What is the best place for UK property buying?

I would like your advice please.

I went on zoopla.com and I found that the area north of Cardiff is the cheapest for residential properties in the UK.

Can anyone say why that area is so much cheaper than the rest of the UK? (50k GBP as opposed to 200+ GBP at other places.)

I would like to buy one. (Maybe a few.) But, really, I would like to know what the gotcha is. Can you please enlighten me?

Thanks a lot. Your inputs are greatly appreciated.

 

It's a dump.

 

If you are interested in buying for renting purposes, you have to find people who can actually pay the rent. Furthermore, at least when I lived there and I have no reason to assume it has changed much, people on welfare and housing benefit are paid directly and it's up to them to pay the rent to the owner.

Don't bank on it.

 

It's a dump .

 

Nowhere it is all too expensive. Property prices have started to fall somewhat - wait until 2015 before you buy as they should have fallen some more by then.

But saying that I have noticed the NE England (Northumberland) and SE Scotland (Borders & Tweeddale) are not so badly priced and the Countryside is splendid there. Depends what you are looking for - Country living or some City property.

 

Beware .
None of them speak English in any recognisable way .
The weather is awful .
They dress strangely .
Standard of Football is not top class .

 

Oxfordshire, maybe?

BTW, Cardiff -- population wise:

This is pretty substantial!

And the weather ain't so different from Brighton I gather either.

 

True.

The UK is an economic mess, as is the housing market.

The best (as in: stable) Western-European markets are probably Belgium, Netherlands (although not exactly, a large portion of the population lives in so-called state housing) and Germany. Belgium is probably the most stable of all, it has been so for about 70 years (one of the highest % of home ownership in the world).

However, if it were up to me -- and not living in Monaco, but in rainy Western-Europe -- I would buy myself a nice house that needs serious renovating down in Portugal:

(1) Silver Coast (or Região Centro); (2) Alentejo (or Região do Alentejo) and (3) Rural North (or Região Norte).

You buy relative big houses with big chunks of lands. Lots of character, but needs some "serious" renovating. Although I guess you could do in stages. With two year plans, for example:

Year 1-2: get the roof in order, reorganize and (re-)install/modernize the plumbing where necessary

Year 3-4: think-out HVCR, insulate and install a iron cast stove (for when you go in the late fall, winter or early spring + increases rental possibilities).

=> I'd go for a "romantic" type of stove (N°6) from the Germany company "Iron Dog". It heats, it bakes, it grills, it cooks! And no need for natural gas lineage in the middle of nowhere. But I wonder how ones heats his warm water in the middle of nowhere.

=> you could use wood pallets too...

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Anyways,.............................

That is what I want to do, now I just need to find the man of my dreams!

 

How true. His (or is it her?) post is all waffle.

 

Yesterday's strike was their Transport Union /System/ Horse and Cart Services .
In the very week they are having the most important EU economy talks ---in theory , at least .
And there is no way to travel around this otherwise wretched City for the millions of EU hangers on and professional free lunch brigade . Not forgetting the EU technocrat scum who ponce around doing nothing of significance apart from voting each other huge pensions .The true Brussel Sprouts .

 

Especially when overcooked. Bland. Tasteless. Falling to bits.

Anyone could believe I was writing about that country.

 

They speak perfectly fine English.
The weather is perfectly acceptable with hardly much rainfall being on the East side of the Country.
The clothes shops are the same as elsewhere in the UK and having visited most parts of the Country people dress just a everyone else does.
The football will have little bearing on where to buy a property unless you are a fan of a particular team.


I see you are located in Brighton - that must make you a Manchester United fan then?

 

Not too close to Mosques, Muslim and African neighborhoods, the further the better.

 

Jersey. It resembles Monaco in many ways - except that real people actually live there.

 

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Good one, Paris!

 

You need more than you lot have in the Bank .
They do not take Socialists .

 

They do, trust me

 

Yup. 'The area north of Cardiff', the former mining and industrial valleys of South Wales, are among the poorest and most depressed parts of Western Europe, following the decline of heavy industry, the vindictive Thatcherite murder of the mining industry, and the complete lack of will on the part of the UK government to do anything about it (not only did they shut the area down and leave it to rot, they even blocked the area from receiving the available EU grants for decades). It's not an area that is doing well, even though improvements are being made now thanks to the devolution process, and on top of that some of the older housing stock has been poorly maintained over recent decades (because of the economic decline of the area), and will be likely to need alot of work to bring it fully up to modern standards.

Cardiff itself is, of course, a vibrant city that is doing pretty well for itself, and is actually not a bad city at all (if you like that sort of thing - I'm not a fan of cities generally, but Cardiff is a better place to be than most of them!). House prices there, especially in the better areas, will be very much higher, obviously - the average there was apparently £183,220 in November:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/counties/html/county13.stm

That's about the same as Torbay (the Torquay area on the South Coast of England), which was £189,925:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/counties/html/county96.stm

In Blaenau Gwent (in the Valleys North of Cardiff) it was £88,163:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/counties/html/county5.stm

As for 'football', who cares?! Cardiff does have a team currently near the top of the second tier of the English/Welsh Football leagues, and Swansea, just along the coast, has one currently just below half way up the top tier Premiership - the South Coast of England, of course, has no current Premiership teams, so is obviously currently worse at football than South Wales! Cardiff, though, is the home to probably the finest rugby stadium in the world (and one of the few large, modern stadia that is actualy in the heart of a big city, which makes a fantastic atmosphere on an international match day). The climate of South Wales is mild and damp - no water shortages, and a temperature that allows sub-tropical plants to grow that would die in almost every other part of the UK. The people speak English perfectly well (and some speak Welsh too, of course, although it's a fairly low percentage in the Cardiff area itself).

South Wales is a fine place to live, but like anywhere there are areas where it would be unwise to invest in housing. There are certainly parts of the Valleys where buying a house might not be a very good thing to do, although there are other parts where the rural scenery is great. If a house costs only £50K at current prices, that would be a very good indicator that it's probably not a good investment (unless it is well below the price of equivalent neighbouring properties, and falling down, and you happen to be a builder!).

 

Having said all that about the Valleys, of course, with all of the economic problems that there are, it's not an area that would be entirely unattractive to actually live in:



The Centre of Cardiff, of course, has the aforementioned stadium, a castle, and a large park:


Modern Shopping Centres:


And main streets that fill with good-natured rugby fans, all mixing happily together (note the Irish fans among the Welsh fans below) on international match day:

 

Cardiff received a Globe Award back in 2009, so I guess it must be a nice city to work and live in.

 

These days somebody will give you an award for anything that gets them publicity .
For example , The Channel Isles , for being the leading EU exporter of potatoes per capita .

 

The award was for sustainability:
http://globeaward.org/winner-city-2009

I don't live there, but I know many people who do, and it's certainly a great city to live and work in, and also to visit. Some people seem to have a tendency to hang on to outdated images of former industrial cities, many of which were probably not entirely accurate in the first place!


Here's a couple of videos of the city area, and what it has to offer, just to give you an idea of what it's like:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1n9MsfFsI"]Visit Cardiff[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=275VPcD_3xU"]Britain's Best Breaks - Cardiff[/ame]

 

Thanks for the videos! I have to say that, judging on the pictures, I think it is pretty weird to have a sportsstadium right in centre of town. I've never seen that in my life. I think it is pretty dumb too, with all the traffic it generates, the parking it requires, etc.