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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

#181

Post by emmelaich »

bogomipz wrote: post #124
bogomipz wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you rent the flat from AirBnB then? I'm not understanding your comment.

Why the down vote? seriously? I am asking for clarification because I am interested if you were speaking about the upside or the downside? Its not at all clear.

I didn't downvote you.

The thanks to AirBNB was as an aside. I think we rented AirBNB but to be honest not sure; might have been one of the many other under the radar holiday house schemes available in Italy and other places.

However the phenomenon under discussion clearly makes something like AirBNB possible -- and good luck to them.

Whether it is an upside or downside overall -- I do not know.

(I have now upvoted both of your comments)

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

#182

Post by s_q_b »

monknomo wrote: post #79
keithpeter wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens until the bubble pops I think is the question. To quote the OA... "In the evenings an eerie stillness settles on [the area]. That’s because these new owners are so rich in both money and global property that their London addresses frequently sit empty, functioning more as dust-sheeted deposit boxes rather than actual homes." This is not why we have cities. We have cities to allow interaction. Look where…

I see similar comments on all of these articles and I am really curious which UK/USA/Canada cities that artists and musicians and the like go to. I'm going to throw out Nashville as a thought for musicians, and maybe Pittsburgh for tinkerers.

Nashville, Austin, and Boulder are peaking or have peaked. Tech in Philadelphia is right at the tipping point. To skate to where the puck is going, look to the Rust Belt.

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

#183

Post by stuaxo »

titanomachy wrote: post #76
p1mrx wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we solve this problem with virtualization? Build houses in the middle of nowhere, but assign a central London address.

Haha this is great. On a more serious note, maybe banks could offer some sort of investment vehicle made up of homes in a certain area. The homes would then be rented out for revenue, and foreign buyers could have an equivalent financial position without driving away actual residents.

I had a similar idea but with lower and lower ceilings, you could have 100s of apartments at one address with 1cm ceilings, but great sq footage.

Virtualisation probably makes more sense though.

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

#184

Post by stuaxo »

titanomachy wrote: post #76
p1mrx wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we solve this problem with virtualization? Build houses in the middle of nowhere, but assign a central London address.

Haha this is great. On a more serious note, maybe banks could offer some sort of investment vehicle made up of homes in a certain area. The homes would then be rented out for revenue, and foreign buyers could have an equivalent financial position without driving away actual residents.

I had a similar idea but with lower and lower ceilings, you could have 100s of apartments at one address with 1cm ceilings, but great sq footage.

Virtualisation probably makes more sense though.

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

#185

Post by stuaxo »

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.

Commuting into London is already easy, huge amounts of people do it every day.

It is expensive though.

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

#186

Post by stuaxo »

pjc50 wrote: post #52
melling wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the other directions? How many people commute from Birmingham, for example? It's only 126 miles away? That's a 30 commute sometime this century. It's really just a question of when.

"HS2" is under construction which should make it more like an hour, although anyone with experience of UK trains will be skeptical. Today if you said you were commuting from Birmingham on a daily basis people would regard it as a bit extreme. There are people who commute from Barcelona , although not many.

Hs2 is not gonna be cheap...

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

#187

Post by stuaxo »

Grishnakh wrote: post #87
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 absolutely is, but no one seems to believe it's possible. It's called SkyTran personal rapid transit. Wikipedia has a page all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTran With small maglev pods traveling 100-150 mph, a 100-mile commute is actually quite doable in one of these, especially since you can sleep in it as it's automated and takes you door-to-door. If governments would actually invest in this…

There is no way that would get planning permission in central London.

It would have to be underground.

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

#188

Post by CyberDildonics »

spearo77 wrote: post #57
Symbiote wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

IRS requires reporting of income and bank balances from overseas sources and institutions. They collect tax on them.

Of USA citizens, not the whole world

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

#189

Post by CyberDildonics »

stuaxo wrote: post #183
titanomachy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha this is great. On a more serious note, maybe banks could offer some sort of investment vehicle made up of homes in a certain area. The homes would then be rented out for revenue, and foreign buyers could have an equivalent financial position without driving away actual residents.

I had a similar idea but with lower and lower ceilings, you could have 100s of apartments at one address with 1cm ceilings, but great sq footage. Virtualisation probably makes more sense though.

Or... miniaturize everything. Great square footage, looks huge, but ceilings are only half height. Display it with half size furniture, half size appliances, etc. Money in the bank.

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

#190

Post by pavel_lishin »

chadgeidel wrote: post #97
pavel_lishin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe afarrell wasn't talking about the oligarchs being the ones renting out the spaces.

That's a fair point, and this is merely my opinion, but if I could afford housing all over the world, I certainly wouldn't want to deal with the fact that I maybe cannot go visit London/NYC/wherever on a whim and stay at my own private residence. Renting has downsides even with "perfect renting arrangements" which cannot be mitigated by a third party (well, without presumably breaking an entire host of laws).

That's kind of what I was jokingly suggesting; that the caretakers - who likely are the only ones who see the inside of the place for years - just surreptitiously rent it out from under the actual owner.
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