Postwar homeowners should acknowledge their good fortune | Letters
Michael Pyke says those sitting on piles of unearned wealth should be willing to help out a less fortunate generation
Your correspondent asserts that the increase in the value of his house since he bought it “just about covers all associated costs over that time” (Letters, 15 June). If that is true he has been remarkably unlucky. A house bought in 1965 for £3,500 would now be worth around £87,500 had its value simply kept pace with the rate of inflation, rather than its current market value of £350,000. A house that cost £20,000 in 1975 would now be worth around £220,000 instead of £900,000.
It is hard to imagine what “associated costs” would come anywhere near such huge increases in value. As for the idea that anyone could buy a house if they avoided “fancy holidays”, “£50,000 weddings” and “ridiculous £90,000 cars” (cars costing this much made up, at most, 0.75% of new registrations last year), this kind of thinking was parodied in the novels of Charles Dickens.
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