This is my starter home, bought in 2013 for 79,500, sold it in 2021 for 160,000 after extensive renovation. It was recently sold again for 220,000 with no additional work done.
My father in law bought a flat in king's cross for virtually nothing in the 70s because it was considered shit, there was lots of drugs and prostitution.
I'm too well mannered to ask him upfront exactly how much it's worth now but it's generally accepted he did well there.
That's a different generation though. He went into property his whole life, and he sold us our house at massive mate's rates discount but obviously we've still got a mortgage which we can fit into our budget just. But the moment it comes out of 'fixed rate' territory I'm really worried.
We've been a lot luckier than most - without my wife's side of the family we'd still be renting with the greedy landlord twats in shitty little box rooms. It's a lot easier if the landlord is your father in law. But I worry for people of my generation and for my son's generation because this is, in anyone's book, absolute madness. It shouldn't be so impossible to buy or rent a normal house on a normal wage. The system is fucked. People are paying through the nose in the UK for housing and housing should be made affordable to everyone - it should be a right not a privilege.
I know it's easy for me to say that because I have been privileged by the person I married but it makes me sick that normal people in this country are in doubt about their living circumstances on a daily basis.
I have drunk a certain amount of wine tonight.
Supply < demand
Problem is currently everyone thinks they've got a golden goose and don't want to accept the prices their properties are actually selling for. The amount of aggressive comments I've heard from sellers in the last few months only for them to come back because guess what no one's buying at that price. A lot of people are trying to get a head of a crash which means there's a lot of mucking about with cold feet, maxing out mortgages that suddenly can't be maintained when the government and the bank of England do a whoopsie and dillusional values.
And still 220K sounds awfully affordable. Here where I live 80-90sq.m. flats cost 1M and the average salary is 3K and the average 3 room flat rent 1.5-1.7K
