Who will buy these homes?

Someone on this forum said even recently, what did it matter if China bought this that and the other.

Allira

No, not missing the point at all.
That is because there is another point there - that BlackRock Investments is taking over, not just here but in other countries too.

If these companies take over where Local Authorities and Governments used to be in charge, who knows where that will lead?
Is no-one worried about that?

I am.

Money talks.

Doodledog

*Housing that is built currently is generally in the form of family homes, not homes suitable for retired people where they could downsize, so older people are often in family homes larger than they need because there is simply nothing available to move to.*
There is also the stamp duty deterrent. I know several people who have considered downsizing but would gain little set against the loss of one or two bedrooms, room sizes etc when solicitors' and EE's costs, removals, carpets and curtains etc are taken into account, but the ridiculous stamp duty charges put profits into losses. We aren't yet at the downsizing stage, but decided a couple of years ago to future-proof the house instead of thinking about it. Stamp duty would dwarf the costs of a stair lift, ramps or other modifications if it comes to it down the line. It's a pointless tax, IMO, and does more harm than good.

Yes.

We saw one chalet bungalow which might have been suitable but it was a 1960s/70s build, needed a fair bit doing to it and we've experienced those dormer roofs before in our first house. They need replacing or changing to a different style. Add in all the costs of moving we would have been out of pocket for a smaller property which we didn't like as much as our present house.

So it's stay put, pay for help and a stair lift if we need one.

Doodledog

I think it's true that single person households have increased, as have split families, where each ex-partner needs a home.

I'm sure we have heard of Section 21 - I mentioned that the new government is tightening the legislation and this is one of the things that will go. The housing minister had to resign (and rightly so, IMO) for her behaviour, and she is far from alone in what has become a rental racket. The sooner the tenants' rights laws are in force the better.

Building on flood plains is a problem in my town, too. Apart from building houses where they have a risk of flooding, the sewage and water systems are being pushed to crisis point because of all the extra households, which all seem to have three or more bathrooms. I really wish there were laws to ensure that builders had to have independent impact assessments that consider all aspects of infrastructure before their plans could be considered.

Very true that single person households and split families have increased.

One quick look at Mumsnet - pretty much any day of the week - reveals there are a LOT of men out there that still haven't clicked that women are equals yet. Followed by an awful lot of women that have clicked and are coming round to the realisation that the man they got together with isn't equality-minded and therefore not a suitable partner for anyone - and they won't accept it - and that's that then = another break-up.

Admits to surprise just how many of these old-fashioned men there are still around that won't pull their weight - but yep....any day of the week and there's yet another poster up there saying she's got one of them and wondering what to do about it.

Doodledog

CariadAgain

I believe Black Rock (HUGE!) investment company are looking to buy a lot of homes - to rent them out for a profit for themselves.

Add in - yep...some existing houses are being taken out of the private rented sector - by virtue of tenants being thrown out, the house then turned into an HMO and in comes several illegals - ie instead of the tenants. Those chucked-out tenants still need homes - after having their existing ones grabbed off them...

Can you explain how 'illegals' get housed, please? If they are 'illegal' they will be deported if they become known to the authorities, and will be unable to accrue points in order to get to the top of the queue for housing.

Also, how can tenants have their homes 'grabbed'? There are laws to prevent this, and the new government is tightening them to prevent greedy landlords from evicting people without valid reason.

"Being taken out of the private rented sector" = what we all rent if we need rented accommodation

and changed to "Private rented accommodation used by Serco - for these illegal immigrants". Think it's GB News yesterday or today that featured one of the reporters talking to an illegal that has just been allocated a room in one of the formerly normal private rented houses - but now Serco is using it. Cue for the reporter asking him if he'd known that house was previously rented to a normal household (ie a British - presumably - woman and her two children) and she'd been kicked out so that several illegals got put in there instead. They are using these houses sometimes instead of hotels.

If only illegals did get deported.......

Yes. It's a shame to see our beautiful countryside and our woodland, our wildlife habitats and our farm land being built on.
However, when I fly in from Jersey along the South Coast to Devon and look down, I'm always still surprised at the amount of green space here. I just hope it never becomes available for future development.

I live in Leicestershire. Our lovely villages are slowly disappearing under a mass of new developments built around them.

It is hard to see the countryside ruined and wildlife habitat destroyed. Only last week another huge hedgerow was ripped out by a builder. The usual problems are ignored so our doctors surgery is overwhelmed and the traffic on our narrow streets is terrible.

We have a situation in our city where new housing developments for students often take precedence over the building of social housing and affordable housing. It's a popular place for well-heeled university students, many of whose parents buy up properties for their offspring. I'm guessing that afterwards they hold onto them to let out.

I don't really care who buys a new home, as long as the infrastructure is there to support the new influx of people. Though I do think, as in the example above, that we may be creating a situation where the city's housing needs become unbalanced, thereby causing problems if younger first-time buyers who actually work in the city can't afford to buy.

Housing that is built currently is generally in the form of family homes, not homes suitable for retired people where they could downsize, so older people are often in family homes larger than they need because there is simply nothing available to move to.
There is also the stamp duty deterrent. I know several people who have considered downsizing but would gain little set against the loss of one or two bedrooms, room sizes etc when solicitors' and EE's costs, removals, carpets and curtains etc are taken into account, but the ridiculous stamp duty charges put profits into losses. We aren't yet at the downsizing stage, but decided a couple of years ago to future-proof the house instead of thinking about it. Stamp duty would dwarf the costs of a stair lift, ramps or other modifications if it comes to it down the line. It's a pointless tax, IMO, and does more harm than good.

SueDonim

I had a wry smile at Toetoe’s comment comparing the quality of new builds today with those of 45 years ago. We bought a new build about 50 years ago and I remembered people saying they wouldn’t live in such a house, it would fall down in ten years time as it was cheap rubbish. Guess what, the house is still there and still lived in as are all the others in the area! People do love to decry anything new.

We now live in a very comfortable newbuild on a brownfield site on the edge of a large town. We are steps away from countryside but also close to amenities. It’s a small development but there are other massive new developments in the area. There don’t seem to be any empty houses but what does baffle me is that the population has only gone up by about 3% in 20 years. Maybe everyone is living in single-person households.

In a nostalgia trip, I recently visited the new build my family moved into in 1955 and the one they later moved to in 1961. Both houses are still there (been extended slightly), have mature gardens and look well-loved.

mokryna

My DD and her DH bought a new home last year in an extended village an hour’s drive from Manchester. Lovely home but the area …. remember the song ‘little boxes’, there are so many. Nearby, there is a new sports centre and it’s twenty minutes walk to the shops, importantly they are very happy but schools are overflowing.

I expect there will be similar households and they will make friends. In the end, they're what make a community.

I think it's true that single person households have increased, as have split families, where each ex-partner needs a home.

I'm sure we have heard of Section 21 - I mentioned that the new government is tightening the legislation and this is one of the things that will go. The housing minister had to resign (and rightly so, IMO) for her behaviour, and she is far from alone in what has become a rental racket. The sooner the tenants' rights laws are in force the better.

Building on flood plains is a problem in my town, too. Apart from building houses where they have a risk of flooding, the sewage and water systems are being pushed to crisis point because of all the extra households, which all seem to have three or more bathrooms. I really wish there were laws to ensure that builders had to have independent impact assessments that consider all aspects of infrastructure before their plans could be considered.

My DD and her DH bought a new home last year in an extended village an hour’s drive from Manchester. Lovely home but the area …. remember the song ‘little boxes’, there are so many. Nearby, there is a new sports centre and it’s twenty minutes walk to the shops, importantly they are very happy but schools are overflowing.

There don’t seem to be any empty houses but what does baffle me is that the population has only gone up by about 3% in 20 years.

Yes, this is puzzling!

Although the projected population increase from 2022 to 2032 a supposedly 7.3 million.

The percentage of children to adults is lower so there are more adults, needing homes.

Housing that is built currently is generally in the form of family homes, not homes suitable for retired people where they could downsize, so older people are often in family homes larger than they need because there is simply nothing available to move to.

'Affordable' new homes around here are either developments of executive homes, which are priced way above what most people can afford...or tightly packed terraced and semi's with the odd huge block of flats plonked around.

No real parks or decent open spaces, narrow roads with road humps, restricted parking as land needs to make profit for the developers. No social planning here, no shops, unmade roads for years, mud, trucks etc to negotiate. Nowhere for kids to play meanwhile, no trees, hedges ripped out, no birdsong, soulless . No community hubs, no churches, poor transport links at least initially.

These cheaper homes are snapped up by investors, landlords. Go and see these estates after 2-3 years of people renting them [with no chance of owning their own place], as the number of children in families increase, people struggle with finding work and the cost of living [as they pay ridiculous rents which rise regularly] and despair. The brand new developments are sad sights to see. I've seen it happen time and time again.

I had a wry smile at Toetoe’s comment comparing the quality of new builds today with those of 45 years ago. We bought a new build about 50 years ago and I remembered people saying they wouldn’t live in such a house, it would fall down in ten years time as it was cheap rubbish. Guess what, the house is still there and still lived in as are all the others in the area! People do love to decry anything new.

We now live in a very comfortable newbuild on a brownfield site on the edge of a large town. We are steps away from countryside but also close to amenities. It’s a small development but there are other massive new developments in the area. There don’t seem to be any empty houses but what does baffle me is that the population has only gone up by about 3% in 20 years. Maybe everyone is living in single-person households.

I’m surprised that gransnetters haven’t heard of Section 21. It was even a story line in Coronation Street recently ! A landlord doesn’t need to give a reason for giving a ‘ no fault ‘ eviction notice. Although the tenants must be given at least 2 months written notice. The latest government data shows that 11,400 households in England were removed from their homes by bailiffs between July 2024 and June 2025. The government guidance is that these Section 21 evictions will be abolished for new and existing tenancies at the same time, but they haven’t said, as yet, said when this will be. It probably is too long away as the homeless minister Rushanara Ali recently took out a Section 21 against her 4 tenants and has had to ‘ resign ‘ due to public outcry ( Guardian 7th August 2025 ) She re-advertised the property with a rent increase of nearly £700 a month ! But I don’t think even she could re-let the property to illegal asylum seekers, that is the sort of inflammatory suggestion I would expect from GB news.

No, not missing the point at all.
That is because there is another point there - that BlackRock Investments is taking over, not just here but in other countries too.

If these companies take over where Local Authorities and Governments used to be in charge, who knows where that will lead?
Is no-one worried about that?

You’re missing the point(s) Allira.
Tenants being ‘thrown out’ and ‘illegals moving in’.

BlackRock has fingers in many pies, the retirement home sector, care homes, nursing homes, private healthcare.

That's not a conspiracy theory, it's a fact.

My eyelids bat rather a lot on here these days .

Doodledog

Call it what you like, David - the statements in that post are blatantly false, and designed to feed into the fallacy that we are being 'overrun' by so-called 'illegals'.

There seems to be a belief that if certain words/phrases are repeated enough they become normalised and nobody bats an eye when they're said/written.

David49

growstuff

CariadAgain

I believe Black Rock (HUGE!) investment company are looking to buy a lot of homes - to rent them out for a profit for themselves.

Add in - yep...some existing houses are being taken out of the private rented sector - by virtue of tenants being thrown out, the house then turned into an HMO and in comes several illegals - ie instead of the tenants. Those chucked-out tenants still need homes - after having their existing ones grabbed off them...

That post seems to have included a number of current conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories on GN never, plenty of bigoted fixed opinions

I would say there are both, the latter probably reinforced by the former.

Call it what you like, David - the statements in that post are blatantly false, and designed to feed into the fallacy that we are being 'overrun' by so-called 'illegals'.

David49

Our town has double in size in my lifespan, many work outside the town, town centre shops have close and moved to retail parks on the outskirts.

The town has already changed out of all recognition

My town has probably doubled in size over the last 20 years or so. The opposite has happened to the town centre. Run-down/empty shops have been taken over by restaurants/coffee shops and there are a number of small independents. The town centre is usually buzzing. We also have two new supermarkets on the edge of town and retail parks just a few miles away.