Question for our UK members re: Housing developments?... (1 Viewer)

[andrew markworthy]

If it's any consolation, a favourite conversational topic amongst Brits who aren't Londoners is how the **** anyone can afford to live in London. If I remember correctly, most recent polls put London as either the most expensive or the second most expensive city in the world.

However, there is a vast amount worth seeing in the UK that isn't in London. For most Brits, London is where you go to see a show, an art exhibition or a big sporting event. It isn't a place all that many Brits go for their main holiday. I'm happy to expand on where Brits go for their vacations if this is of interest to you guys.

 

[Lew Crippen]

According to this source London moved down two notches to third, after Tokyo and Osaka.

Of course ‘cost of living’ indices are based on multiple factors, so a lot of the cost of living in a specific city depends on your specific situation.

For instance I found food, wine and good restaurants and public transportation to be reasonable in Sydney (#20), but housing costs to be extremely high.

The top 10 listed for easy reference:

1
Tokyo, Japan
2
Osaka, Japan
3
London, United Kingdom
4
Moscow, Russia
5
Seoul, South Korea
6
Geneva, Switzerland
7
Zurich, Switzerland
8
Copenhagen, Denmark
9
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
10
Oslo, Norway

 

[Jason L.]

1. Spain
2. Spain
3. Spain

No seriously, do people in England still go to Blackpool or Brighton?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Not quite. A lot of the Brits who once regarded Benidorm as their natural summer retreat go to Florida these days.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Absolutely. As Lew knows, here in Singapore what kills you is the cost of (private) housing and cars, but apart from these two big-ticket items, cost of living isn't too bad here.

Hence, expats who get housing and transport allowances ()better yet, a company-provided car) have an extremely comfortable lifestyle here. Whereas us aspiring middle-class schmucks paying that 35-year mortage and 10-year hire purchase on the car are, well, schmucks...

It seems (to me at least) that London has really multiplied in price over the past 10 years. When I visited in 1996, partly because the exchange rate with the Singapore dollar was at an all-time low, things were pretty affordable there. By 1999 and 2000 when I went again, things weren't quite so cheap but still bearable. I'm likely to go again in April (work-related, so at least most big-ticket items are covered), and I'm wondering just how "bad" things are going to be, especially since the exchange rate hasn't improved from my point of view.

 

[andrew markworthy]

It's difficult to offer a firm answer to this, I guess, but I can say that inflation in the UK has been very very low over the past few years [except for house prices]. You'll probably find prices in the stores and restaurants not much different from before. You might find CDs and DVDs a bit cheaper than when you were last here. Since the internet really took off over here, consumers have voted with their wallets and bought from overseas, and so UK retailers have had to move from their previous price gouging (e.g. £14.99 for a CD was considered normal) to more sensible levels (well, sensible for the UK anyway - a lot of chart CDs are now circa £8).

 

[Cees Alons]

Speaking of conservatories, it didn't take on here as badly as you described, andrew, although at least you explained now why I see so much of them in 'House & Garden' and similar monthly magazines.

Am I right to suspect that very often the framing is no longer made of iron and wood but of a kind of plastic (that will degenerate in about 10-15 years, gets dirty and hardly can be painted)?

Also, this may be a good moment to tell our American friends that it's pronounced differently.




Cees

 

[andrew markworthy]

Let's keep this our secret.

 

[Jason L.]

Please go right ahead. I assume somewhere warm and sunny is at the top of the list.

 

[andrew markworthy]

It doesn't work quite like that. However, a Brit's choice of holiday detination is the British class system in action. Basically, rising up the social scale:

Brit seaside resort, perhaps staying in a caravan or very cheap hotel

Cheap holiday somewhere hot - parts of Spain, Greek islands very popular choices

Florida

Somewhere with some cultural pretensions (e.g. tour of historical buildings)

Rented converted farmhouse somewhere populated by other Brits (e.g. Tuscany, a.k.a. Chiantishire)

Expensive holiday somewhere hot - e.g. Mustique.

And thus the wheel turns full circle.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One of the few things I remember about Disney World was the disproportionate amount of British families. Course, we never left the park except for trips to and from the Orlando airport being afraid of both gators and old people.