Affordable Homes

[OwlHoot]

There's some enterprising chap somewhere who claimed unregistered land - generally scrappy bits of verges and the like - then charged people who had to pass over them (such as to get out of their driveways onto the road) huge sums of money! Apparently, there's not a lot that can be done about it!

Must be a contractor, who else would have time to spend all day looking at land registry maps to find out what's unclaimed/unregistered!

Might not be as easy as it sounds, because in common law the freehold of a dwelling by a public highway is assumed to extend up to the highway (and obviously the latter includes the pavement or footpath or verge etc if any).

Also, if a public highway goes out of use then adjoining freeholds can be extended, as of right, to the centre line of the former highway. <michael_caine_voice>Not a lotta a people know that</caine_voice>

[Fungus]

commission on affordable houses in rural areas reported yesterday that 11,000 new affordable homes need to be built each year in villages with populations of less than 11,000 in order to meet demand.


Why????? Where has all this sudden demand come from? Basically all that will happen is that people will demand, in the interest of fairness, that they should be able to live in Pretty Village on the Green - 11,000 houses later we will have Scummy Housing Estate on the Mold

The demand comes from two sources: an increase in the number of single person households, due for example to people marrying late, and a massive increase in net immigration. According to R4 Britain is currently experiencing the largest ever wave of immigration in its entire history, with almost 300K people from Eastern Europe over the last 2 years. The only comparable event in terms of a proportion of the total occurred when Huguenots left France ~200 years ago. The demand from immigrants is said to be ~50K houses per year.

A significant proportion of new build is on gardens and scrap land sold off to developers, rather than the brown field sites originally envisiged by Two Shags.

[Fungus]

Same could be said of Buy To Let.

Millions of empty Buy To Lets and millions wanting to own a home but can't as all the low end property has been snapped up by investors?

Ironic isn't it. Mrs T. helped the working classes by selling off council houses, often at bargain prices. Teflon T. stuffs the working classes by creating a housing shortage, elevating prices whereby the working classes are forced to rent from bourgeois land lords.

In Brixham in South Devon where my mother used to live, the locals can't afford houses due to wealthy incomers buying holiday and retirement homes. The place is like a graveyard in the Winter months.

[Fleetwood]

The only comparable event in terms of a proportion of the total occurred when Huguenots left France ~200 years ago.

A couple of points here - in true CUK tradition, relating to the same thread, yet totally unconnected -

a) Huguenots started arriving in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, so this is well over three hundred years ago.

b) Guernsey is an island. The lower-paid workers can't live elsewhere and commute in of a morning, so some housing has to be reserved for them otherwise the island's economy would collapse.
Luxembourg is a small tax-haven with expensive housing like Guernsey, but is land-locked. Those who can't afford Luxembourg prices live in Belgium or France and commute in.

[wendigo100]

Yeah - I looked into one of these schemes. 0.1 acre of buckinghamshire greenfield land for about £15K. There were about 12-14 plots available so total value of, say, £210,000. I since found out the seller bought the field from the farmer 4 months earlier for £50,000.

Was that in Edlesborough? A very similar thing happened here recently. My mate bought a plot because it backed onto his garden.

[threaded]

Yeah - I looked into one of these schemes. 0.1 acre of buckinghamshire greenfield land for about £15K. There were about 12-14 plots available so total value of, say, £210,000. I since found out the seller bought the field from the farmer 4 months earlier for £50,000.

So I guess the moral of the story is; if you want to make the cash, buy the field first, then sell it out in plots. Don't buy the plot, there's a very, very minimal chance of getting even OPP...

Yes, don't you just love the UK planning system. A sure fire way for the corrupt and scammers to make a few bob at the expense of hard working families.

[milanbenes]

looks like either, folks are going to have to earn more,

or, they're gonna have to get used to renting

Milan.

[privateeye]

Yes, don't you just love the UK planning system. A sure fire way for the corrupt and scammers to make a few bob at the expense of hard working families.

Most Planning Officers will tell anyone if they asked them that the land is probably worthless or what it may be used for. The planning system works but some peoples brains don't. The planning office has nothing to do with land being split up, thats the job of the land registry. Planning people only get involved when you enquire about building on land.

Sensible builders only buy land on an "option agreement" which means if they receive planning permission within a set period of time they will pay the owner of the land whatever otherwise they don't buy. If the people buying these plots took proper advice they would not lose out.

[threaded]

I mean the other way around, where a land owner asks for permission, gets turned down, sells the land, and within the week they're building on it. Seen it happen several times in Doncaster.

[John Galt]

The demand comes from two sources: an increase in the number of single person households, due for example to people marrying late, and a massive increase in net immigration. According to R4 Britain is currently experiencing the largest ever wave of immigration in its entire history, with almost 300K people from Eastern Europe over the last 2 years. The only comparable event in terms of a proportion of the total occurred when Huguenots left France ~200 years ago. The demand from immigrants is said to be ~50K houses per year.

A significant proportion of new build is on gardens and scrap land sold off to developers, rather than the brown field sites originally envisiged by Two Shags.

Wonder how long it will be before any garden over 30ft will be compulsorily (?) purchased by Bliar and Co. I live in the country and paid a premium for the house because it has a little bit of land - no doubt this will be considered to be wholly unfair. Mind you we have just built a new garden shed so I might get away with housing a couple of immigrants in there