YOU HAVE YOUR SAY
EVERY week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some from last week’s report about how house prices are falling in many desirable parts of the country, yet rising in less glamorous areas . . . MY PARTNER and I are looking for our first home together. We chose not to rent and instead live with my partner’s family to save up for a deposit, which has taken us around four years. But it’s nearly impossible to get a decent home in a good area. I feel like we’re in limbo. S. M., Birmingham. I BOUGHT a house in Hertfordshire 35 years ago and I wish I’d bought in Walthamstow instead. The prices in London have gone ballistic in the past few years.
Obviously, people cannot afford to live there now, so they’re moving further out. So it makes sense that the towns on the outskirts of London are now rising in price. O. C., Hertfordshire. IN DURHAM we’ve got a problem where every middleclass retiree with a bit of money is buying up properties to let to young families. That’s how they get priced out of the market in the first place. E. D., Durham. WHEN my husband and I were looking to buy a house in 2014, we found we couldn’t afford anything bigger than a twobedroom terrace in Harpenden or St Albans, Herts, where we’re from, so we had to move to Luton. Although we had reservations, we live in a beautiful three-bed semi-detached house with a big garden on a private road. It was the best decision we ever made. B. L., London. WORKING in London, but living in an area outside that is within an hour’s commute, is the best option. If you live in one of these areas now then your house will be worth a fortune within a couple of years. P. M., Maidenhead.