I'm not sure there's NOT an EU major city that isn't having this problem. Lisbon citizens are being priced out of their own city by people with the same plan as you. So you can solve your problem by leaving the UK but then you just create a problem for someone else.
I don't think there's a solution to this problem until people start living on boats.
If you want to crash prices by building more housing then you'll have a lot of angry common people who are paying a lot for their mortgages which will go under water, of course these people will push as much as possible, politically speaking, for that to not happen.
Personally I'd be extremely happy if more housing is built and housing prices are pushed down but we can't deny that the reality of policies that took us here, those policies were wrong, housing should have never been part of a speculative market and been traded as another kind of commodity. It's not a commodity, it's not a pure asset, it's shelter for humans, economical policies thought by and implemented by ideologues pushed down our throats that housing is just like any other tradable asset... And now we have a lot of people that would never want to see prices go down because they will lose their life savings.
So yes, how can this not be political? Saying that it's a "political issue and nothing more" is like denying the reality that it is political, there's no other way. You can't remove the political aspect of this issue, there's no "just build more housing" without the parties/politicians that implement it being absolutely hated by a segment of society. Would you still vote for a party that enacts policies that make your life investments lose 50% of value? In a democracy most things are political, that's the hard part of the solution for most social issues...
The solution to the problem is to build more houses regardless of what NIMBYs say combined with an exponential property tax to effectively make being a mass landlord unprofitable which should lead to a flood of properties on the market.
Less people, globally or nationally. the japanese may be on to something here.
Less corporate ownership of housing
Higher taxes on houses after your first
Constructing more housing
Banning dubious actors from the market, e.g. Chinese or Saudi wealth funds
Yes there is a housing problem, but one of the reasons is because people want to live in the cities or popular places. If you are willing to own a car and add a commute, there is plenty of housing available.
Isn't that what "moving to another city" is? If you can move, it means you can have your income there somehow, either with a local office or working remotely.
In France, the government has tried to spread companies a bit, which didn't exactly work, not even at the Paris region level. Everyone and their dog wants to be in Paris proper or La Defense (the local business district, which, while technically not inside Paris, is right outside).
Now that more and more companies are accepting that people are full-time remote, I've actually seen people up and leave Paris for smaller cities.
Of course, not all companies are open to the full-remote arrangement. I'd even say most aren't judging by the absurd levels of traffic around Paris.
Been working my arse off for a decade and the only reason I can afford to move away is because a relative died and I got some inheritance. I can either move somewhere else in the UK or take a chance on a better life somewhere else. At this point, I’m that angry with this country, it’s blatant hypocrisies, mismanagement and corruption, that I’d rather leave and take a chance elsewhere than continue on here. I know everywhere has its own problems but I really think this place (England) is a piss take compared to elsewhere.
I would have been out of the country permanently pre-Brexit if I’d have had enough money at the time but I didn’t have a pot to piss in. Felt like that scene in the movie where the door starts coming down but the characters don’t have enough time to escape so they get locked in and resign themselves to having to take the hard way to get out.
If I was going to stay here, I’d be moving to Glasgow or elsewhere in Scotland. Much more competently run place than England with much friendlier people. Hopefully they’ll find a way to get their second referendum because they don’t deserve to have been sucked into this Brexit shit show like they have been and they’ll do just fine without the rest of the UK.
I'm not sure what you're referring to by "free republic". The Irish Free State, which existed 1922-1937?
I think you're mixing up "not British" with "good". Don't get me wrong, I had a nice time in Ireland, I think some things there are done well in their society, I think they're much better educated, and so on, but do you think Ireland doesn't have billionaire landlords, political scandals, corruption, and so on? A centre-right party has been in power since 2020. Not to mention the huge tax schemes upon which modern Ireland became prosperous.
And it takes much more than being anti-English to get an Irish person to warm up to you and embrace you with open arms, especially if you're English.
I should also add that it could take 7 years to get a passport. The 5 years is about eligibility to apply. It can take a very long time to complete the process.
Again, I don't want to offend any Irish people reading this. I enjoyed my time in Ireland and I respect a lot of things about the place.