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Trouble affording your home?

8:00am Saturday 30th January 2010 in


THIS will come as no surprise to hard-pressed householders but Bournemouth has been named the most expensive place to live in Britain and rated number seven in an international survey of housing affordability.

The study ranks Vancouver in Canada as the least affordable place to live followed by Sydney and Australia’s Gold and Sunshine Coasts.

Conducted by Australian firm Demographia, the survey focuses on the relationship between household incomes and house prices in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Australia is the least affordable of the countries surveyed, followed by New Zealand, Britain, Canada, Ireland and the United States. As well as Bournemouth, 19 other UK cities and towns feature in the “severely unaffordable” housing markets league including London, Plymouth, Swindon, Bristol and Bath.

The survey shows that the greatest house price declines occurred in the UK, Ireland and USA where prices had inflated to “unprecedented heights”.

It says: “In the United States and United Kingdom the house price bubble was fuelled by a relaxation of loan policies which compromised the integrity of mortgage portfolios and increased the demand for home ownership.

“In the US and the UK the ‘bubble’ markets that had ‘burst’ generally reached a trough and began rising again.”

Despite housing affordability receiving considerable attention in the UK, the survey states that “no material corrective measures have been implemented”.

While property prices have fallen, housing in the UK remains severely unaffordable with Bournemouth, and Dorset as a whole, the least affordable market.

Comments(23)

jobsworthwatch says...
8:57am Sat 30 Jan 10

....fuelled by a relaxation of loan policies...
....“no material corrective measures have been implemented”....
So, the government are to blame by not reacting to the relaxation of loan policies and have done nothing in the meantime to stop it happening again?

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West Howe Sean says...
10:20am Sat 30 Jan 10

If I could find a job that would pay me £25,000 per annum and then save a £15,000 deposit I could then possibly get a £90,000 mortgage.

What could I buy for that?

Where can I find a job paying £25,000?
How would I save the deposit?

Affordable housing does not exist in the UK.

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traindriver3ss says...
10:23am Sat 30 Jan 10

that is crap, the government are not to blame for peoples inability to control their spending, live within their means and avoid drowning in a spiral of debt!!!! The government should not have to do anything about it for gods sake its simple DON'T borrow what you cant afford to repay. Or even better save for those things you want rather than borrow because you must have them now!!!!!

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traindriver3ss says...
10:25am Sat 30 Jan 10

how old are you west howe sean???

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Laurie H Marsh says...
11:10am Sat 30 Jan 10

As a matter of interest a "tradie" earning $1000 a week can buy a semi detached house (called a duplex over here) for $330,000 at Caloundra (Sunshine Coast) 90 klms. from Brisbane.
This is NOT un-affordable.
If you want to live on the fore-shore the prices escalate some-what.

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Maureen Arthur says...
11:22am Sat 30 Jan 10

West Howe Sean wrote:
If I could find a job that would pay me £25,000 per annum and then save a £15,000 deposit I could then possibly get a £90,000 mortgage. What could I buy for that? Where can I find a job paying £25,000? How would I save the deposit? Affordable housing does not exist in the UK.
but it does in west howe...

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jak flash says...
12:40pm Sat 30 Jan 10

11.15.. most would want a free house and free money to live in a dump.free money every week,no likey no lighty.

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West Howe Sean says...
12:54pm Sat 30 Jan 10

Maureen Arthur wrote:
West Howe Sean wrote:
If I could find a job that would pay me £25,000 per annum and then save a £15,000 deposit I could then possibly get a £90,000 mortgage. What could I buy for that? Where can I find a job paying £25,000? How would I save the deposit? Affordable housing does not exist in the UK.
but it does in west howe...
£179,000 will buy you a 2 bedroom semi in Mandale Road, West Howe.

It would take an income of £50,000 per annum with a £29,000 deposit to buy that.

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jak flash says...
1:01pm Sat 30 Jan 10

what does 90 klms stand for , is it a venereal clinic miles from anywhere.

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Laurie H Marsh says...
1:08pm Sat 30 Jan 10

jak flash wrote:
what does 90 klms stand for , is it a venereal clinic miles from anywhere.
Anyone who cant spell Jack has no hope of working out the abreviation for kilometers!

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Henry Bear says...
5:10pm Sat 30 Jan 10

Laurie H Marsh wrote:
jak flash wrote: what does 90 klms stand for , is it a venereal clinic miles from anywhere.
Anyone who cant spell Jack has no hope of working out the abreviation for kilometers!
Anyone who does not know Brisbane begins with a capital B has no hope of thinking they can comment on others spelling without being call a tinker 8-)

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Was Charlie says...
5:31pm Sat 30 Jan 10

The abbreviation for Kilometers in the UK (and as far as I know, the rest of the wiorld) is Kms, not Klms.
Kilometer and kilometre are both acceptable spellings.

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jak flash says...
6:50pm Sat 30 Jan 10

its a *ox Klinik 50 miles away for **** sake,for idiots

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Bormuf Boy says...
10:46pm Sat 30 Jan 10

jak flash wrote:
11.15.. most would want a free house and free money to live in a dump.free money every week,no likey no lighty.
You are by far the most pointless contributor to this web site. Every comment you make is either insulting, derogatory or just plain purile.

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jak flash says...
9:06am Sun 31 Jan 10

its a *ox Klinik 50 miles away for **** sake

its a tox klinik 50 miles away for Petes sake

Also i have just reported 10.46 (night stalker) as i did with the ferrat sooooooo ruuuuuuuuuuude.

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Laurie H Marsh says...
10:45am Sun 31 Jan 10

Was Charlie wrote:
The abbreviation for Kilometers in the UK (and as far as I know, the rest of the wiorld) is Kms, not Klms. Kilometer and kilometre are both acceptable spellings.
Klms. is the accepted abreviation in Aus.
I dont know about the rest of the "wiorld".
My original comment was a simple refutation of the price of housing in a particular area. If you want to live anywhere with sea views it is going to cost a lot!
As for Flash , your point is?

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Perry_Winkle says...
11:05am Sun 31 Jan 10

I'm sure traindriver will pin the blame on Maggie Thatcher, but the reality is that Screw-you Labour have ridden the property boom for all it's worth as a source of easy tax money to fund their cancer of intrusion and control. They have used the very nice revenue stream from stamp duty, mortgage providers, and banks to to create thousands of non-jobs in quangos like the SWRDA, whose only purpose is to control you and me, without any accountability at all!

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traindriver3ss says...
11:55am Sun 31 Jan 10

perry_winkle actually i wasn't going to blame Maggie for this. I'm sure if i try hard enough i could trace back at least 25% of the accountability to her but no this one is down to the banks and people in general, with a big helping hand from estate agents!! Your very bitter Perry_winkle I'm guessing you run your own business and see peoples employment rights and health and safety at work as "RED TAPE" either that or maybe you read and believe what is published in the sun or telegraph??

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Perry_Winkle says...
1:20pm Sun 31 Jan 10

Wrong on all counts, traindriver - I'm just a bloke in a job (thankfully) who sees his disposable income shrinking as the government takes an ever increasing slice to fund ... what? Do we really think that education and the health service have improved that much? I don't - all I see is a farce of target fixing and money being spent on advisers, inquiries, and media-spinning leeches.

I see an ever increasing number of paper-pushers, while the teachers and nurses get wrapped up in so much red tape (yes, I do hate that stuff) that they can no longer deliver what we should be paying them (more) to do.

I see a true unemployment figure of around 8 million, and an ex-PM that is following his socialist instincts to around £5m a year - payback from grateful associates after all he did to line their pockets?

Yes I am bitter, because once upon a time I believed in the left, in honesty, fairness, and opportunity, only to see Screw-you Labour throw its energy into divisiveness, big-bucks buddies, and an illegal war on behalf of the arms and oil industries.

So am I voting Tory because I believe they'll be better? I believe they really couldn't be any worse, and that Labour need a good solid electoral kick up the backside to get them to rethink their policies and behaviour.

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Laurie H Marsh says...
1:35pm Sun 31 Jan 10

The old expression always used to be:-
If you are under 25 and dont vote Labour you have no heart. If you are over 25 and vote Labour you have no brains.
I guess it is all in the point of view.

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Trifecta says...
3:03pm Sun 31 Jan 10

Well said Perry_Winkle, I think you speak for many with your intelligent post.

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traindriver3ss says...
4:48pm Sun 31 Jan 10

well perry, you try the Tories and if you really are just an ordinary working person I wish you the best of luck under a Tory Government.!!!!! Of course those teachers and nurses that are allegedly so wrapped up in red tape ( although I know a few of both, the nurses have never once complained to me about red tape, a couple of the teachers have complained about the preoccupation with test results however to be fair) wont be there as the first things the Torys will savage after minimum wage will be health and education. This to pay for their inheritance tax plans for the richest 4% of society! Oh and their plans to re introduce the married persons tax allowance. They will be too busy repealing the Hunting act to worry about your very real problems also so best of luck with them. Although of course it really wont matter down here as you will almost certainly have a Tory MP no matter how you vote!!

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mikey2gorgeous says...
8:36am Mon 1 Feb 10

So why don't you buy a 1 bed flat when you start work (which parents can use their equity to stand as guarantor)? Then, some years later, you will have equity yourself (as house prices rise) which you can use to offset the deposit for a bigger property.
.
Why do you think you need a 2-bed semi to yourself? If you had one, you could rent a room out. Lodger income is tax-free up to a certain (reasonable) amount.
.
Or Get together with friends and buy a house together for the same ends.
.
If that's really out of reach have you considered a trailer-park home?
.
It's not impossible - you will end up paying as much in rent as you would in mortgage if you didn't buy.

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