In Britain, the rich are richer but the poor far poorer than in Europe
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Our economy is a service based on economy but I don't see where all the good jobs are. They're in London. Not distributed across the UK.
I think people are getting poorer too. Wage inflation is non-existent.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-house-price-index-for-...
In fact now some people are starting to buy their second home in the country side, Lisbon is already fucked and now it's going on in the interior of the country.
Let's not forget that the EU has a long tail, a some countries are at the tip of it with cheap real state for some countries standards.
On a 200k€ house you're paying roughly 50k€ on top for taxes and fees alone.
Is it better or worse than in the UK? I know some folks who moved to Portugal to retire and they bought an amazing large house for 150k euros about 5 years ago. It wasn’t in Lisbon but Albufeira and that location works out for their age group. I think their property appreciated quite a bit since then and overall they are much much happier than they were in New York.
This is one of those things the fuel the extremes in politics - a lot of people that I know are starting to become outraged that we can't afford houses in our own country.
It's like our solution is to start to look for house in the north of Africa (it's a bad and sad joke), or to go to other EU country (or the UK), work there for a decade +, and return to buy an house in Portugal.
If nothing is done, and a lot of people keep parking money in Portugal housing market (some as imigrants, like your friends or others from UK/richer European countries, or people just buying golden visas through realstate to get a EU passports), then I'm afraid nothing good will come out of this.
A lot of people thought it was the migrant crisis that might start the fire for the for extreme-right in Portugal, I think the end will be hyper inflation and the housing market - all because people just want to live in dignity where they were born, and they're being squeezed out.
I am sure it has its own NIMBY, especially in the capital, but why isnt more being built outside the premium zones?
Portugal has a greying and falling (!) population [1]. Total fertility rate has been below replacement for 40 years (amazing ! Could that be true?). And the population density is well below the UK, and much lower than England it self.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Portugal
Also, the working age population seems to have peaked, meaning wages should start to rise. Good luck to u and your friends.
The bulk is probably recovery of old buildings, but even land slots for construction are becoming unaffordable.
It's common to see listing prices for the same land slot/buildings increase - like when people realize there's a lot of bids for their property they pull the house and relist for 10-20% more.
Our governments made sure to grow specific sectors of their interest and left the rest of the country in the shit, so now we're going to be the tip of the tail for the EU.
People live with their parents until their 30's because they can't afford to pay rents, so it's impossible to have kids or you just dig a bigger hole.
>Also, the working age population seems to have peaked, meaning wages should start to rise. Good luck to u and your friends.
I'm not that positive mate, but thank you, we're going to need it.
Housing there is seen more as a cost than as an investment, with most people renting and the building itself generally owned entities like pension funds.
Which interestingly, is enough to make them part of the 1%
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082385/We-1--You-n...
Only the magnitude of screwed differs.
I've come up with an idea that we should do a swap, where a rich person is allowed to be rich for 2 years then a poor person takes his place.
So the richest person swaps his place with the poorest one and vice versa.
It seems like the article implies that now that poor immigrants have been allowed into Britain, the people who built the wealthy society are now obligated to hand over all the wealth created to the new comers who didn't have anything to do with the creation of said wealth.