Gentrification IV

Wise words from housing-watcher and London-lover @robbieds: "Emerging [neighbourhoods] means they've pretty much emerged already though." (‏@RobertaWedge)

The trappings of gentrification – expensive coffee and bike shops, junk sold at a premium as “vintage” and, soon after, bitterly resented chain outlets… The crowds these areas attract also look pretty samey, and… can also seem just as aspirational and judgemental of others as the primmest suburbanites… with each community maintaining separate cafés, pubs and even grocery stores. I didn’t see much inter-class mixing among my neighbors either, publicly or privately. (Feargus O’Sullivan) (But why does he assume suburbanites are aspirational, judgemental and prim?)

I was wrong about Stoke Newington – it hasn’t become Fulham (though London Fields may have become Notting Hill). Instead it is full of young men with short beards and their vintage-clad girlfriends. At weekends, they all like to go out to breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner and then to a club, so there are lots of cafés, pubs and clubs that cater to their tastes. At the moment they may outnumber the couples with large houses and children. They have taken over a lot of Dalston and Stoke Newington High Street. Every week another under-used pub gets a clean-up and a paint job and becomes a packed gastropub. The 30s tearooms are still a bit ironic - but Ladurie macaroons are plain luxury. We middle-class Upwards are ashamed of luxury so we disguise it as something else. We pretend we prefer the shabby and run-down because it’s all we can afford. And the last thing we want is for people to say “But they’re just you with more money.”

And God forbid anybody should suggest we are these young people, 30 years on.

Working-class Sharon Definitely and her partner Darren want to move to Australia where you can get your own house for far less and have lovely weather and a pool and be near a beach. They have transferable skills: Sharon works in a care home and Darren is a builder. Of course the kids will miss their friends, and they’ll miss their friends, and leaving their elderly parents will be a wrench… maybe they’ll stay put and just get a caravan somewhere.

Upwards don’t move to Australia or New Zealand despite the stunning scenery. No culture, no theatah, no decent telly, no art galleries – no Radio 4! No Archers! Except they could listen on iplayer… But basically, no People Like Us. Everyone can afford a more luxurious lifestyle in the former colonies – just like in the olden days.

When Upwards think “I deserve better than this poky flat!” they move to France.

Many more have bought lovely properties in rural France and then found themselves isolated, both physically and culturally, especially in winter when much of rural France effectively closes down. (Daily Telegraph July 2012)

It's the dream of every Samantha Upward to live in the country and support herself by writing and illustrating children's books. If Sam writes a novel, the central character will be a woman who does just this. No need to commute, or wear a repressive uniform (smart office clothes), no need to conform, no need to suppress your individuality, no need to Work For The Man… Some Upwards live their whole adult lives in London or another big city while thinking they really ought to be in the country. The empty countryside they think they want to move to is of course “tranquil” and “idyllic” and a “rural idyll”.

It's important to realise that while many people with jobs in cities feel like they absolutely must have a house with a big yard, it still is a choice. (Economist blog Nov 7 11)

More here.

Bankers Buy into the Country

Anne Ashworth in The Times
January 8 2011
A house in Fulham, or the chance to get in touch with your inner farmer?

That is the dilemma facing the banker in possession of a bonus and in 2011 many are expected to take the latter route out of the capital to a farmstead, surrounded by a few rolling acres — and with a local to do the dirty work.

Demand for such homes is expected to be strong in the early part of the year, according to Catherine Penman, head of research at Carter Jonas, the estate agents, with the would-be members of the country set keen to strike a deal before the new 5 per cent rate of stamp duty on £1 million-plus pads is introduced in April.

Ms Penman says that buyers, many of them with cash, began at the end of last year to prowl those parts of the shires that are within a commutable distance of London. This has led to a firming of prices around locations such as Newbury, Winchester, Andover and Basingstoke, with good train services to the capital.

The Carter Jonas farmhouse index, published today, shows that the typical price of such a property with five bedrooms, five stables and set in five acres, in the vicinity of Newbury is now £2.35 million. Ms Penman argues that the low supply of residences that fit the bill should support such valuations.

A five-bedroom farmhouse in the village of Glinton, near Peterborough, with an asking price of £1.75 million has just gone under offer. Its comforts include a boot room, a snug and a 34ft kitchen and breakfast room with an Aga — the piece of kit that embodies the dream of the bonus buyer whether he is buying in Fulham or a less metropolitan safe haven.

But Ms Penman adds that the outlook for the rural idyll is not uniformly bright. The Carter Jonas index, like other surveys, highlights a growing North-South divide. Ms Penman says that in the North there was a general decline in interest in December, with the firm’s offices in this region recording a “noticeable slip in asking and offer prices”. Only farmhouses around Kendal in Cumbria were exempt from this trend. The typical five-bedroom farmhouse in the Northern region now changes hands for £1.25million.

Five acres may be sufficient for the bonus recipient who does not have a house in town or the funds for a retinue of staff.

But the highest paid workers in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf and the international set who want to be county set, with the wherewithal to maintain a portfolio of homes, increasingly want land and lots of it. The minimum is between 40 and 50 acres, although 30 will suffice, as Francis Long of Hanslips, the buying agents, explains. Buying agents scout out homes for the wealthy, those who tend to be short of time.