So where as a truck driver in England do you get most bang for your buck■■?
For example in the Rugby area 30 grand is achievable as a salary but a 3 bed house in an area you’d want to live in will now cost you a good shade over 200,000 quid. Or about 7.5 times your salary.
So where in England can you easily find driver work, and still buy a house in a decent area for 4 or 5 times your wage■■? Is it even possible?
I know in places like Lincoln you can pick a nice 2/3 bed bungalow up for around 150/160k, but can you achieve the 30g salary?
P.S. – don’t make me jealous with “I bought my house for 50 grand in 1999” before the country got flooded with half of Europe forcing prices through the roof!!!
I live in Lincolnshire and I’d say that £30k pa is achievable at a fair few companies without killing yourself to do it. Sure there’s some dross out there but there are some decent jobs if you know where to look. Incidentally where I work is heavily unionised, not sure that makes any difference, you can draw your own conclusions.
I’m in the Golden Triangle which wasn’t always, in 1976 my first house a new 3 bed semi cost £9300, and my wage was just over £90 for a long hard roping and sheeting week which was good for lorries at the time, it was a struggle to make ends meet, just like now for first timers, and called for extra curricular jobs to subsidise things for many years when the kids arrived.
I don’t think the wage to house cost ratio in the area has changed that much, hiccups either way when mortgage interest rates shot up to over 15%, cheers Maggie…don’t let them tell you it can’t happen again kids…and the two serious price crashes that i’ve seen in my years of house ownership…again kids it can happen…but generally the ratio stays similar.
Moving to other areas, more expensive housing areas do not pay any better lorry wages than the GT with notable exceptions such as Ford’s Dagenham and other car transporter bases dotted around the country, hence the distance people commute to Hell, but cheaper housing (for how long as the country fills to standing room only?) areas have correspondingly generally lower wage potential to suit.
If i was to offer any advice to someone looking for the best deal, it would be to move to the north midlands but within daily commuting distance of the GT.
If you’re a tramper and can forsee yourself doing it for many years, the obvious thing to do is to buy where you would like to live and commute once a week only, if you’re in a relationship it had better be a strong one to survive enough years of that to pay the mortgage off double quick and reap the benefits of finding a local easy job 10/15 years earlier than otherwise, if prepared to go work your ■■■■■■■■ off on the big money jobs like cars, then that can work very well for you.
Thanks for the replies. Some good advice there Juddian. I like the Rugby area, and would ideally like to buy in Hillmorton, but as a 40 year old I’m struggling with the prices as I saw how they jumped so much and what my mates paid for their gaffs, so feel like I’m getting ripped off, bit stupid I know!!! Good thing is there is plenty of work round here and decent money to be made.
trucken:
I live in West Berkshire, your 3 bed house will cost 10times your annual salary!
Or in my experience,having been turned down for a mortgage with a £12,500 deposit on a seriously discounted around £ 45,000 4 bed,which sold for around twice as much around two years later,that’s still less than around this area in…the early/mid 1980’s.
it is still possible, I live in a small village- 5 minutes from the moors, and about the same from the beach/seaside the house next door has just been refurbed to a decent standard, a Semi detached 3 bedroom on a large plot with front/back and side garden- in a quiet cul de sac., on the market for 100k-( so would probably sell for 90K- within 5 miles there are multiple transport companies where an average top line of £25-30K is achievable rightmove.co.uk/property-for … 19600.html
however the drawbacks are village life, where everyone knows you and your business, and you would have to put up with us as your neighbours
Around these parts, the pay locally is about a fifth of the cost of a three bedroomed semi, such as I live in.
“Locally” to me is of course Maidstone, Dartford, & Sittingbourne though - where houses can be double that like-for-like.
In Medway, there’s bugger all work, but the houses are £150k instead of £200-£300k in the surrounding towns where the work is…
I took out my current mortgage in 2004 @ £155k. In the past 12 years the value of my house has gone sideways, dipping down to around £125 at one point after the credit crunch, and now recovered back to around where I started now. No one wants to live here except Hospital workers - and they can’t get mortgages!
So much for “forcing the banks to lend”. Buy-to-let landlords have got mortgage offers falling all over them, but a young couple both working trying to get a house? - The only ones I know that have managed it is with the both of them working in London FFS. The bank manager even asked them the rather impertinent question of “You’re not intending to start a family soon are you?”
I reckon we should treat the financial sector like we treated witches in the 17th century.
Winseer:
I reckon we should treat the financial sector like we treated witches in the 17th century.
To be fair they wouldn’t lend more than 3 times salary three or four decades ago which seems logical considering what happens when borrowing more goes wrong so why should they lend more now.
The people who should be treated like witches are the lying pro development agenda who are causing the problems by trying to concentrate too much population in too small areas of the country especially the South East.When it’s clear that increasing the supply on that basis just increases the population growth to unsustainable levels leading to a runaway demand situation v supply and quality of life issues when the development interests inevitably then try to milk that situation for all and more than it’s worth.Hence why we’ve got some of the highest housing costs and housing shortages in the areas which already have the highest levels of urbanisation and supply.Together with the lose lose situation of knock on massive over demand in more attractive less developed areas in what remains of the South Eastern counties,caused by those fleeing the already over developed areas.Resulting in even higher housing values.
Which probably explains why even people like Zac Goldsmith and the previously pro Green Belt development Lib Dems are now backtracking on at least that idea.But still following the stupid idea that adding yet more housing supply and therefore more inward population gravitation and therefore growth to London’s already unsustainable population levels will fix anything.As opposed to just making matters worse in that regard.
On that note I’d suggest that the problems of falling house values in North Kent probably have more to do with blight regarding the obvious London expansionist agenda across the whole London/Thames gateway region.Just as Crossrail 2 and the GLA Cons plans for further expansion of London’s urban zb hole and population into Surrey and Hertfordshire now have the even more catastrophic potential of doing here in that regard if/when much of the existing population decide to run for the exit.On the basis of if we wanted to live in London that’s where we’d be living not here.
The financial implications,of such a London expansionist urbanisation blight based exodus,in the home counties and resulting price ‘corrections’,having the potential to be catastrophic to the banks regarding resulting negative equity within the reaches of the new Crossrail commuter land catchment areas. With a corresponding increase in values outside of them like further out into Sussex and Hampshire for example. IE quality of life is generally more important to people in the long term than being part of the London urban rat race.
The thing is, with interest rates so low for so long - it’s EASY to afford an interest-only mortgage on even 12x salary. A lot easier than paying £900+ pcm rent - put it that way.
Banks should have been made to lend cheaply to residential mortgage takers - rather than just the BTL and Sub-Prime high-earners.
Yes. Strange concept that. “Sub Prime” when “high earning” I know. But everyone who earns a packet, and yet could get sacked tomorrow for so much as “mis-use of the executive washroom” would in days gone by - be treated as a “worse credit risk” than someone earning less - but with a “job for life”.
Some things are WORTH rolling back to.
There is no point whatsoever to low interest rates for this long - IF banks don’t lend to the public at such rates.
Houses look very affordable in UK, yeah some are very expensive - the once in fancy neighborhoods, but overall they are affordable. Acquaintance of mine is currently in a process of buying house in Sheffield, 110 000 pounds semi detached 2 or 3 bedroom.
Dolph:
Houses look very affordable in UK, yeah some are very expensive - the once in fancy neighborhoods, but overall they are affordable. Acquaintance of mine is currently in a process of buying house in Sheffield, 110 000 pounds semi detached 2 or 3 bedroom.
A house at the end of my street just sold for 740k, a terraced house that needs lots of work. Yup houses are affordable here. Luckily I bought mine quite a while ago and am sitting on a nice little nest egg. I build an extension out the back and did the loft conversion, not going anywhere until I retire.
Dolph:
Houses look very affordable in UK, yeah some are very expensive - the once in fancy neighborhoods, but overall they are affordable. Acquaintance of mine is currently in a process of buying house in Sheffield, 110 000 pounds semi detached 2 or 3 bedroom.
A house at the end of my street just sold for 740k, a terraced house that needs lots of work. Yup houses are affordable here. Luckily I bought mine quite a while ago and am sitting on a nice little nest egg. I build an extension out the back and did the loft conversion, not going anywhere until I retire.
You are on the winning side then, when retire comes sell your house for lets say half a mil and retire to Spain and live like a king!
There is plenty of affordable houses in UK is someone is willing to live outside London and the fancy neighborhoods/towns. To me Sheffield sound good.
matkirk:
So where as a truck driver in England do you get most bang for your buck■■?
For example in the Rugby area 30 grand is achievable as a salary but a 3 bed house in an area you’d want to live in will now cost you a good shade over 200,000 quid. Or about 7.5 times your salary.
So where in England can you easily find driver work, and still buy a house in a decent area for 4 or 5 times your wage■■? Is it even possible?
I know in places like Lincoln you can pick a nice 2/3 bed bungalow up for around 150/160k, but can you achieve the 30g salary?
P.S. – don’t make me jealous with “I bought my house for 50 grand in 1999” before the country got flooded with half of Europe forcing prices through the roof!!!
Dolph:
Houses look very affordable in UK, yeah some are very expensive - the once in fancy neighborhoods, but overall they are affordable. Acquaintance of mine is currently in a process of buying house in Sheffield, 110 000 pounds semi detached 2 or 3 bedroom.
It depends on your definition of ‘fancy neighbourhoods’.In general areas that are well below the average in terms of prices are in that situation for a reason.Which can be anything from immigration hotspot/enclaves subject to ‘white flight’ to the worst of all worlds quality of life and economic situation of high density over developed housing estates in areas of now high unemployment or possibly even a combination of both.While the climate in this country varies massively between the South East v the North for example.Resulting in the downside of living in a cheaper possibly bigger house in the Norf etc,but stuck indoors watching the rain falling with the heating on costing money more often and for longer throughout the year for example.
As for London that’s more a case of a continuous cycle of investment speculation bubbles,then developers and investors milking that for more than its worth,than any real wish of anyone with any sense calling the place home.Then selling up and moving furher out where the process starts all over again.The net effect usually being turning previously nice areas into an over developed urban sprawl on a rolling never ending basis.
On that note,as I’ve said,the latest scheme,of pushing London further out into the surrounding counties,probably being no different in resulting in a net loss at least in the quality of life side of the equation.Bearing in mind that it’s quality of life,as much as,if not more than,employment which is arguably the largest driver of housing values here.With development speculation sadly increasing land values regards change of use from rural or even gardens to urban residential and therefore obviously eventually contradicting the object of living here at least for much of the established population.
IE housing costs are usually just a reflection of the combination of employment opportunities and quality of life.The definition of ‘fancy neighbourhoods’ really just fitting the definition of not over developed and over populated,good climate,and not subject to ‘white flight’.Which obviously contains all the downsides of much of London and why housing costs there are in reality more a case of unwarranted speculative bubble based on an unsustainable rate of population growth.With even the supposed upside of better employment opportunities mostly being an illusion except for the most in demand clerical type of jobs.
In this case London’s housing bubble not only having the potential to eventually be subject to a Sheffield type valuation correction.But also doing the same regarding the surrounding counties in the form of subjecting them to expansionist/urban development blight.
How much cost Land? 