Sydenham slagged off on Channel 4
"derelict Safeway's " - this has been a Sainsbury's for a few months now...
Also, while I agree with some of the negative aspects of this post a I personally think that CP has a lot of plus points. The White Hart is a great pub, It has several great neighborhood restaurants such as A Torre and Lorenzos, the wine bar down stairs at Numidies, Sergios, the new Blackbird bakery. the antiques warehouse - I could go on and on! The are a few places I wouldn't go to but that is the same with anywhere.
I live at the top end of Westwood Hill so feel planted between the two - I love where I live and I love the fact that it is 10 mins to both Sydenham High St and CP )where we tend to have most of our nights out) without being on top of either.
Also, while I agree with some of the negative aspects of this post a I personally think that CP has a lot of plus points. The White Hart is a great pub, It has several great neighborhood restaurants such as A Torre and Lorenzos, the wine bar down stairs at Numidies, Sergios, the new Blackbird bakery. the antiques warehouse - I could go on and on! The are a few places I wouldn't go to but that is the same with anywhere.
I live at the top end of Westwood Hill so feel planted between the two - I love where I live and I love the fact that it is 10 mins to both Sydenham High St and CP )where we tend to have most of our nights out) without being on top of either.
Local lady paints a picture of how the housing market SHOULD work with cheap affordable housing for all. Who wouldn't disagree with most of what she says?
But I'm very unclear as to how we can ever arrive at this state.
We are in the cruel harsh world of supply and demand. There is limited space in this area on which new houses can be built; households are splitting into smaller units because of divorce, more single people and longer life expectancy. London's population is swelling fast, with hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming each year both from within the Uk and outside of the UK to work.
In Sydenham, we have good quality housing stock, soon-to-arrive excellent transport links and property prices which are comparatively much lower than many of our neighbouring boroughs (a four bedroom house in Sydenham is the price of a two bedroom flat in Balham, for example).
In this situation, there is only one direction in which prices will go, and that's up - and they are already rising very quickly. It's no good blaming the "evil" banks and estate agents or saying, as local lady does, that "we must resist their price hikes". Just try resisting local housing price hikes by offering £100k for a £200k flat and see what happens.
Estate agents and banks do not set prices - the market does.
But I'm very unclear as to how we can ever arrive at this state.
We are in the cruel harsh world of supply and demand. There is limited space in this area on which new houses can be built; households are splitting into smaller units because of divorce, more single people and longer life expectancy. London's population is swelling fast, with hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming each year both from within the Uk and outside of the UK to work.
In Sydenham, we have good quality housing stock, soon-to-arrive excellent transport links and property prices which are comparatively much lower than many of our neighbouring boroughs (a four bedroom house in Sydenham is the price of a two bedroom flat in Balham, for example).
In this situation, there is only one direction in which prices will go, and that's up - and they are already rising very quickly. It's no good blaming the "evil" banks and estate agents or saying, as local lady does, that "we must resist their price hikes". Just try resisting local housing price hikes by offering £100k for a £200k flat and see what happens.
Estate agents and banks do not set prices - the market does.
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castiron73
- Posts: 132
- Joined: 24 Oct 2006 10:05
- Location: Sydenham Thorpes
I agree that estate agents aren't to blame. They're just cashing in and sellers would switch to unscrupulous ones if you tried to be ethical.
But banks are having a major influence.
By offering mortgages that are four or five times people's salaries.
By not checking whether people are lying about their income on their self-certificate mortgages (and actively encouraging them to lie in some cases).
By offering discounts, cash back and free searches etc for first-time buyers, which just pushes the bottom rung up higher and higher.
When the crash comes and rates are back to their historical levels of 10 per cent or more, I hope people are going to be allowed to sue the banks for misselling them their mortgage and giving poor financial advice. But I doubt it.
But banks are having a major influence.
By offering mortgages that are four or five times people's salaries.
By not checking whether people are lying about their income on their self-certificate mortgages (and actively encouraging them to lie in some cases).
By offering discounts, cash back and free searches etc for first-time buyers, which just pushes the bottom rung up higher and higher.
When the crash comes and rates are back to their historical levels of 10 per cent or more, I hope people are going to be allowed to sue the banks for misselling them their mortgage and giving poor financial advice. But I doubt it.
Castiron -It's the role of banks to make money selling things like mortgages. All of these transactions are freely entered into by both buyer and seller. What basis would there be for banks to be found guilty of misselling mortgages in any of the circumstances that you list? If a buyer lies about his/her income (and it's pretty easy to get many employers to supply false information or a relative to temporarily "lend" you a deposit), is the bank really guilty? Is it misselling to offer discounts or free searches to first-time buyers?
I don't particularly like banks but they are not responsible for driving up property prices and they don't create the demand for housing or control its supply. In the last twenty years "easy" money has come increasingly from "back street" lenders and "independent advisers" using money supplied by foreign banks where interest rates are traditionally much lower than the UK. If you couldn't get a loan from a high street bank you arranged one from one of these dubious sources "no questions asked". It was in large part to cut these suppliers out of the market that the regulatory authorities allowed banks to extend their mortgage terms.
As for 10% mortgage rates - sorry, you've lost me here. When the underlying inflation rate is well under 5% (and is likely to continue to be in the foreseeable future, especially with falling oil and gas prices ) why should we expect 10% mortgage rates?
I don't particularly like banks but they are not responsible for driving up property prices and they don't create the demand for housing or control its supply. In the last twenty years "easy" money has come increasingly from "back street" lenders and "independent advisers" using money supplied by foreign banks where interest rates are traditionally much lower than the UK. If you couldn't get a loan from a high street bank you arranged one from one of these dubious sources "no questions asked". It was in large part to cut these suppliers out of the market that the regulatory authorities allowed banks to extend their mortgage terms.
As for 10% mortgage rates - sorry, you've lost me here. When the underlying inflation rate is well under 5% (and is likely to continue to be in the foreseeable future, especially with falling oil and gas prices ) why should we expect 10% mortgage rates?
Going back to the original subject, Channel 4 have been a bit slow to update their website but I thought it might be worth putting a link to their page on this episode below:
http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/rel ... 02_07.html
http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/rel ... 02_07.html
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Wispy Wonder
- Posts: 137
- Joined: 11 Jan 2006 22:13
- Location: Sydenham
Greg
I quite agree with you about CP. When my partner and I were looking for a place to buy two years ago we looked at both CP and Sydenham. The properties were all similarly priced and of a similar quality - we chose Sydy. The High Street here is scruffy but the area as a whole is a nice place to live. In fact we prefer it here to Clapham, where we lived previously.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Local Lady.........
I quite agree with you about CP. When my partner and I were looking for a place to buy two years ago we looked at both CP and Sydenham. The properties were all similarly priced and of a similar quality - we chose Sydy. The High Street here is scruffy but the area as a whole is a nice place to live. In fact we prefer it here to Clapham, where we lived previously.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Local Lady.........
Hiya,
i'm someone who has lived here for over 30 years,
i must say that i love Sydenham as i'm sure most people who make it their home also feel.
but i don't like the way the high street has gone,all the cheapo shops drag it down,the overflowing rubbish bins outside the shops, the fruit and veg etc taking up the pavement.
Lewisham Council are the one's responsible for the mess it has become,
they should be more discerning when allowing shops to open here.
many shops just seem to open for a very short while then shut.
it's almost as if the shop owners don't do their homework before opening?
Give us shops that we actually want/need and i'm sure the High Street would thrive again.