52 replies to this topic

[The Cleaner]

@ Shetland_boys
 
Is the £50 after bills,  including food?  If so, that's no different to a lot of folk.
 
If it is £50 before bills, then you would probably qualify for Housing Benefit.

You would think so but I am in the situation of being unemployed & signed off at present & I share my council house with my adult child (though they are not on the lease, it is their childhood home) who works full time in a minimum wage job. Housing benefit is assessed on your gross household income & we in our particular situation do not qualify for any reduction in rent. However we do get a similar council tax reduction as single occupancy households get. Ofcourse water rates are still applicable as they are to all.

[Suffererof1crankymofo]

@ The Cleaner - My reply to the OP was purely in relation to their situation if they were to rent on their own but I appreciate and understand the red tape surrounding HB.

[BGDDisco]

Ok well i retract my contradictory statement then and say i cannot afford private rent as yes i can pay it but it would leave me with 50 pound or less to my name at the end of the month with my current wage. I cannot get a mortgage but cheers for the advise

Further to my earlier post about house-share. I heard of a bunch of guys who shared a rented house while they all did uni. They all co-bought a house once they graduated, as no one of them could make the leap themselves. I think it worked out fine enough and slowly but surely they all took their first step on the housing ladder.

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

Sadly I know that difficulty all too well.

Best advice I can give (Based on having spent a small fortune in paying rent in my lifetime so far..) is stay with a relative/friend either rent free, or shared costs.

 

Save every penny (No luxuries..), buy land, build house.

 

£30,000 upwards I reckon could do that.

Realistically getting a council / housing association/etc. probably never !

Transport wise, bicycle, tricycle, velomobile, cheap to run.
 

[redrobbie]

Thousands of people have come to Shetland over the years because of the booming economy which has been driven by the oil and gas industry which is a massive cash cow to the Government . This inward migration has put massive strains on the local housing stock and the government surely have a moral duty to provide extra funds for social housing in the isles . Sadly this has not happened and we get the same funds proportionally than the other Scottish islands .

Edited by redrobbie, 21 August 2018 - 06:36 AM.

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

How difficult is it to get planning permission to build homes here ?

I notice that the crofting laws have a say on how big your garden can be (Max 1/4 acre plot, or 1/2 acre if you can prove farming related..), but I also hear that only so much of the land comes under crofting regulations, how do you find out which parts are and which parts aren't easily ?

As I'd like to grow my own food/etc. I'd want several acres..
 

[George.]

Thousands of people have come to Shetland over the years because of the booming economy which has been driven by the oil and gas industry which is a massive cash cow to the Government . This inward migration has put massive strains on the local housing stock and the government surely have a moral duty to provide extra funds for social housing in the isles . Sadly this has not happened and we get the same funds proportionally than the other Scottish islands .

It is worthwhile to consider the views, claims and promises made by the British government regarding social housing across the whole country.

 

Social housing green paper.

[BGDDisco]

£30,000 upwards I reckon could do that.
 

 

Last small house I priced up building for myself was looking more like £130,000 and that was squeezing everything. You could possibly buy a fairly remote, needing lots of TLC, old house for that kind of money, but it would be far, far away from town.

[Suffererof1crankymofo]

You'd be lucky if £30k bought you the plot, never mind the bricks and mortar.

[tooney1]

That episode of Grand Designs where they did community self builds, I thought that was an excellent idea. It gave those out of work/low income a house, building skills and purpose. 

 

It would great if they did that here. The SIC has plenty of land after acquiring the Ness of Sound at great expense for, er, housing...!

[paulb]

therese stuff like this but even that with foundations fitting and fixtures is going tobe over 50k https://www.quick-ga...dxoC3tkQAvD_BwEand i have my doubts about how long it wouls survive up here.

[mikeyboy]

Seems to have been a bit of coming and going in Mossbank recently and I know of 1 house that has just been vacated.

[Davie P]

Has the downturn in oil and gas employment affected rental prices? I haven't been paying attention!

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

The cheapest log cabin kit you can get I notice is £12,000 from Argos !

I've seen houses with land go for less than £15,000..

Yes, some plots are expensive, but they are in expensive areas.

 

There are quite a lot of different low cost building solutions, I'm quite a fan of earth sheltering myself, and concrete.

Related links:

https://www.express....apest-TV-series
> Grand Designs' CHEAPEST UK family home: Couple build house for JUST £27,000

https://offgridworld...less-than-7000/

After all, I live in a concrete home myself.

Not dome shaped though..