5 ms·

Why is almost all housing in London so shitty? It was my big shock when i first came there. Almost all except the very top of the market (over 2000GBP per week,

Why is almost all housing in London so shitty? It was my big shock when i first came there. Almost all except the very top of the market (over 2000GBP per week, and there are few flats that expensive) appear so terrible... Is that only London or all of the country is like that? Why? Something like tax laws making it prohibitive to renovate housing? Why there is still a lot of 100+ years old rotten houses in London, definitely bearing no historical significance, their planning clearly showing they were build before electricity? I was very surprised since i came from a country many times poorer than the U.K. and yet the housing stock looks so much better there.

barking 14y ago
I prefer older houses, they're usually better soundproofed for starters and have higher ceilings and sash windows which provide better ventilation. The high cost in London is simply because of the demand.
- anovikov 14y ago
  I am not complaining about the costs, that is okay. But overwhelming majority of housing is in really terrible condition, the one that covers almost all of the market except the very top. Other places i used to live in, those with 20-50% of U.K.'s per capita GDP, have much better housing, new and old one.
  - barking 14y ago
    Well if you can afford housing in London then maybe you were at the very top of the market in other countries? I left London partly so I could afford to live in a nicer house. I'd imagine it's a similar story in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, New York.
  - NickPollard 14y ago
    As someone living in London, I would generally agree with this - compared to a lot of places, London does seem to have a lot of housing in quite bad repair. To take a wild guess why, I would suggest two factors: 1) The housing stock is old compared to a lot of places, so much of it needs modernization and renovation 2) The lack of space to expand (plus restrictions on greenfield developments) means new housing is limited, so there is not much competition to existing landlords. Why spend thousands of £ on upgrading your property if you can leave it as it is and still charge high rents?
    - anovikov 14y ago
      Yes probably something about that - restrictions on new development and a lot of other red tape which all but prohibits complete renovations of entire houses and/or new construction. Because otherwise, in a country with that much fluid capital, you would have a lot of good housing (and land isn't a problem, as most of those houses are just 3-5 storeys, and public transportation is in perfect shape meaning you could squeeze in a lot more people). Even the very center, places like Knightsbridge, are almost entirely old, rotten shit.
      - justincormack 14y ago
        We like those old houses. We do not consider them shit. The entire character of the city comes from its history embodied in its buildings. Most of the new homes are total shit, and won't last nearly as long as the old stuff.
- justincormack 14y ago
  Indeed, but the OP is foreign and I have noticed that people from many countries hate old houses, eg Polish friends of mine think we are weird living in old places. Rather glad we haven't knocked London down and turned it into Barratt homes myself.
Silhouette 14y ago
I think it's just basic economics. There are some areas in the UK where there is such a concentration of interest that demand far outstrips supply, and London is the biggest example. That leads to dramatically higher prices in those areas, and presumably makes the market less competitive in terms of quality as well.
mietek 14y ago
Good question. This is my experience as well.
Wintamute 14y ago
Not all housing in London is like that. Like any city it's hard to find the best areas and nicest deals as a newcomer. A lot of the nice/cheap flats are snapped up very quickly by people in privileged positions (i.e. nice flats may be passed around within friendship groups or within a workplace). There are loads of lovely, old, well renovated flats, you just need to be lucky or well informed to find one. We pay GBP1300 per month for a newly renovated, spacious 1 bedroom flat in a Victorian terrace. Give me a period property over a flimsy/shabby new build any day of the week.
yardie 14y ago
This is basically the story of every major city I've lived in, except Miami. NYC: crappy, cramped apartments. SF: I believe the crappy ones collapsed after the earthquakes and fires, what's left is typical San Francisco. London: I assume they can't build anything taller than 3 stories outside of London City. Everyone is always complaining how there is no place to live and yet everywhere I went were these squat brownstones. Most had no redeeming architectural qualities so why they weren't razed to the ground still baffles me. Paris: doesn't have the housing pressure of London. I might be biased because I've had the best luck in getting really good apartments in Paris. Either because I'm really lucky or I just figured how and "who" to ask when I needed an apartment. The buildings are 2x the height of London and the city feels much smaller geographically yet feels like the same number of people. From what I understand, Paris has an appearance ordinance on apartments so property owners have a duty to keep up appearance. Not doing that leads to fines and fines eventually lead to them auctioning off your building. That last part can take decades.
- anovikov 14y ago
  Same impressions of Paris. Great, liveable city.

barking 14y ago

I prefer older houses, they're usually better soundproofed for starters and have higher ceilings and sash windows which provide better ventilation. The high cost in London is simply because of the demand.

anovikov 14y ago
I am not complaining about the costs, that is okay. But overwhelming majority of housing is in really terrible condition, the one that covers almost all of the market except the very top. Other places i used to live in, those with 20-50% of U.K.'s per capita GDP, have much better housing, new and old one.
- barking 14y ago
  Well if you can afford housing in London then maybe you were at the very top of the market in other countries? I left London partly so I could afford to live in a nicer house. I'd imagine it's a similar story in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, New York.
- NickPollard 14y ago
  As someone living in London, I would generally agree with this - compared to a lot of places, London does seem to have a lot of housing in quite bad repair. To take a wild guess why, I would suggest two factors: 1) The housing stock is old compared to a lot of places, so much of it needs modernization and renovation 2) The lack of space to expand (plus restrictions on greenfield developments) means new housing is limited, so there is not much competition to existing landlords. Why spend thousands of £ on upgrading your property if you can leave it as it is and still charge high rents?
  - anovikov 14y ago
    Yes probably something about that - restrictions on new development and a lot of other red tape which all but prohibits complete renovations of entire houses and/or new construction. Because otherwise, in a country with that much fluid capital, you would have a lot of good housing (and land isn't a problem, as most of those houses are just 3-5 storeys, and public transportation is in perfect shape meaning you could squeeze in a lot more people). Even the very center, places like Knightsbridge, are almost entirely old, rotten shit.
    - justincormack 14y ago
      We like those old houses. We do not consider them shit. The entire character of the city comes from its history embodied in its buildings. Most of the new homes are total shit, and won't last nearly as long as the old stuff.
justincormack 14y ago
Indeed, but the OP is foreign and I have noticed that people from many countries hate old houses, eg Polish friends of mine think we are weird living in old places. Rather glad we haven't knocked London down and turned it into Barratt homes myself.

Silhouette 14y ago

I think it's just basic economics. There are some areas in the UK where there is such a concentration of interest that demand far outstrips supply, and London is the biggest example. That leads to dramatically higher prices in those areas, and presumably makes the market less competitive in terms of quality as well.

mietek 14y ago

Good question. This is my experience as well.

Wintamute 14y ago

Not all housing in London is like that. Like any city it's hard to find the best areas and nicest deals as a newcomer. A lot of the nice/cheap flats are snapped up very quickly by people in privileged positions (i.e. nice flats may be passed around within friendship groups or within a workplace). There are loads of lovely, old, well renovated flats, you just need to be lucky or well informed to find one. We pay GBP1300 per month for a newly renovated, spacious 1 bedroom flat in a Victorian terrace. Give me a period property over a flimsy/shabby new build any day of the week.

yardie 14y ago

This is basically the story of every major city I've lived in, except Miami. NYC: crappy, cramped apartments. SF: I believe the crappy ones collapsed after the earthquakes and fires, what's left is typical San Francisco. London: I assume they can't build anything taller than 3 stories outside of London City. Everyone is always complaining how there is no place to live and yet everywhere I went were these squat brownstones. Most had no redeeming architectural qualities so why they weren't razed to the ground still baffles me. Paris: doesn't have the housing pressure of London. I might be biased because I've had the best luck in getting really good apartments in Paris. Either because I'm really lucky or I just figured how and "who" to ask when I needed an apartment. The buildings are 2x the height of London and the city feels much smaller geographically yet feels like the same number of people. From what I understand, Paris has an appearance ordinance on apartments so property owners have a duty to keep up appearance. Not doing that leads to fines and fines eventually lead to them auctioning off your building. That last part can take decades.

anovikov 14y ago
Same impressions of Paris. Great, liveable city.