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I am just about to buy a place in London which is basically clearing out everything I have saved up and putting me in substantial dept. There is as much home bu

I am just about to buy a place in London which is basically clearing out everything I have saved up and putting me in substantial dept. There is as much home building as there is space in London, as far as I can see, unless we start building Hong Kong style thirty plus story blocks. Land values take away most developers profits here so in a world where we build more houses, where on Earth does this land come from and who is willing to sell this land (probably for less than it’s worth with planning for a sky scraper)? I don’t get it.

baybal2 8y ago
> There is as much home building as there is space in London as far as I can see unless we start building Hong Kong style thirty plus story buildings. Why not? I think all and every Chinese from the mainland I met tells me of shock they get when they see people in rich countries living in wooden or brick "huts" They have hard time understanding why rich people go along with such standards of living
- EB66 8y ago
  I think that's an inaccurate generalization. I'm pretty sure the rich mainland Chinese gobbling up single family homes on the US west coast don't view their purchases as substandard "wooden huts"...
- andy_ppp 8y ago
  I think most people living in Islington would disagree about brick “huts” and prefer their town houses to massive high rises. I mean in Stratford these high rise apartments are being built but what you’re proposing is knocking down probably a few percent of current homes and then almost certainly not compensating owners fully (as it would cost too much for the land). You could actually argue that cross rail is a better strategy - more homes available by having fast rail transport from the suburbs might work better for cities than building even more homes...
djrobstep 8y ago
I think the obsession with "supply" in isolation glosses over the more crucial issue of economic coercion. The choice between living in a the inner city/suburbs/country isn't made in isolation: Most people make choices through economic necessity. For instance, I'd love a quiet house in the country if I didn't have to go to work each day. But I do, so I gotta pay for the usage of expensive land close to a big city CBD. My potential salary is much lower if I don't. Landlords and boomer homeowners prey on this phenomenon, upping rents/land prices to grab up most/all of the benefit from the higher salary I can get working in the city. Thus the common experience of people with good middle class jobs not getting ahead, knowing that they're getting shafted by landlords, but knowing that they are forced into this predicament and there is no alternative but to keep paying off the landlord/bank holding them hostage.

baybal2 8y ago

> There is as much home building as there is space in London as far as I can see unless we start building Hong Kong style thirty plus story buildings. Why not? I think all and every Chinese from the mainland I met tells me of shock they get when they see people in rich countries living in wooden or brick "huts" They have hard time understanding why rich people go along with such standards of living

EB66 8y ago
I think that's an inaccurate generalization. I'm pretty sure the rich mainland Chinese gobbling up single family homes on the US west coast don't view their purchases as substandard "wooden huts"...
andy_ppp 8y ago
I think most people living in Islington would disagree about brick “huts” and prefer their town houses to massive high rises. I mean in Stratford these high rise apartments are being built but what you’re proposing is knocking down probably a few percent of current homes and then almost certainly not compensating owners fully (as it would cost too much for the land). You could actually argue that cross rail is a better strategy - more homes available by having fast rail transport from the suburbs might work better for cities than building even more homes...

djrobstep 8y ago

I think the obsession with "supply" in isolation glosses over the more crucial issue of economic coercion. The choice between living in a the inner city/suburbs/country isn't made in isolation: Most people make choices through economic necessity. For instance, I'd love a quiet house in the country if I didn't have to go to work each day. But I do, so I gotta pay for the usage of expensive land close to a big city CBD. My potential salary is much lower if I don't. Landlords and boomer homeowners prey on this phenomenon, upping rents/land prices to grab up most/all of the benefit from the higher salary I can get working in the city. Thus the common experience of people with good middle class jobs not getting ahead, knowing that they're getting shafted by landlords, but knowing that they are forced into this predicament and there is no alternative but to keep paying off the landlord/bank holding them hostage.