Tuesday, January 3, 2017

'Garden villages' 2

Following my post below about the British government's decision to 'help the housing crisis' by creating a series of 'garden villages' and the various comments in the Guardian and other newspapers - mostly critical - and my story about moveable/transportable wooden houses in America.

A colleague contacted me about a similar situation in Australia where it was quite common for owners wanting to move to another area to buy a plot of land and take with them their existing wooden home, using a transporter. The whole idea is to keep down prices and continue to enjoy the home they have invested with a lot of time and effort, and money.

And going back to the American example shown on a French TV series, just to reiterate that the re-sale prices of refurbished homes are often less than $30 000: even with the cost of further transport to the owner's new site and preparation of the necessary foundations, connection to electricity, water, sewage etc, The price of the entire operation can still be under $45 000 - in marked contrast to the 'average prices' being quoted for the British 'garden villages' which have been estimated at between £250 000 to £450 000!

Among the many adverse comments on the British proposals by those fearing that England, particularly the south-east, could become a giant garden suburb, a contributor writing from Spain notes that his country have managed to get the balance about right. Inner cities are highly developed, with apartments occupied above ground floor shops etc, leaving the countryside free of urban sprawl. He notes that to reach a housing density equivalent to that of Britain, Spain would have to increase its population from 47 million to 200 million.

Posted by peterdanton@orange.fr