consider as the best way for resolving the nationwide housing crisis?

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Obviously build more: we need to densify our cities and their inner suburbs, and make it easier to build houses than it currently is. I'd move to a deemed consent model where if a planning application fits the local authority's development plan and rules, it has to be built: no objections from the community. We need to get better at building infrastructure, particularly reservoirs, to let us do the housebuilding in the areas where it's required. The market is pretty good at adjusting house prices based on supply and demand, so increase supply and prices should fall, and some of the unusually cheap properties being touted above will be cheap due to low demand (for a reason!).

It'd be more marginal in terms of impact, but on the demand side I'd require planning approval to change a property from a primary home to a second property (either empty for the owner to visit occasionally or to rent out as a short-term holiday let): cap the percentage of second properties at say 20-25% of a community and then require primary homes to be either owner-occupied or let out on a long term basis.

Don't necessarily believe that foreign students are a huge driver: I don't need to look very far in Cardiff to see that there are whole new accommodation blocks being built to accommodate foreign students, so increasingly (given that we tend to only get wealthier overseas students given the size of the fees!) they're not part of the demand for traditional houses and flats. Also, we're far from the only country in Europe to have high levels of immigration (student or otherwise) but few other countries seem to struggle to house their populations quite like Britain does.
Reply 21
Original post by SHallowvale
Yes, the places where people have jobs. Port Glasgow is not the only place in the country. The millions of people who have jobs elsewhere and are looking for a home to buy cannot suddenly pack their bags and move to Port Glasgow en masse, their job can't move with them.
People live where there is work available and, yes, I think this is broadly a national crisis. I used the South as an example as it is the most obvious one, you aren't going to find < £60,000 homes there very often (if ever).

Here's one in Bodmin
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139497035#/?channel=RES_BUY

Bodmin was my first search...

Again, rather be closer to the sea? How about Plymouth?
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144733502#/?channel=RES_BUY

Would rather be south east rather than south west? Folkestone...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148208198#/?channel=RES_BUY

I'm not sure if we have an office in Folkestone, but I could move with my job to Bodmin or Plymouth.
Reply 22
Original post by Saracen's Fez
Obviously build more: we need to densify our cities and their inner suburbs, and make it easier to build houses than it currently is. I'd move to a deemed consent model where if a planning application fits the local authority's development plan and rules, it has to be built: no objections from the community. We need to get better at building infrastructure, particularly reservoirs, to let us do the housebuilding in the areas where it's required. The market is pretty good at adjusting house prices based on supply and demand, so increase supply and prices should fall, and some of the unusually cheap properties being touted above will be cheap due to low demand (for a reason!).
It'd be more marginal in terms of impact, but on the demand side I'd require planning approval to change a property from a primary home to a second property (either empty for the owner to visit occasionally or to rent out as a short-term holiday let): cap the percentage of second properties at say 20-25% of a community and then require primary homes to be either owner-occupied or let out on a long term basis.
Don't necessarily believe that foreign students are a huge driver: I don't need to look very far in Cardiff to see that there are whole new accommodation blocks being built to accommodate foreign students, so increasingly (given that we tend to only get wealthier overseas students given the size of the fees!) they're not part of the demand for traditional houses and flats. Also, we're far from the only country in Europe to have high levels of immigration (student or otherwise) but few other countries seem to struggle to house their populations quite like Britain does.

Agree with this. Its not long since London regained it's pre-WWII population. The city I live in is still miles behind its peak population of the early 1950s and there are plenty of brownfeild gap sites.
Original post by Quady
Here's one in Bodmin
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139497035#/?channel=RES_BUY
Bodmin was my first search...
Again, rather be closer to the sea? How about Plymouth?
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144733502#/?channel=RES_BUY
Would rather be south east rather than south west? Folkestone...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148208198#/?channel=RES_BUY
I'm not sure if we have an office in Folkestone, but I could move with my job to Bodmin or Plymouth.

These are, again, not homes representative of the wider national picture. Bodmin and Folkestone aren't particularly well populated areas with tens of thousands of jobs going. Plymouth is perhaps your best example but this is A) a 1 bedroom flat and B) covered in mold...? It's not suitable for anyone to live in, let alone a family.

Here are some other examples:

Bristol £289,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151581764#/?channel=RES_BUY
Portsmouth £250,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150792620#/?channel=RES_BUY
Reading £440,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/149609816#/?channel=RES_BUY
Slough £350,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151637618#/?channel=RES_BUY

All two bedroom, terraced properties with barely any front / back garden. All well outside their respective city centres. All in reasonable condition (by the photos) but none of them extravagant. All ridiculously expensive.
Reply 24
Original post by SHallowvale
These are, again, not homes representative of the wider national picture. Bodmin and Folkestone aren't particularly well populated areas with tens of thousands of jobs going. Plymouth is perhaps your best example but this is A) a 1 bedroom flat and B) covered in mold...? It's not suitable for anyone to live in, let alone a family.
Here are some other examples:
Bristol £289,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151581764#/?channel=RES_BUY
Portsmouth £250,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150792620#/?channel=RES_BUY
Reading £440,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/149609816#/?channel=RES_BUY
Slough £350,000: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151637618#/?channel=RES_BUY
All two bedroom, terraced properties with barely any front / back garden. All well outside their respective city centres. All in reasonable condition (by the photos) but none of them extravagant. All ridiculously expensive.

'The wider national picture' isn't of people fearing homelessness.

Yes, more expensive properties are available, ours cost us £545k in Oct '22 (plus LBTT). Quite affordable for us in our 30s, working in the public sector without the help of 'the bank of mum and dad'. People are paying these prices as its quite affordable for them. There are cheaper places to live which are affordable on NLW.

If I were fearing homelessness I'd set my expectations lower. I wouldn't be expecting to live in a detached five bed half an hour walk from the centre of the third most populous city in the country.
Original post by Quady
'The wider national picture' isn't of people fearing homelessness.
Yes, more expensive properties are available, ours cost us £545k in Oct '22 (plus LBTT). Quite affordable for us in our 30s, working in the public sector without the help of 'the bank of mum and dad'. People are paying these prices as its quite affordable for them. There are cheaper places to live which are affordable on NLW.
If I were fearing homelessness I'd set my expectations lower. I wouldn't be expecting to live in a detached five bed half an hour walk from the centre of the third most populous city in the country.

So that makes it okay? 'You aren't homeless, what are you complaining about?'

The homes I listed are not affordable for most people, least not with the bank of mum and dad or many years (if not decades) of saving.

Home ownership has gone down each generation. That is a problem, it means far more people are trapped in renting hell and will not have the security of owning their own home.
Reply 26
Original post by SHallowvale
So that makes it okay? 'You aren't homeless, what are you complaining about?'
The homes I listed are not affordable for most people, least not with the bank of mum and dad or many years (if not decades) of saving.
Home ownership has gone down each generation. That is a problem, it means far more people are trapped in renting hell and will not have the security of owning their own home.

Surely to the OP fearing homelessness then yes?

'Home ownership has gone down each generation.' - surely not? It was 25% in 1918. Isn't it over 50% now?

https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/a-brief-history-of-home-ownership-in-britain/
Original post by Quady
Surely to the OP fearing homelessness then yes?
'Home ownership has gone down each generation.' - surely not? It was 25% in 1918. Isn't it over 50% now?
https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/a-brief-history-of-home-ownership-in-britain/

Home ownership has gone down for each generation since the 1950s.
Original post by SHallowvale
Home ownership has gone down for each generation since the 1950s.

He also isn’t aware that half of the Scotland’s population lived in council housing in the early 1980s...
Original post by ABBAForever2015
He also isn’t aware that half of the Scotland’s population lived in council housing in the early 1980s...

Also chose 1918 as a point of reference. 🤦*♂️
Someone with too much spare time on their hands is trying to be contrarian.
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by SHallowvale
Also chose 1918 as a point of reference. 🤦*♂️

I see. It doesn’t make sense.
Reply 32
Original post by SHallowvale
Home ownership has gone down for each generation since the 1950s.

So it's gone down over the last three generations. The lifetime of Kier Starmer.
Reply 33
Original post by SHallowvale
Also chose 1918 as a point of reference. 🤦*♂️

Feel free to choose a time prior to the world wars then. 1900 say? Fancy comparing against the round number?
Reply 34
Original post by Gazpacho.
Someone with too much spare time on their hands is trying to be contrarian.

As opposed to going along with the idea that the 1950s were normal?

What's been the average owner-occupier rate for tge last 100 years? 200 years? 400 years? 800 years?
Compare it to today.
Original post by Quady
So it's gone down over the last three generations. The lifetime of Kier Starmer.

It has gone down for every cohort since those born between 1946-1950, yes. That's the problem.
Original post by ABBAForever2015
What do you consider as the best way for resolving the nationwide housing crisis?
It’s an elephant in the room. Some folks say limiting the number of foreign students is the best way. As unsavoury as it sounds, it’s true that the abundance of foreign students does put a huge strain on housing supply when almost all major cities and towns have or are near to some universities. Debates seem difficult when it’s easily being associated with racism and xenophobia.
How could this be resolved in the practical sense so that those who don’t own houses, including me, would not have to worry about homelessness anymore?

yo! im irish but we have the exact same problem. idk if britain has as much empty land as we do, but our govt needs to build more houses. maybe limit the amount of airbnbs in cities already struggling with housing. ohhh and improve TFI (transport for ireland) cos rn it's terrible, and people don't want to live somewhere if there's 0 buses nearby and the trains are too expensive.

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