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Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

citylab.com

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Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#31

Post by chadgeidel »

maxxxxx wrote: post #29
chadgeidel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic. The buyers driving up prices don't live in London. From the article: "Today, 60 percent of properties for sale in this part of London go to international buyers."

I think his point is that if commutes were quicker then regular people could move away from the city but still work there. Billionaires could still sell real estate to each other then without hurting lower incomes.

I like living in the city. I would prefer to live in one. Denver housing isn't so crazy yet that I can't afford to live here, but it's pretty close. I make a pretty damn good salary and would struggle finding a house that doesn't require significant rennovation in the city. Yes, I could move to suburbia - I could commute slightly further, etc, etc. I would prefer not to. I would prefer that my neighbors are people and not empty apartments used as safety-deposit boxes. (this is not the case in Denver, but sounds to be the case in London and other large cities).

Edit: As an example - in my neighborhood there are $300k houses in pretty sorry shape that are purchased just for the land. They are destroyed and then a $500k new house is built on that land. This is what I'm facing. I could perhaps afford $300k (although I'm gunshy to purchase in such a volatile market), but it would require IMHO another $50k in renovation to make it "livable". I'm not talking about granite counter tops and high-end designer furniture, I'm talking about roof, insulation, water heater, bathroom fixtures, yard work, etc.

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#32

Post by pjc50 »

melling wrote: post #7

If only there was a way to make living within a city less important. There must be some way to move large numbers of people over "great distances" (50-100 miles) in a more commutable time.

There is. It's full.

(Most of the towns in the southeast of England are dominated by commuters to London)

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#33

Post by PhasmaFelis »

antisthenes wrote: post #10
conception wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver recently enacted an anti foreign buyer tax that seems to have almost completely stopped the practice. Curious if we will start to see more and more of this local protionism.

Unless every desirable city introduces this tax uniformly, doesn't this just shift the burden from Vancouver onto other cities?

It does. Should Vancouver not act to protect its own citizens to the best of its ability, then?

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#34

Post by spitfire »

Symbiote wrote: post #28
scotty79 wrote: post #4

What bothers me is that price rises but those are the same crappy apartments. When a flat costs millions I'd expect it to be absolute marvel of modern technology.

Why do you think they're crappy? I'm not sure what the price range under discussion is, but here are a few from Mayfair. £11M, seems fancy: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40591729 This one seems to be in a new building, £32M: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/2192886/ (home automation, panic room, aquarium etc; would suit criminal mastermind...) This is much cheaper, £2.6M: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sal…

Sorry for the flash.

http://www.crackshackormansion.com/index.html

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#36

Post by Symbiote »

mywittyname wrote: post #27
msrpotus wrote: post #13

If they aren't living there, why don't they just rent a lot of the houses out? I guess they don't need the money but that has always struck me as weird.

I believe this is to not draw attention to the property. There was a Planet Money podcast a while ago about how high-end real estate is being used by foreigners to launder money. If the FBI catches wind, they have tools to seize the property and remunerate the proceeds. I'm guessing that renting the property means involving the IRS and potentially their foreign counterparts in the person's home country, both of which…

This has nothing to do with the FBI or IRS; it's in London.

The UK's territories include several actual tax havens (the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman etc). Many tens of thousands of houses are owned by corporations registered in an offshore tax haven.

There's a map of British property registered in a tax haven: http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#37

Post by tome »

jandrese wrote: post #25
afarrell wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there is a massive opportunity to be had here from managing and renting out these places.

People dumping hundreds of millions into the market just to hide it from external forces aren't interested in being landlords.

They don't want to make a few percent on their capital?

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#39

Post by hx87 »

antisthenes wrote: post #10
conception wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver recently enacted an anti foreign buyer tax that seems to have almost completely stopped the practice. Curious if we will start to see more and more of this local protionism.

Unless every desirable city introduces this tax uniformly, doesn't this just shift the burden from Vancouver onto other cities?

Other cities are welcome to more affordable housing and extra tax revenue by introducing the same tax. Win-win for everyone except wealthy foreign buyers, no?

Re: Even the Rich Are Being Priced Out of Central London

#40

Post by melling »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #22
melling wrote: post #7

If only there was a way to make living within a city less important. There must be some way to move large numbers of people over "great distances" (50-100 miles) in a more commutable time.

Why would we want to? I grew up in the Chicago suburban sprawl, and it feels like a tremendous waste of land and infrastructure. I hope we one day figure out how to reduce humanity's physical footprint. Agriculture would obviously be the biggest thing, but compacting living space would help too.

Well, you could limit cars in cities which wastes a lot of space.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-01/american-c...

But then you need to answer my question:

There must be some way to move large numbers of people over "great distances" (50-100 miles) in a more commutable time.

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