Property prices: It’s London versus the rest

A wall poster at a London tube station declares: “£30,000 wouldn’t buy you floor space the size of this poster in Westminster.”

It is a graphic pointer to the disparity between property prices in London, particularly the elite Westminster area, and the rest of the country.

Nationwide, the average price for a house is £250,000 (Sh33.9 million). In London it is a staggering £502,000 (Sh68.1 million).

Many London properties bring in more than their owners earn in salary. But if you are not on the property ladder, ordinary people have little chance of climbing aboard.

Property prices in England increased by £289 billion in the first three years of the current government, but 97 per cent of that growth took place in the capital and the southeast.

According to figures from the Town and Country Planning Association, England needs 245,000 extra homes every year up to 2031. But last year the total built was a mere 120,000.

With a General Election scheduled for May, the political parties are all promising to step up construction rates. But it takes four or five years from the first planning application to a house’s completion, so there can be no speedy end to the crisis.

The reason we need so many homes, according to the BBC, include: The elderly are living longer, often still in their own homes; broken relationships have created a demand for more single-person homes; high levels of migration and a baby boom.

The reasons for London’s popularity are many. It is the nation’s capital and Parliament and the monarchy are located there; it is the financial hub, not only of Britain, but of Europe; geographically, it is well placed between the United States and Europe/Mideast/Africa; it has a thriving arts and culture scene, a reasonable climate and an increasingly multi-cultural population.

A major government effort to solve the housing problem seems to have backfired.

The Under-Occupancy Charge was introduced in 2013 directing that council house tenants with unused rooms should move to smaller properties, thus freeing up housing stock for the homeless.

Failure to move would result in a reduction of any Housing Benefit, which tenants might be receiving to help pay their rents.

The charge quickly became reviled as the Bedroom Tax and has been widely denounced as heartless, ineffective and discriminatory against the poor.

A report issued last week by the Journal of Public Health stated that the prospect of being forced to move from the family home was causing a sense of hopelessness verging on desperation among many of the worse off.

And the Guardian newspaper, in a survey of the poorest area of Newcastle upon Tyne, claimed to detect stress, anxiety, hunger, depression and ill health.

The newspaper quoted a jobless man as saying his income had been reduced from £72 (Sh9,780) per week to £47 (Sh6,385) and he often ate only four sausage rolls in a day, which he bought for £1 (Sh135).

“If you are on a diet of sausage rolls it fills a hole, but you cannot live on that.”

An unemployed warehouse worker, he said, “I see the doctor regularly. I suffer from depression.” During the winter, he goes to bed when it gets dark at 6 pm so he saves on heating and lighting bills.

He rarely goes out to meet friends any more.

Contrary to government claims that the tax would have no negative impact on health or well-being, the Journal report said the move had “increased poverty and had broad-ranging adverse effects on health, well-being and social relationships.”

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I don’t know if it means he is the most popular person in the world, but the Portuguese footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, is the most followed person on Facebook. He has 107,096,356 likes, with the Colombian singer Shakira in second place on 107,087,100.

When it comes to Twitter, however, the Real Madrid star, formerly with Manchester United, ranks 13th.

This places him behind Kate Perry, Justin Bieber, President Obama, Taylor Swift, YouTube, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Instagram and Twitter.

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Two snakes in the jungle. First snake: Are we poisonous? Second snake: Why do you ask? First snake: I just bit my tongue.

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Social worker to alcoholic: How much do you drink? Alcoholic: Three six-packs of beer per day.

Social worker: How much is a six-pack? Alcoholic: Ten dollars.

Social worker: How long have you been drinking? Alcoholic: Fifteen years.

Social worker: So you spend $900 each month or $10,800 per year on booze? Alcoholic: Correct.

Social worker: Over 15 years, you have spent $162,000? Alcoholic: Correct.

Social worker: If you had put all that money into a savings account with compound interest, by now you could have bought a Ferrari. Alcoholic: Do you drink?

Social worker: No! Alcoholic: So where’s your Ferrari?

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