What Are The Principal Reasons Behind The British Ceaseless Desire To Aquire Property?
Similar to many other people in the country as a whole my ears perk up when I hear that the Halifax, Nationwide or the Institute of Surveyors has made a prediction or an announcement regarding the UK housing market. As usual the same old emotions go through my mind. “Should I Sell My House? Should I buy another house? Should I think of having a place to rent out to students as my neighbour does just this and he’s worth a bomb ?”
It’s fair enough to say that people in the UK generally are obsessed with property. When We Buy Homes it is fair to say that we are buying into something more than just the bricks and mortar that they are made with. No, We Buy Houses as part of a growing popular trend for nest feathering which means that huge quantities of our disposable income are spent on the house, flat, garden – in fact anything that is to do with property ! It honestly has become a lifestyle wherein we work to support the house, rather than seeing one’s property as merely a dwelling. The astronomic growth of the DIY sector has , in my humble opinion, been due to a bit more than the desire to save money on time-served craftsmen and artisans.
No, We Buy Homes now as an all consuming hobby, a means of entertainment. If you like, we are all playing a game, but a game where actual cash is spent and the commitment is all consuming as when We Buy Houses it’s a form of Monopoly but in the real world. The DIY superstore has evolved from a scruffy counter store wherein someone could buy nails to nail things together, screws to screw things together and bits of pipe to connect things together.
What a difference today. A journey to any out of town DIY superstore is just about a trip to a material world wonderland with advertising and lighting displays encouraging us to spend our money on credit to make our homes resemble the gorgeous traditional and futuristic displays that we see as we shuffle around the store. It has to be noticed that whilst we are doing this, often of an evening after stopping off from work at the office , we are not really spending any time at home which probably has real world issues in it such as mess , unfinished DIY projects and messy floors !
No, my arguement is that the English public have more than just basic shelter in mind when We Buy Homes. It’s back to the old days of keeping up with the Joneses in that if your most expensive purchase, usually your house, is bigger, better and more well equipped than your apparent rivals then you are in a way a better, more socially upwardly mobile person and for us in the UK property ownership is the pole that we hoist our flags on as far as social status goes.
Rarely if ever do we hear the words “I’m going to Sell My House and buy a nice tent to live in” . Or even “I’ll Sell My House and rent for the rest of my days and use the proceeds to fund my monthly rent”.
I think it’s all down to snobbery. In many other countries home ownership is not an issue as it is in the UK and my contention here is that , at least in part , this is due to a history of social hierarchy that dates back to the days of the lord and the peasant , but seems to have permeated our culture to the extent that it’s unthinkable to distinguish between status and property ownership.
Looks like British snobbery still rules OK !