rent rise

[Scorrie]

@Kavi Ugi - have you ever asked yourself why those Shelties that rise to the dizzy heights of doctoring and dentistry don't come back?

 

Yes, I have and the truth is it's for a plethora of reasons. I know 2-3 young professional Shetland women(doctor, teacher etc) who have met and married men fae sooth and sadly they've set up home doon sooth - not in Shetland.

 

The other reasons are to gain more experience and more opportunities.

 

And I guess it has to be said that there are some who prefer the lifestyle.

 

My hope is that after a few years of gaining experience and perhaps building up a CV they would look to returning to Shetland but I'm not sure if that happens muchwhich is a real shame.

 

...........

 

There's more opportunities in the Central Belt, Aberdeen and England. That's why folk don't come back. It's the same in the Highlands.

Roots and identity mean nothing if you're after a decent career and want to get on.

 

Regarding influx from outside, it's not just a Shetland 'thing'. The whole of the UK workforce is now highly mobile. People will think nothing of upping sticks and moving, say, 400 miles for a decent wage, hardly surprising that some see Shetland - with it's lifestyle, low crime and relatively low unemployment rate - as a good place to move to.

[BigMouth]

The reason that I have been given about non-returners more than once was the attitude of people here. What that meant I was not quite sure. I should have asked. Another reason has been everyone knowing your business. The anonymity of living south is often a good thing.

 

High up in my reasons for moving here were low pollution, low crime and the chance of buying my own home using the deposit that I had saved and brought with me. The last one didn't quite work out when I found not being someone's relative was going against me when it came to not getting a job. Hey ho, I have somewhere to live, but I wouldn't have chosen a council house.

 

When I was handed the keys to my house I was told that I could buy it in 5 years. I don't believe in the sale of social housing, so it is extremely unlikely that I would even consider it, but there are those that will say that I should buy it then rent it out. Not my style really, but perhaps I am poorer for that.

[shetlandpeat]

I have heard that this happens EVERYWHERE.

 

It has nothing to do with the cost of social housing rents.

 

Noo den, blaming every one but the populous, of which you are all members. I would guess it would perhaps be life.

[Redrobbie99]

I think the main reason for any lack of sympathy for Shetland housing problem is all these TV programmes featuring Shetland they all follow the same theme once poverty stricken islands now oil rich and awash with oil money flash to council cheif saying how wonderful the SIC is.Flash to clickimin leisure center flash to mareel flash to plush new houses etc etc and then we wonder why our pleas of poverty are greeted with disdain and contempt

[BigMouth]

And when a place advertises itself for tourism there are always those who take in the advertising and imagine having that ideal 365 days a year. So if you profit from tourism, you can also lose by it. At least you have the remoteness that makes holiday homes, except those owned and rented out by locals, not a realistic option.

 

I read about Mull recently, a favourite place of mine, and they now have a huge number of holiday homes bought by people off island. Local youngsters can't afford to buy property and are moving away. As I have said before in the pages of this hallowed site, and could equally apply to Mull, there is nothing to stop locals selling to other locals at less than the market price rather than the higher prices paid by incomers.

[Kavi Ugl]

You've also got yon stupid Promote Shetland website and Facebook page whittering on to the world about how wonderful life here is and how "we" would love to have you here

 

Speaking about facebook, I saw just about a week ago that a guy in Shetland had stuck his house for sale here on Shetlink because he didn't want sooth folk sending the price into orbit.

 

The next day he had an offer from a young Shetland couple and the deal was done.

 

Now, if only we had more folk like that instead of putting greed first, and that goes for land owners too.....

[daveh]

 

Speaking about facebook, I saw just about a week ago that a guy in Shetland had stuck his house for sale here on Shetlink because he didn't want sooth folk sending the price into orbit.

 

The next day he had an offer from a young Shetland couple and the deal was done.

 

Now, if only we had more folk like that instead of putting greed first, and that goes for land owners too.....

 

I don't understand the point you are making here one little bit. I could possibly see the point if the guy wanted to make a very quick sale in which case any prospective purchasers may already be local. Otherwise house prices here are and should be subject to the same market forces as there are down south. Aiming to get the best price for a property sale is not greed whatsoever in my eyes. If we were to ever move back south, we would be guided by a local estate agent in terms of setting the price, anyway.

In our case, we moved up here in 2008 and bought our house from an English family who were returning south again. they would have bought the house cheaper, as we did, than a comparable house would have been down south but, like us, moved here not because of the price but because we wanted to move to Shetland because we liked the place.

[BigMouth]

Market forces are all very fine and well, but I can understand people becoming peeved when youngsters here can't buy a property because the prices are bumped up and can't get a council place, then end up moving away to somewhere that they can live this dream of property ownership. It happened where I came from, in a London commuter belt as much as it happens here.

 

An extreme example is a house that allegedly sold on Papa Stour to people from south for £250,000. I bet that the seller was laughing his socks off. The residents of Papa Stour now seem to be bemoning the fact as it is another empty property on an island which is likely to end up depopulated in my lifetime as services get cut at the edges of the community.

 

As an aside, for anyone interested, the maximum discount allowed on a council house purchase is now £15,000 if you moved in after 2002.

[daveh]

I also moved here from the London commuter belt and actually commuted into London to work. However, young families are being priced out of houses virtually all over the Uk and it certainly isn't unique to Shetland.

 

Having said that, too many young couples seem to want to move straight into a house of their own rather than, as we did, rent for a few years and save up for a deposit.

[Ghostrider]

 

Speaking about facebook, I saw just about a week ago that a guy in Shetland had stuck his house for sale here on Shetlink because he didn't want sooth folk sending the price into orbit.

 

The next day he had an offer from a young Shetland couple and the deal was done.

 

Now, if only we had more folk like that instead of putting greed first, and that goes for land owners too.....

 

I don't understand the point you are making here one little bit. I could possibly see the point if the guy wanted to make a very quick sale in which case any prospective purchasers may already be local. Otherwise house prices here are and should be subject to the same market forces as there are down south. Aiming to get the best price for a property sale is not greed whatsoever in my eyes. If we were to ever move back south, we would be guided by a local estate agent in terms of setting the price, anyway.

In our case, we moved up here in 2008 and bought our house from an English family who were returning south again. they would have bought the house cheaper, as we did, than a comparable house would have been down south but, like us, moved here not because of the price but because we wanted to move to Shetland because we liked the place.

 

The point, I think, is that folk can't have their cake and eat it. The same folk who bemoan lack of affordable housing for locals stand a good chance of being the very same folk who will only accept the highest bid for any property they might have for sale, regardless if the buyer is from Timbuktu.

 

Either folk support encouraging locals to stay, by also providing the incentive through only selling to existing Shetland residents at the best price they can get from that limited marketplace, or they hold out for the absolute top dollar, and accept they're in effect denying the majority of locals the opportunity to purchase, and encouraging incomers.

 

Personally I'm all for everybody selling to the highest bidder, because I don't believe lowering house prices will make any appreciable difference to individual's choices to emigrate/immigrate to/from Shetland, but I can appreciate where the other side of the argument is coming from, even if I only believe any difference it could make would be a drop in the ocean.

[Kavi Ugl]

I'm afraid the point is as clear as day!.

 

I think it was for both - a quick sale but very much also that he had a conscience and wasn't looking for it to be swallowed up by somebody from sooth for an over the odds price at the expense of local folk.

 

Sadly, many folk are just looking for the maximum price they can get regardless of where it comes from - even if that means a local young couple(for example) are out-bid and have to go on living in a squatted, over-priced bedsit for another year.....

 

I don't know if it has eased but it was certainly the case a couple of years ago that many young Shetlanders were being trampled on by folk selling up south for mega bucks then offering X thousand above the highest bid for a house in Shetland.

 

My guess is it's probably still happening as BigMouth pointed out in relation to Papa Stour.....

[daveh]

^^

 

The main point you are making is that, if I had a house to sale valued by the local estate agents at £200k, I should sell it for maybe £150k to Shetlanders and for as much as I could get to anyone else. Not a great idea; particularly if we were thinking of moving back south again and needing to buy another place down there.

[BigMouth]

@GR - I agree with most of what you have said here, but you must admit that there must have been a fair few youngsters here who have been given a bit of land to build their own place and stayed here because of that. It was probably the foot up the ladder that they needed.

 

@DaveH - I can understand the point of you wanting to get the best price for your house if you are going south, but it is mainly Shelties that are complaining about young Shelties not being able to buy houses, and as Kavi says and then getting the most money out of their house by selling to an incomer, rather than help offset the problem that they are so quick to whine about.

[JustMe]

Having said that, too many young couples seem to want to move straight into a house of their own rather than, as we did, rent for a few years and save up for a deposit.

Yes but!.........renting privately within commuting distance of Lerwick does not leave any money to save for a deposit. And renting a council house if you are a young working couple is not an option if you live in a half decent privately rented flat.

[daveh]

Yes but!.........renting privately within commuting distance of Lerwick does not leave any money to save for a deposit. And renting a council house if you are a young working couple is not an option if you live in a half decent privately rented flat.

 

Of course I can see that but just assuming that a young couple have an automatic right to a council-owned property is, in my eyes, fundamentally wrong. It is also wrong, in my opinion, if a family does get to live in a council property, to spend money on cars & holidays etc rather than save up for a deposit to buy a privately-owned home thus relinquishing the council property to another young family.

 

I have been there mysef, down south, many years ago. My then wife and I lived in a dingy rented flat, with outside toilet, that was deemed to be unfit for a small child. We were allocated a second floor council flat and, due to the cheapness of the rent, didn't have holidays for 3 years whilst saving a deposit for a very modest house. When we moved out of the flat, several neighbours there thought that we were mad to give up a council tenancy saying that it was ours for life. I remember arguing that it was good for our flat to go to another needy young family but I didn't win that argument back then either.