MovieChat Forums > Location, Location, Location (2000) Discussion > Why is British real estate so freaking e...

Why is British real estate so freaking expensive?

posted 16 years ago by outfielder24
8 replies | jump to latest

For some reason I was watching this show over here in Canada, and this couple had a budget of 130 000 pounds, roughly 260 000 canadian dollars, and they were showing them tiny little two bedroom townhouses that would probably sell for 110 000 DOLLARS here. I know England is densly populated but outside of large cities that can't account for all the excess. How do low income people even find a modest appartment over there? Do you pile 6 people in a 1 bed shack? You Brits should cause a real estate bubble crash by everyone over there refusing to by a house for 1 year. Then, you'll get a nice four bed detached house for your 130 thousand pounds.

[–] Perkin-warbeck 16 years ago

Don't worry the crash has started bbig time over here!
Long may it continue :)

[–] derrickgchow 16 years ago

Yeah, I watch the show from Canada too, and the property prices terrify me.

[–] jroberts_95 16 years ago

It really is amazing how high real estate prices in Britain are. The British people pay double what we Canadians would pay for the same house. And usually the British homes are smaller. I love England but I can't get over how expensive the houses are there. I feel very badly for people who don't have much money over there. There's no way they could afford a home.

[–] cstapleton 16 years ago

Not all of Canada.

You should check out the prices of real estate here in the Greater Vancouver area. About all you can get for $110,000 is a house trailer on a pad.

[–] everyonedoesit 16 years ago

Yeah £130k is a pretty low budget for buying a house. Our house is currently on the market for £380k (765k canadian) and it's by no means a mansion. Pretty big semi-detatched 5 bedrooms, garage, beautiful garden. (South England, interested? let me know ;-)) I've got no idea why houses are so expensive here, mortgages aren't exactly easy to come by at the moment either.

We're in a massive crash at the moment, but to be fair we've always had stupidly overpriced property and as soon as this is over prices will start to rise again.

Oh and to be fair, our jobs do on average pay much more than yours and the American equivalents, but all our stuff costs loads more =p

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] laymonite-2 8 years ago

As a Brit, it's a bit of a mystery TBH. The reason given is often that it's a crowded island, with space at a premium - but this clearly doesn't completely explain how extreme the difference is.

As a regular visitor to the USA I was amazed at what you can buy in the USA with your money compared to the UK. AND with lower cost of living AND higher wages!

You also only have to cross the channel to France to see how much more you can buy with the same money...

There *is* a huge discrepancy in property prices between areas of the UK. London being one extreme and the far North of England another.

London prices rocket so fast that mostly only big cash investors can possibly afford them http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2394704/Foreign-investors-snap-70-new-build-homes-central-London.html

It makes me laugh to watch the 1st series of LLL from 2000, with buyers fussy over 2 bedroom flats in Hackney for ~£100,000!