only because of the mortgages..IF house prices were, say 25% lower, everyone would have more money to circulate into the economy. the dicotemy is that a house is viewed as an asset, when in actual fact, it is ones greatest liability..most people are trapped by their mortgages and make sacrifices elsewhere as a matter of course to service this afrtificially inflated debt. who makes the money..? the banks... a house should be a right not priviledge in a developed country and a mortgage shouldnt cost anymore per month than groceries in my view...if it were so, we'd all be a lot better off...the artificial value of our houses and the british disease of viewing ones home as a business venture mean that we are all kept poor.
I'm always amazed at how much it costs to build a house. When you look at the price of the raw materials, it's astonishing. The mark-ups on really noddy stuff are just huge. Look at the price of bathroom fittings, or paint, or just about anything. There is the price of land, and then the price of the stuff that goes into the house. Bricks and concrete and tiles really shouldn't be those kind of prices. And then there's the cost of labour. The labourers don't seem to earn that much, so someone is making plenty of money off their backs.
I'll stick my order in for a £3m home on the outskirts of Knutsford now then, if it's only going to cost me £500 pet month
A possible answer could be to build a high speed rail link from London northward, make the whole of the country pay for it, thus extending the London commuter belt, lining the pockets of the London based financial institutions and all at the knockdown price of £50bn plus to 'joe public'. or am I just an old cynic?
