3 ms·

Neighbourhoods I grew up in were lit and ... This is often a generational thing. Most people move to a bigger dewelling when the form a family and stay the

by mafribe 10y ago

Neighbourhoods I grew up in were lit and ... This is often a generational thing. Most people move to a bigger dewelling when the form a family and stay there until the end of their life. Often young families move to newly built areas, where almost everybody else is also a young family, whence lots of children. 3-4 decades later, the children have moved out, the parents are still about but in their 70s and 80s. * . * . * . I have discussed the issue of empty properties in London with builders and developers, and they generaly laugh at the suggestion that many properties are deliberately left empty. What does happen though is that the top end properties are difficult to sell -- there are just not that many people who will pay > £10 Mill for a flat in London, overlooking the Thames. So they stay empty for a while, simply because nobody can afford them. The owners would love to rent them out, or sell them on. And if you look at what gets build now in London (e.g. Nine Elms, or Docklands) it's not large luxury flats, it's almost exclusively studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms, i.e. targeting the lowest end of the market.

vidarh 10y ago
To put it another way: The neighbourhood I live in now is also usually lit in the evenings. I mentioned my childhood because I have very vivid memories of exactly that - you notice the light much more somewhere where the winters are particularly dark. > And if you look at what gets build now in London (e.g. Nine Elms, or Docklands) it's not large luxury flats, it's almost exclusively studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms, i.e. targeting the lowest end of the market. This is another trap people go into, though: London is far more than the central areas. Go further out, and things are still closer to "normal".
- mafribe 10y ago
  things are still closer to "normal". What do you mean by normal here? Everything is left empty by fabulously wealthy owners, or everything is packed to the rafters? I guess the latter.
  - vidarh 10y ago
    Neither. I mean the mix of properties is not skewed so heavily towards one type of properties, and you have a spread of bigger blocks of flats, smaller ones, terraced housing, detached houses. I live in Croydon, and here you'll find a wide mix from studio flats to mansions, often quite near each other. The proportion of empty properties does not vary much across London as far as I know. Certainly not enough to be noticeable.
    - mafribe 10y ago
      You are right, I'm only familiar with central London. I doubt Croydon currently has enough glamour to attract the super rich to park their money with empty mansions. I imagine that the main reason for property to be empty in Croydon is that it can't be sold/rented at the target price level.
      - vidarh 10y ago
        Empty mansions or super-expensive flats over the long term does not contribute much to the stats - that type of housing make up a vanishingly small part of the total housing volume, so even if they were all empty it wouldn't make much difference. But Croydon actually has some of the most expensive areas of the UK. When people think of Croydon, they often think only of Croydon town centre, but that's a tiny part of the borough. It doesn't have the 10+ million flats you might find a handful of in Kensington etc., but it does have lots of multi-million properties, in numbers big enough that those are significant for these stats. E.g. here's an example of the type of things you might find in Purley, which is part of Croydon [1], [2]. In Shirley (also Croydon) you're more likely to find properties around the million mark, but you do have roads where the average is around 1.5-2.5 million. In terms of empty properties, there's minimal difference between those areas, or the luxury flats near the station, or the middle class areas, or the couple of run down council estates. [1] http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41807624?search_identifier=b86ad45a3c9062e09cc4e7cefaadb2fc http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41807624?search_ide... [2] http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33270402?search_identifier=b86ad45a3c9062e09cc4e7cefaadb2fc http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33270402?search_ide...

by mafribe 10y ago

vidarh 10y ago

To put it another way: The neighbourhood I live in now is also usually lit in the evenings. I mentioned my childhood because I have very vivid memories of exactly that - you notice the light much more somewhere where the winters are particularly dark. > And if you look at what gets build now in London (e.g. Nine Elms, or Docklands) it's not large luxury flats, it's almost exclusively studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms, i.e. targeting the lowest end of the market. This is another trap people go into, though: London is far more than the central areas. Go further out, and things are still closer to "normal".

mafribe 10y ago
things are still closer to "normal". What do you mean by normal here? Everything is left empty by fabulously wealthy owners, or everything is packed to the rafters? I guess the latter.
- vidarh 10y ago
  Neither. I mean the mix of properties is not skewed so heavily towards one type of properties, and you have a spread of bigger blocks of flats, smaller ones, terraced housing, detached houses. I live in Croydon, and here you'll find a wide mix from studio flats to mansions, often quite near each other. The proportion of empty properties does not vary much across London as far as I know. Certainly not enough to be noticeable.
  - mafribe 10y ago
    You are right, I'm only familiar with central London. I doubt Croydon currently has enough glamour to attract the super rich to park their money with empty mansions. I imagine that the main reason for property to be empty in Croydon is that it can't be sold/rented at the target price level.
    - vidarh 10y ago
      Empty mansions or super-expensive flats over the long term does not contribute much to the stats - that type of housing make up a vanishingly small part of the total housing volume, so even if they were all empty it wouldn't make much difference. But Croydon actually has some of the most expensive areas of the UK. When people think of Croydon, they often think only of Croydon town centre, but that's a tiny part of the borough. It doesn't have the 10+ million flats you might find a handful of in Kensington etc., but it does have lots of multi-million properties, in numbers big enough that those are significant for these stats. E.g. here's an example of the type of things you might find in Purley, which is part of Croydon [1], [2]. In Shirley (also Croydon) you're more likely to find properties around the million mark, but you do have roads where the average is around 1.5-2.5 million. In terms of empty properties, there's minimal difference between those areas, or the luxury flats near the station, or the middle class areas, or the couple of run down council estates. [1] http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41807624?search_identifier=b86ad45a3c9062e09cc4e7cefaadb2fc http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41807624?search_ide... [2] http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33270402?search_identifier=b86ad45a3c9062e09cc4e7cefaadb2fc http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33270402?search_ide...