BF2S Forums Home Ownership Thread

i could maybe buy a parking space in bristol for $300,000. a city of about 300,000 people incidentally. the UK housing market is chronically awful. especially since the truss government and tory incompetence generally sent lending rates to 5%. even a terraced small hovel in the very disreputable working-class part of town, pinched and damp, is now 10x the average local salary.

the government also sagely scrapped all the help-to-buy schemes for young people. and just last week announced a large rise in stamp duty (the tax you pay when you buy the deeds to a house). so clearly they’re not very interested in ameliorating the problem. most people in their 20s are making way under the national average salary. they’re effectively in a situation where no matter how much they save per year towards a house, house prices in the same time will appreciate +% further out of reach. like a parody nightmare scene in which you’re constantly running after your rescue evac and it’s receding further and further away.

i make above the uk mean salary (and mean is the right word) but every city in the southwest and southeast would be a serious financial stretch if i insisted on doing it alone. so it’s relying on family property or shared largesse with deposits etc. the new normal. the uk is returning to feudalism (i’m very fortunate in that regard and so cannot complain).

on the other hand, we were looking at a 2-bedroom villa on the slopes of mt. fuji this week for $220,000. a beautiful half-traditional half-brutalist thing from the 90s. vast curved roof like a wave and an amazing wood burner as a central feature. decking all round. the property market in japan actually makes sense. turns out all you need to pop these hyper overheated speculative bubbles and runaway landlordism is a cratering birth rate for 20 years.

Last edited by uziq (2025-02-07 01:03:51)

the idea japan is anti-immigration is about 25 years out of date. they’re practically giving houses away for free in the provinces. i mean $0 on the listing. and foreigners even without residency or citizenship can take them. so it’s not exactly the most stringently xenophobic and ethnonationalist place as you fancy.

there’s several ethnicities in modern japan, including protected indigenous groups and island cultures with their own strong identity. ‘ethnic japanese’ is a funny 19th century nationalist concept that makes about as much sense as ‘ethnically pure koreans’ or ‘ethnically british’. let’s not get into this claptrap again. how genetically alike do you think a japanese from near sakhalin is to one from okinawa? they don’t have the same customs, social structures or belief systems, even.

most japanese people in tokyo when interviewed would say they’re okay with foreigners coming to japan. but yes, controlled immigration as opposed to open borders.

you seem to have stereotypes in your head about korea and japan that date to the joseon dynasty or edo period or something. foreigners aren’t still kept to small trading enclaves near the port, dilbert. missionaries aren’t beheaded.

yes, natural disasters affect the property market. most homes in cities are about between 3 and 20 years old. the buildings are torn down and put up again as soon as the technologies improve and regulations are updated. the land holds 90% of the value. but it means you get an extremely heterogeneous, pleasing suburban landscape. lots of project homes and architect designed places for cheap. interesting experiments. their footprints typically are small.

it's interesting how opposite their attitude is to the vestigial ‘an englishman’s home is his castle’ thing we have. the notion of spending 30 years paying off a mortgage and handing down property for 3 generations as if you’re a baron, when really it’s an executive semi in the suburbs. japanese are much more prepared to tear down a home as soon as it stops serving their current needs. it’s almost modular.

Last edited by uziq (2025-02-07 02:17:03)

modern buildings are very earthquake proof. maybe not against the mega-quake that one day will come, but on a daily basis i’ve dealt with quakes and tremors. even the tohoku earthquake didn’t cause widespread damage to buildings.

not interested in buying beachfront property though, for obvious reasons. that is typically quite cheap.

the wooden frame buildings you get in the smaller townships and villages is beautifully made. they’ve certainly evolved over millennia to deal with their environment.

the UK ironically is one of the few places where you genuinely don’t have to worry about such things. it’s not like australia doesn’t have its own hazards with bush fires and lethal pests.

the new builds in the UK are horrendously depressing. all built by one of about 3 giant conglomerates. shoddy work and extreme cheapness is the norm. gimcrack constructions.

paving over vast tracts of undeveloped greenfield sites with the most aesthetically meritless homes imaginable. the new petit-bourgeois. no amenities or civil gathering places built in sight. have to drive out of developer-ville for 15 minutes to find a local mart, which will probably be an overpriced one attached to a garage or something because even the supermarkets can’t be induced to build out there. miserable and stupid.

meanwhile there’s commuter towns with half-served train stations dotted all over the country and they’re afraid of expanding them. always some local nimby who doesn’t want it to affect their established local house prices. utterly fucking daft.

meanwhile a japanese neighbourhood is in constant flux. recycling and upgrading what’s there almost endlessly. the city feels like a breathing organism in comparison to those sterile little box home developments plonked down on former golf courses in the UK.

you could easily afford a nice townhouse. get yourself a slice of georgian england. when im in my 50s ill probably be looking to buy in bath or to feather a nest back in cheltenham or something. nice, classic homes do exist. just not for the little people or anyone starting near the bottom with aspirations. they’re consigned to barratt homes oblivion.

Last edited by uziq (2025-02-07 02:20:03)

the only person here with brain-worms is you, man. you gots the cat parasite.

did you know toxoplasma gondii comes from the ancient greek for 'bow'? you're keeping guns in your house but your own pet is defeating you with bronze age technology.

I just can't picture you as a ho-meow-ner. Have you ever even picked up a hammer?

Then there are power tools, my god....

in dilbert's defense he can probably do some diy. but what's the point of having all that disposable income if you're still hammering your own shingles on in the blistering heat?

a lot of this diy pride stuff definitely has some unironic "my hands look like this" energy. dilbert is tipping into boomerism with "you've probably never lifted a hammer." frequently also a gripe of old fart generations who never spent the time with their kid to pass on handyman skills, or drove them away from it by being singularly unfun to hang around.

real contractors (lol) and what have you dream of being well enough off they never have to lift a single finger for their own house repair. macbeth got out working on cars to go be a schoolteacher. who wants to get home from their blue collar "real job" just to have to sheetrock their own garage too? you'd have nothing but spite. (related: they also don't want to work on your place for free just because you're a neighbor).

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

a lot of this diy pride stuff definitely has some unironic "my hands look like this" energy. dilbert is tipping into boomerism with "you've probably never lifted a hammer." frequently also a gripe of old fart generations who never spent the time with their kid to pass on handyman skills, or drove them away from it by being singularly unfun to hang around.

Historically the family had no money to pay for anything, certainly no disposable income, so any work we did.

Now that we have ample cash its still sort of painful to hand over an exorbitant amount and get a dodgy/dangerous job in return.
I can't even count the number of things contractors have fucked up, either deliberately or through incompetence, and every time I open something up I find shit work done during the original build or subsequent repair.

real contractors (lol) and what have you dream of being well enough off they never have to lift a single finger for their own house repair. macbeth got out working on cars to go be a schoolteacher. who wants to get home from their blue collar "real job" just to have to sheetrock their own garage too? you'd have nothing but spite. (related: they also don't want to work on your place for free just because you're a neighbor).

Most contractors don't want to be contractors

So my girlfriend and I are going to look at houses this weekend. She is finally moving out of her parents place. She had a fight with her mom about money. The mom was hiding money from her to give to her brother. Asian families treat their women terrible.

got the keys today.
first thing we did was scrape some of the popcorn ceiling (in two separate rooms) to send to an asbestos test tomorrow.

it's also got a pellet heating stove, which is a bit unique.