Tag Archives: affordable housing

Work in London, but can’t afford to actually live there? Work out exactly which commuter town is best for you

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Work in London, but can’t afford to actually live there? Frost loves TotallyMoney.com’s brilliant new property ladder calculation tool. It lets you work out exactly in which commuter town you could own your first home…

London property, property outside London, affordable housing, where to buy, property, homes, owning

Many of us have had our dreams of actually owning a property in London firmly shattered; lack of affordable housing in the capital coupled with pay freezes and mortgage company demands for increasingly large deposits means that most people in their 20s and 30s have accepted it might never happen. In fact, recent figures show that the number of families on a modest income owning their own home there has more than halved over the last decade, falling to just 13 per cent.But London is still where most of the work is – so what’s the answer?

 

If you don’t fancy paying cripplingly huge amounts of rent to unscrupulous landlords, many people look to buy or rent just outside of the big smoke, in a town with a reasonable commute. But where do you actually start? There’s bound to be a lot of research to be done into finding out what average house prices are elsewhere, how long a particular commute would be, which towns are even desirable (and have at least one local pub) – the list is endless, and in the meantime, house prices are only going to be ticking steadily upwards…

 

Well, panic not, for help is at hand. Money comparison site TotallyMoney.com has just launched its new online tool for people who want to get onto the property ladder, and work in London, but can’t afford to buy there. In one simple process, you can set parameters to reflect the maximum time you’d be happy to spend on a commute, how much you can afford to spend on train travel, the value of the property you could afford to buy, and the amount of your disposable income. Then you’ll be presented with a selection of towns which match your criteria – meaning you can start searching for a new home in earnest.

 

TotallyMoney.com has even put together a list of the top ten best commuter towns, and High Wycombe – with a London commute time of only 30 minutes, travel costs of around £4,180, and suitable for those with a disposable income of around £23,341 – is in first place. If you’re keen to keep train time to a minimum, however, Esher, in Surrey (ranked 8th), is a mere 27 minutes away from London, with annual travel costs coming in at about £2,124. If you’re looking for a bargain in terms of property, Erith, in the London borough of Bexley is ranked at number 7, with the cheapest average property price at £238,459, and an annual travel cost of only £1,912 (although it would take a little longer, at 44 minutes).

 

# Town County House Price Season Ticket Time Average Disposable Income Per Head. Per Year
1 High Wycombe Buckinghamshire £346,197.00 £4,180.00 30 £23,341.00
2 Woking Surrey £433,235.00 £3,080.00 27 £21,437.00
3 Staines Middlesex £349,604.00 £2,484.00 35 £21,539.00
4 Amersham Buckinghamshire £542,856.00 £3,368.00 34 £23,341.00
5 Gerrards Cross Buckinghamshire £792,177.00 £3,328 28 £23,341.00
6 Walton-on-thames Surrey £524,145 £2,412 33 £21,437.00
7 Erith Outer London North & West £238,459 £1,912 44 £21,539.00
8 Esher Surrey £878,831 £2,124 27 £21,437.00
9 Redhill Surrey £338,593 £2,696 38 £21,437.00
10 Horley Surrey £340,407 £3,208 35 £21,437.00

 

 

 

Statistics From Think Tank NLA Reveal Frightening Extent of London Housing Crisis

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Gillray's Steakhouse and Bar view London EyeSome interesting and shocking news today on the London Housing Crisis. New London Architecture (NLA), the capital’s think tank on the city’s built environment, has today announced a series of findings from their insight study into the London housing shortage. The research gathered by former Development Director at Peabody, Claire Bennie, has formed the basis of their forthcoming exhibition New Ideas for Housing. The exhibition examines London’s housing market, past and present, as well as the results of an extensive global ideas competition, set-up with the Mayor of London to tackle the shortfall.

Current statistics show that the capital’s population has now hit record numbers and is set to keep rising. It is estimated that we need 40,000 new homes every year for 20 years to deal with the current population increase and a further 9,000 a year, on top, just to catch up on the deficit. Current delivery of new homes stands at between 20-25,000 a year, this means the delivery of new homes has to at least double from its current rate.

Earlier this year, London’s population passed its previous peak of 8.6 million people, and future projections suggest there will be 9 million people in London by 2020, 10 million by 2030 and 11 million by 2050, adding nearly 70,000 people and 34,000 jobs every year.

The comparison in quality of life between homeowners and those renting properties is creating a widening gap amongst Londoners. 40-50% of all renting households in London are living in poverty whilst 40% of owner-occupied homes have two or more spare bedrooms. The proportion of 25-34 years olds owning their own homes has fallen from 59% to 36% in less than a decade and the current population figures show that 80% of all new housing is only affordable for 20% of Londoners.

A rise in renting is a common theme throughout the research with a third of all privately owned homes now rented out. Successful European models show that long-term renting can act as a possible solution, but this would mean a large-scale change across the industry in the way that housing is funded and delivered. Developers such as Argent are already looking into large build-to-rent developments that could change the way we live in the capital.

Contrary to popular belief that many of London’s developments second-homes for foreign millionaires, only 121,000 homes are recorded to be ‘empty’. However, there has been a significant growth in properties bought as investments, currently 61% of all new homes are bought with the no intention of occupying (Molior London).

80% of households bring in less than £45,000 a year and with house prices rising by 18% last year and living wages only rising by 2.1%, a revised approached to the capital’s housing market needs addressing.

Peter Murray, Chairman of New London Architecture, rallied this call for change by saying: “There is no silver bullet to solve London’s housing crisis – we need to look at lots of smaller and innovative contributions to fill in the gap left by the traditional providers”

Claire Bennie, Architect and Housing Development Specialist, and former Development Director at Peabody, commented: ‘Housing London is the pressing issue of our time: we now need to implement the best solutions from this competition without delay so that our young people can settle and thrive in this great metropolis.’

Greater London is a relatively low-density city and covers 152,200 hectares of land. If all of London’s residents were standing in a grid, they would be spaced 14m apart but if London continues to grow upwards and outwards then there is the potential to create 470,000 new homes over the next 20 years. There is currently an estimated 75,000 hectares of available space in Greater London and with the potential to create to 100,000 homes on sites as small as 0.25 hectares the density of city must improve. The NLA exhibition New Ideas for Housing will explore some of the most innovative solutions to the housing crisis and what is next for London.