Housing Expert Tells Julia Hartley-Brewer That UK Housing Market Situation "Is Obscene" 

uk has a falling birth rate in the indigenous population, and migration is massive causing the problems, same in the nhs and benefits

We don't have too few homes, we have too many people ... and adding to it as fast as we can!

Net 500k people arriving per year. On a tiny island with an existing shortage of housing stock and massive demand. If you’re waiting for prices to fall, don’t hold your breath lol. They won’t put rates up much higher because the entire economy will collapse.

It is not just building new housing, we need to drastically reduce the people coming in. Opening our boarders since 1997 caused this mess.

Actual UK population is nearer *81M*. This stat is provided by all the national water companies and the supermarkets, through scientific measurements of water and waste water, and sales of items we all use (toilet roll, funnily...) I believe these stats more than a 10 year census that is not filled in by people who 'shouldn't be here....'

How can we all have an house when the Torys and labour keep letting more people in the country

Every new house is now described as ‘luxury’ or ‘superior’ which immediately means that they are not affordable. There is no money to be made building affordable houses.

Well when you have an estimated 90+ million in the country (underreported as 70m)... What do you expect?

Heard the other day that council house waiting lists in London are now up to 15 years. Back in the early 1990s it was a couple of months. What’s changed ? Let half a million poor people in each year.

WE ARE FULL ! ENOUGHS ENOUGH !

As a farmer, I wonder if anybody has thought about feeding maybe 100 million people by 2050 (if rising population and aging models continue show these increases) when arable land is taken not only for housing but also for wilding and the green agenda, net zero etc.

33 still living at home saving for 15 years. I really really pray interest rates go up to 7 percent overnight and crash the whole market. Unbelievable how low they have been for 15 years.

Problem is we do not have to many people in some ways. We do not really have a housing crisis we have a social moral crisis that is affecting things like housing. For instance, if women more and more want to have kids and not have a husband or partner then they have approx 50% less money to spend, hence one problem with their finances on housing. If everyone wants to live alone and not together then you end up with not enough houses. For instance, take a married couple, with three kids, now, it is very likely they divorce, the kids all want to live alone, so you end up needing five houses or residences when a few generations ago it would have been far less, but it is the elephant in the room, no one wants to say it or indeed can say it.

Increasing demand , diminishing supply with immigration. Is this by design?

We wouldn't need to keep concreting over green belt if we wasn't importing 500,000 immigrants per year.

We have LONG needed a ban and reclamation of homes not owned by people within our country.. period.

The large house price increases over the last few decades are partly due to mortgage size increases (how much the banks are willing to lend in terms of your salary), and partly due to the fact that the equation of supply and demand has been tilted by mass migration. The spiraling prices which have destroyed social mobility and will eventually hollow out the property owning middle class track back exactly to when the gates were opened at the end of the 90's.

This country was full to the brim years ago, housing, schools, the nhs, jammed roads etc, the future is bleak.

This is a huge problem in Cornwall, where wages are amongst the worst in the country accompanied by a complete lack of job prospects and some of the highest rents and house prices. I have had to take my family and move to the North East, could no longer afford to live in Cornwall, and the people here constantly say how poor they are compared to the south!!! Cornish locals are amongst the poorest in Northern Europe.

It's not just the number of houses that get built (or don't get built) each year - it's the quality of the housing. The UK's building regulations are lowest common denominator, so the design and build quality is often abysmal - not to mention the siting. These boxes are not built to last so, in a few decades, the problems come home to roost . . .

“You will own nothing and be happy”

It’s a very simple fix we have over 2 million foreigners living in the uk if they were not here even if they lived 2 to a home that would free up 1 million homes for uk born and bred to live in and then when you take into account that these foreigners then have children who also want homes to to put it in simple terms for every legal or illegal immigrant husband and wife who have 2 or 3 children the uk needs 3 or 4 homes to satisfy just their demand.

Simple answer - supply of demand for. The house prices are not obscene. Exactly the same scenario for toothpaste, bread, onions, cars. But, in the UK too many people wherein there are too many non contributors causing excess demand, hence rising prices.

I advertised a room over the course of about 3 weeks. There were literally hundreds who applied and almost all were foreign.

10 million immigrants living in the uk who weren’t born here , 1.4 million living on benefits, we need to lower our population, then house prices and rents will fall to a reasonable level 🙈

Immigration at these levels is not sustainable. It's not just housing it's all the other inferstructure... Absolute madness.... Whenever anyone states this as number one cause, they are given an ISM. As for allowing anyone abroad to buy up housing stock for investment never rented out because it simply isn't worth it. Beyond belief... Oh lets just blame elderly people for living too long, and not downsizing...lol

This issue has been ongoing since the 70's. Aren't people responsible to house themselves? There is no way the government can house everyone, especially with endless immigration. Only those who can afford to house themselves should be allowed in to the country.

Control the boarders! The loss of our Countryside around me is distressing. Our biodiversity is suffering. We are the fifth most populated country in the world per capita against land mass.

Our government are giving more say to local communities on planning applications, which will mean less homes get built. Also to add insult to injury, banks are stating to sell 40 yr mortgages, which will inflate house prices further.

It is annoying how the gov are not making properties for people with low incomes / working class people. Why is it there are so many new build homes that are in the mid round £250,000 mark or over but they don't make cheaper affordable homes. They can make cheaper smaller 3 bedroom terraced houses for families to live in but for some reason they don't make them? The gov can get many builders to make affordable housing and the builders can still make profit. But they want to make the working class the new poor. People with low incomes under £20,000.

Banks are to blame legalised loan sharks upping the prices

It's a perfect storm of high inward migration, limited supply, overseas investment, lack of capital and space to build. The market took off in 1997 and events like 9/11 and the 2008 crash proved to be blips in the upward trajectory. There's no obvious solution, except massive investment in former industrial areas and brownfield sites, and that will only delay the inevitable. Britain was never a fashionable or desirable place to live on a global scale, but its culture and largesse has proved too much to resist.

The only answer is to start building more land ....

Is there a stats about empty homes?

Spot on girl like normal. It ain't just london. I live in Manchester theres loads more Chinese people here than i ever saw in London. Ive been building flats in Manchester and Salford that you can't even buy. They are purposely built to rent. Seen a lot of Chinese companies involved. Even here trying to find a small flat around the city centre is pretty much impossible. Its well overpriced. It annoys me even though im profiting from it. I can get the same for my tiny spare room that i was paying in Enfield 18 months ago. The rents have gone up but that house was worth 6/700 grand. My flat cost 180

I know how millions of homes could be provided at less than £100k to buy or very cheap to rent. It is easy and doable. Our govmt could do this but the fact is they don’t want to. They all invest in property and cheap housing would reduce values to a more sensible level.That would reduce their investments, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING THIS .

Overpopulated

The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement should remain untouched. 1 year rental then out or renew. I had students in my property in Oxford and a lot of damage was done by tenants. One guy went to prison for drug dealing from the house. One American student liked rock climbing and used to practice with his grapple to chamber on to the roof. Radiator pulled off the wall. Rooms painted adhoc colours. Furniture stolen etc. I sold the house because reletting, redecorating and agents fees were all too much.

Jesus let him talk!!

So, there is a lack of new housing being built, I think we have known that for about 20 years, nothing new. How do we solve that problem then? I didn't hear any solutions in this rant. Looking at the issue in basic terms, demand exceeds supply, so prices inevitably increase, so not only do more houses need to be built, but it needs to be more than demand to reduce prices. So this guy reckons at least 650000 to meet demand, per year, that would suggest that at least 10% more than that are needed to impact prices, so thats 715,000, per year, in round terms thats 2000, per day!! And they need to be affordable to the average wage earner and energy efficient! Is that actually possible?! Also, this issue is becoming worse every year because of lack of immigration control, so the longer the solution takes the worse it becomes. In the south east I think it's irrevocable, unless you earn in the 100,000s per year you can forget it, forever, and that pushes the same situation further and further out into the country. This isn't a crisis, it's an emergency and the first thing that must be done to even try to find a solution is to stop immigration. Otherwise we are fcuked.

The average house build is a disgrace, I can tell you none of the directors of these companies would step inside one, let alone live in one. We have gone back to building rabbit hutches again, like my nan used to live in with her three children. A pokey two roomed home downstairs with three tiny bedrooms upstairs and an out side Lou. The only change is that builders today are not putting the Lou’s outside. Perhaps that will come for the poor poverty stricken people who are being forced to live in these crappy homes. We do not have enough land to be self sustaining as it is and if we keep building on farming land or green belt we are going to be in a worse state. We are one of the most densely populated countries in the EU.

You got that wrong the south east are building so many homes it is getting gridlock down here

In Singapore a foreigner cab buy an apartment but not a landed property. Same in Thailand and some other countries. The apartment block should not be more than 50% foreign owned. The UK has got to started legislating for British people in many areas. This is also why the vote to leave the EU was won.

You have a housing crisis on one hand and scientists screaming about a decline in fertility on the other. In nature, living creatures of all shapes and sizes grow to the level where the environment can sustain them. Does anyone think it is a good idea to investigate whether this is a contributing factor?

Government is not intervening: :its crucial the government to back the people: :where is help to buy? These houses are extremely expensive our salaries are very low::how can you buy a house for £400 000, its a bizarre

I've no idea why would be home owners want a house price crash. That would just mean even higher interest rates to pay, making a mortgage far less affordable. Perhaps they're happy not to own their own home and just pay interest.

We had 500k ner migration. We need even more without an effective border policy

Build housing estates on Hyde Park and Richmond Park. Ban Londoners from owning 2nd homes in tourist spots.

How is it possible that new petrol and diesel cars are environmentally unacceptable, and yet turbocharged overload in house building is simply not enough to keep up with moderate demand? If there were fewer people in the UK then we wouldn't even need to build new power stations.

Landlord greed is the main reason and corporate greed is the second and the past and present government's failure.

Julia why do you say a lot worse than other places in Europe when this is absolutely not the case, in many places in the EU property prices are sky high and wages lower than the UK average!!!! I notice that a lot of politicians do this also, make made up comparisons with the EU!!!!!!!!

It is always fascinating the way we will have on a news slot talk about how utterly baffled we are at our lack of housing followed by one about massive immigration levels and of course nobody daring to link the two. Where will all these people piling in willy nilly from around the globe and having citizenship rubber stamped to clear backlogs have the money to buy these houses anyhow if they are built? Of course London with its money laundering services, purely asset property portfolios and libel firewalls to protect illicit business practices internationally has spawned a property marketing monster which has bled its excesses out in to the country as a whole to exacerbate the problem.

250,000 channel passengers next year, they and their families will need houses or they will take to the streets. They have been promised streets of gold.

Theres too many people here. Born and bred should have first dibs on everything. The beaches of foreign lands will have hundreds of tiny boats of fleeing English men and women who have had enough, landing on their shores in a few years to come. I hope everyone will be put up in 5 star hotels and let us have free passage of their towns and cities.

Brilliant Julia. Thank you, great topic

Let house prices drop, governments keep propping up prices. Let them fall.

It costs 213.000 for a one bedroom flat around here that’s an old council house. I wouldn’t buy that even if I had the money

Same in Australia cost is way out of 80 percent of what people can afford.

The elephant in the room…huge numbers of people moving away from home for uni, living in houses which would have homed families, bought by first time buyers. Not to mention second home owners…there are plenty of houses, just owned by less people.

House prices are ridiculous. They are building near me a 2 bed house is over £220000 tiny things

End foreign money, interest rates above inflation and removal of help to buy shams etc and let's see what happens to the affordability crisis we have

Sunak when chancellor removed stamp duty which put rocket boosters under house prices.... Julia fails to even acknowledge this truth.

13 years of lack of investment in housing, infrastructure has finally caught up with the Tories

Perhaps I'm missing something. But I don't see people/families sleeping in parks and on the street because of a lack of housing. Yes new houses are needed. But at the rate here suggested?? Where is the focus on the people who own 100+ houses in the UK? This is the problem IMO. My issue is not directly with the individuals who've bought the houses, but the fact that we have a system that has allowed it. I need to shout this "NO ONE NEEDS MORE THAN 2 (perhaps 3) HOUSES MAX". The people who own these houses are not creating any value. They are simply profiting at the expense of the less wealthy (who often work a lot harder). This demand from a Culture of everyone wanting to make money through buying additional housing for investment purposes that has driven up property prices so substantially, I mean everyone suddenly started wanting to buy additional property. (Agree also with the issues of foreign investors too.) A house's primary, PRIMARY purpose is to be a home. We have become obsessed with seeing it as an investment. This needs to be changed. Many of the societal effects are obvious, such as housing being too expensive for young families. But other effects are less obvious. If both parents of a 2+2 family have to work FT just to pay the mortgage, who is looking after their 2 children? 1000's of children's upbringings are being impacted. I could go on all year about it. But we need a better Housing system and we as individuals shouldn't be selfish.

Its in no government interest from any party to build loads of houses, which will inevitably lower prices and instantly put millions in negative equity. Many have planned their retirement on down sizing, buy to let ..not to mention pension funds etc which would all be in jeopardy.. with collapse in prices ..i feel for the young people now, I for went my 30 year pension to get my son on the housing ladder and am still working. .many children are not so fortunate

It’s the banks that make houses unaffordable. Mortgage’s are the banks greatest product. Houses should not increase in value and landlords should not exist. Many Europeans are moving back to their countries where they have managed to build homes without a mortgage. No such prospect in Uk 🇬🇧

Its not a "not enough houses problem" its a "too many people problem", if we build far more house what about the utilitiies required, power, water, gas , roads, schools, doctors etc.

Set a limit on how much these new build companies can profit... they cost roughly 100k to make, i work on these sites, everyone on them knows how much they cost to make, so we all know when they sell thay house for 500k+ its all going too the investors, i worked on a bellways site and their agent said they had to force all trades to drop our pay 6% lately as they cant afford to keep paying the same... whilst bellways have gone from profiting 2.5 billion in 2020 to 3.6 billion in 22, they are the issue, should be done for treason and shot

Its flat wage growth that js the long term problem. Uk wages have stagnated for over a decade.

We need more public housing and less empty investment property. Don't forget 700,000 people die each year.

We will never build enough house's, not when immigration remains excessively high. Its the elephant in the room.

I've had 13 different housemates in 3 years, all have been foreign.

boarders !! Boarders !! Close the boarders

Housing is a necessity not an investment

Modular state of the art buildings on free land owned by local authorities . They can buy cheap brownfield, possess long term vacant houses and compulsory purchase at loe existing use cost. Land is generally 30% of costs and modular can be put up in a week on prepared base so labour is less and weather delays almost bill. SORTED. I AM RETIRED ARCHITECT. LETS DO IT !!

Population explosion

Yes, bring more seven century men in the UK, it is going to solve the problem. Lol

The reality is, the reality is ,the reality is………

Young native British people are only having one child at most. I think once the native British are gone there should be quite a bit of space for the Asians moving here.

Dont forget house electric car solar panels and heat pump ! Sounds cheap for everyone Good luck ! Forget trying to save the world save yourself and family.

Someones house is not other peoples business

Julia rabbits on! Poor James!

It’s not just about immigration, it’s the quantitative easing which has propped up prices to such ridiculous levels.

France build 2 times more houses the last 10 yr.

1997 ah I remember it well, the beggining of the rot.

What did pple think woud happen when u let the population explode to 70 millions pluss now u have no chance and no hope of owning a house thanks Tony Blair and co

On "Average" the home owner moves every 7 years. So after say 35 years of home ownership they have lived in 5 different homes they have owned. Thus the "average" home is actually the THIRD home the average home-owner has owned. Sometimes you have to be careful with averages...........

Knock Tony Blair and the Labour party all you can, but the last time an average UK worker could afford a mortgage, was under a Labour government. You're welcome.

🥇

Don't worry, with net migration last year at 675000, the housing market is about to get much more obscene.

buy a tent and live in a park simples