Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing beats Riyadh in growth over 10 years. The entire city changed.
Riyadh and Dubai are bad examples as they are in the middle of a desert.
What? Why? Riyadh changed like crazy in just 10 years.
London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
81–90 of 220 posts
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was your reason for loathing living in London? Edit: reason I ask is because I assume it's costs, I can't imagine your apartment was cheap. I don't see much evidence that even SWE's can comfortably live there.
London is actually surprisingly cheaper than many cities in US. You just have to find your place based on the budget. I lived in Ealing area (sure it’s far from many actions but lots of great ethnic food in far cheaper price than anywhere else) in a quite a spacious apartment and it was half as much as what I spent in both two cities I have lived in US. And the tube is excellent (compared to our public transport stan…
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Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was great in 2012 and comfortable for SWEs (am one). Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.
That's the one kind of inflation which didn't bother me too much. I still go out just as much I just drink less. That's healthier. The property situation makes me far more angry. The UK construction and property industry completely lacks market discipline and quality regulations have been reduced (see: Grenfell where that literally killed people, but also the shocking build quality of most properties). Then there was…
| quality regulations have been reduced (see: Grenfell where that literally killed people.
Grenfell was a horrible tragedy. It was built as social housing in the 50’s or 60’s to a much higher standard (in terms of space and utility) than the so called luxury apartments of Canary Wharf.
The installation of cladding to modernise the building to meet modern energy efficiency standards and the apparent failure to make sure that work was completed within the regulations seems to be the cause of the catastrophic spread of the fire.
London planning is a complete mess. We waste millions on poorly executed projects to modernise social housing to save on CO2 emissions and at the same time we have the wealthy living in Victorian and older houses that are not allowed to install double glazing in order “to preserve the character of the property”.
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
We often hear here (Berlin) that the housing affordability crisis is due to not building enough housing...Yet London apparently built loads in the last 20 years and it's still as unaffordable as ever (or even more than ever)? Is there any data showing that if we let loose and build a ton of housing that purchase prices and (especially) rents will reduce significantly? It's intuitively true but all the cities you can…
1) Housing affordability relates to building relative to growth rate. For a variety of reasons, inlcluding both London's glboal appeal and a fact that it is so dominant culturally, economically, etc. within the UK it's likely this rate of increasse was still not enough. 2) A lot of the building has not necessarily been what you'd call affordable. While you will get some benefit moving wealthier people, expats, and sh…
4) smaller households. You can add 50% more housing, but if more people are spending more of their years single, and desiring to live in their own abode, then increase in demand could easily outpace increase in supply.
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will not continue seeing such rapid growth for another few hundred years, world population will plateau by mid century and even the big cities will at some point stop growing.
Why?
birth rates in pretty much every developed nation are below replacement level. Some countries are using migration as a sort of band-aid fixed but the worst fears are starting to come true recently.
Previously some people had thought or hoped that falling birthrates was/is a natural concequence of becoming rich enough, that as countries develop kids are seen as less of a necessity.
But iirc newer data shows falling birthrates even in poorer nations that are stagnant/not developing. They are still well above replacement rate for now but its not a good trend.
As for reasons why: nobody has one single cause, but a major one is that current economies mean children are more of a cost than a benefit, and even the most ambitious incentive programs dont make up for the toll of both working a job and taking care of a helpless human.
As for why this is a bad thing: There are a lot of inbuilt assumptions to the way society is structured that will begin to break down. Things like: there are more workers than retirees. There are more students than teachers. There are more juior employees than managers. When these kinds of things start to change, we will have to adapt society or things will just fall apart.
You're already starting to see previews of this sort of crisis in sectors where few young people join, like becoming merchant ship captains. People having to be called back from retirement, buisnesses failing not from lack of buisness but from lack of employees
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
We often hear here (Berlin) that the housing affordability crisis is due to not building enough housing...Yet London apparently built loads in the last 20 years and it's still as unaffordable as ever (or even more than ever)? Is there any data showing that if we let loose and build a ton of housing that purchase prices and (especially) rents will reduce significantly? It's intuitively true but all the cities you can…
1) Housing affordability relates to building relative to growth rate. For a variety of reasons, inlcluding both London's glboal appeal and a fact that it is so dominant culturally, economically, etc. within the UK it's likely this rate of increasse was still not enough. 2) A lot of the building has not necessarily been what you'd call affordable. While you will get some benefit moving wealthier people, expats, and sh…
The elephant in the room is population growth.
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
The construction is a response to the high prices. Prices would be even higher without the construction that did happen.
I'm not suggesting to stop building, I'm asking what is the solution to housing unaffordablity?
If the goal is to reduce prices, then the solution is some combination of increasing supply and reducing demand.
Increasing supply of housing in London, or increasing supply of cities with qualities similar to London so that demand for London decreases. Or reducing the number of people eligible to live in London.
Increasing prices for labor at the bottom is also an option. Again, reduce supply of labor by offering free education to obtain higher paid work, etc.
Note that there will always be a tier of society who are at the edge of affordable for any desirable area. Not that efforts should not be continuously be made, but as some people are helped, others will arrive to compete (due to the desirability).
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have similar feeling about the LLoyds of London building, which is within the same few blocks. In the late '80s/early '90s it was iconic as a newly different building. Now it is practically lost between other huge (and IMO completely soulless) buildings. I've enjoyed looking at these photos, but it also kinda makes me sad that there is such a massive drive to increase density in the city. I think I may be at a time…
As another former Londoner reading this thread, I think the confusion is that we were told increasing density will increase the viability and availability of local services, but the opposite turns out to be true. The London of today has more per sq mile than twenty years ago in terms of floor space but in level of interesting activity it doesn't compare. I will admit the Shard is cool, but you are absolutely right ab…
Whomever is downvoting, would you care to please join the conversation with your input rather than just pushing the vote buttons?
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Aren’t the salaries higher as well? The killer is house and rental costs. If you want a flat in central London you'll be paying half (or more?) of your £68k salary on rent after tax. In Canary Wharf you might not even be able to afford rent. A £68k salary won't bring you close to being able to afford a mortgage, unless you have capital from other means e.g. inheritance.
To be fair, though, that is a prime-ish location, not much different to trying to live in Manhattan or the nice bits of SF.
Big cities are big enough that you can have vastly different ideas of what it means to "live in New York" or "live in LA" - I had friends in both who would say they lived there, but were a minimum an hour from the central business district.
Re: London Then and Now: Aerial Shots Show City Grow over Past Two Decades
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was great in 2012 and comfortable for SWEs (am one). Now it is honestly too expensive, £8 a pint in pub near work, it makes going out less fun.
That's the one kind of inflation which didn't bother me too much. I still go out just as much I just drink less. That's healthier. The property situation makes me far more angry. The UK construction and property industry completely lacks market discipline and quality regulations have been reduced (see: Grenfell where that literally killed people, but also the shocking build quality of most properties). Then there was…
Net migration of 600k/year also affects property prices.