Property Prices
Before William the Conqueror built himself a sea-view castle on the West Hill behind my house and laid claim to all the land in England, property ownership was a legally unenforceable concept; ownership being entirely dependent on the occupant’s ability with a sword.
135 All Saints Street, Hastings
The Conquest established English feudalism, whereby every person’s position in society became defined by their relationship to land – the primary source of revenue at the time and an overt sign of wealth and social standing. The more favoured the lord (and his personal army) the more land he was gifted by the crown. Our obsession with property ownership has continued ever since.
Hastings boasts some of the oldest buildings in the country with the Tudor houses on All Saints Street dating back to the 1450s. Their survival is a remarkable testament to the original builders and the diligence of subsequent owners. Alastair Hendy’s at 135 for instance, is a triumph of restoration that allows visitors on open days to glimpse a past life – quite literally, given that the dining room was once the town mortuary. A vast industry has grown around our fascination with the highs and lows of the market, with property website Rightmove recently recording 32 million ‘hits’ in one day. Yet home ownership is at its lowest level since the 1980s, with a lack of new housing stock and property inflation primarily to blame – if the same price hike were applied to bananas, a bunch of six would cost £8.47.
Like the rest of the south coast, house prices in Hastings have risen dramatically, with demand outstripping supply. It was Clement Attlee’s 1947 government that introduced the Town and Country Planning Act, which insisted that large cities be surrounded by green belts, in order to avoid urban sprawl. A good thing of course. But people need to live somewhere. When I bought Rock House, there were no other takers; young families tend to need warm homes – not uninhabitable wrecks. So where are they to go? The Bexhill to Hastings link road promises 2,000 new homes but so far no new doors have opened. The reality is that less than three per cent of the country is built on and most of it is already sold.
Next week: Pink houses
135 All Saints Street, HastingsThe Conquest established English feudalism, whereby every person’s position in society became defined by their relationship to land – the primary source of revenue at the time and an overt sign of wealth and social standing. The more favoured the lord (and his personal army) the more land he was gifted by the crown. Our obsession with property ownership has continued ever since.
Hastings boasts some of the oldest buildings in the country with the Tudor houses on All Saints Street dating back to the 1450s. Their survival is a remarkable testament to the original builders and the diligence of subsequent owners. Alastair Hendy’s at 135 for instance, is a triumph of restoration that allows visitors on open days to glimpse a past life – quite literally, given that the dining room was once the town mortuary. A vast industry has grown around our fascination with the highs and lows of the market, with property website Rightmove recently recording 32 million ‘hits’ in one day. Yet home ownership is at its lowest level since the 1980s, with a lack of new housing stock and property inflation primarily to blame – if the same price hike were applied to bananas, a bunch of six would cost £8.47.
Like the rest of the south coast, house prices in Hastings have risen dramatically, with demand outstripping supply. It was Clement Attlee’s 1947 government that introduced the Town and Country Planning Act, which insisted that large cities be surrounded by green belts, in order to avoid urban sprawl. A good thing of course. But people need to live somewhere. When I bought Rock House, there were no other takers; young families tend to need warm homes – not uninhabitable wrecks. So where are they to go? The Bexhill to Hastings link road promises 2,000 new homes but so far no new doors have opened. The reality is that less than three per cent of the country is built on and most of it is already sold.
Next week: Pink houses