I’ve seen this on a few housing programs lately, several articles in the papers and online. You have a situation that is frankly insane in which a one or two bedroom property in London is worth more that a castle set in 225 acres of land. I would move so fast!
Looking on Rightmove with a simple search for £1,000,000 houses in London throws up page after page or 1 and 2 bedroom flats and maisonettes like the one linked below. For £1,100,000 you can be the proud owner of a 2 bedroom ground floor flat in SW10.
On the same road is another, bigger property, a freehold terraced 5-bedroom corner house:
In 1999 it sold in £675,000
By 2006 it sold for £1,250,000
In January (2015) it sold again, this time for £2,400,000
OR, for £1,000,000 you can buy a grade 1 listed castle :
Norris House, which is set in 225 acres of featuring parkland, woodland and over 1 mile of sea frontage. It offers 14 bedrooms, 9 reception rooms, 7 bathrooms, stables, outbuildings and cottages
Yes, the repairs and maintenance on the vast estate about would be eye-watering, but that’s not the point. The market rather misses the common sense factor. If I owned a pokey flat or terrace house in central London and realised I could sell it for £1,000,000, move north even east or west and buy a decent semi, with a garden for £100,000 and have £900,000 cash to invest (wisely) I’ll sell so fast.
If the best part of London’s 8.7 million population thought that way and upped sticks within a year all those left – the bankers, the executives, the highly paid professionals would be it a right old quandary. For a start, there would be such a glut of properties for sale prices would freefall, and those million-pound apartments would be effectively worthless. The banks, however, would still want the £1m mortgage paying. If they all say, stuff it, take it – then the banks and mortgage companies are in trouble again as they are holding a trillion pound in bad debt…
Regardless of the bank’s woes there’s another factor that will accelerate the situation:
If – when – all the homeowners on low wages wake up to this, sell up and move north the capital is in a world of trouble. A bunch of professionals with a trillion pound in mortgage debts and no cleaners, no babysitters, no baristas to serve overpriced cappuccinos, no hairdressers, no shop cleaners, no council workers… A million households taking a million pound each for their grossly inflated properties and running north. CRASH.
This is a bubble waiting to burst.
Update 3rd Oct 2015:
The Daily Mail ran a similar article today showing the madness of the situation: What £1million buys you in the UK: From castles in Scotland to council flats in London… how buyers can get 14,000sqft MORE for their money outside the capital.
