Why are British country houses suddenly so popular?
Text | Caijing staff writer Wei Cheng from London
Editor | Hao Zhou
There are two places in the UK with the same name, both called Richmond. Mainland China translates it as Richmond, overseas Chinese translate it as Richmond, and some Cantonese-speaking Chinese translate it as "Wealthy Gate".
One is Richmond, a small town in North Yorkshire, England. They claim to be the ancestors of 56 places around the world that are also named Richmond. One is Richmond, the most famous wealthy area in London, the British capital.
In the sudden wave of real estate speculation during the British COVID-19 epidemic, the small town of Richmond in North Yorkshire became the "tide center" of the British "COVID-19 real estate speculation wave", although it can also be regarded as Despite the storm, local residents still find it a bit baffling.
According to the latest official data from the British Real Estate Registration Agency, house prices in this town with a population of less than 10,000 people have increased by 29% in 2020, making it the area with the highest house price increase in the UK.
As for the Richmond district of London, where house prices are already very high, the increase has not been significant during this wave of real estate speculation: house prices here only increased by 0.45 in 2020.
But the average house price in this affluent London area straddling both sides of the Thames is 700,000 pounds, which is two and a half times the price of the town of the same name in North Yorkshire.
Escape the big city?
The story of two Richmond house prices is, at least in the UK, universally representative.
The wave of house buying in the UK caused by the new crown epidemic and the national blockade has its own characteristics:
First of all, some people actively buy houses, and some passively sell houses, because some industries and some Occupations have been hit hard by the epidemic, especially those industries or occupations that require face-to-face contact with people at work, such as labor and management in small catering industries, small owners of non-daily necessities stores without online shopping facilities, and owners and employees of beauty salons and nail salons Wait, in some industries and occupations, because they can work from home, their income has not decreased, but their savings may have increased. Because the blockade prevents them from traveling and spending money, these people are generally the ones who buy houses during the epidemic.
Secondly, during the epidemic blockade, the government and employers encouraged those employees who were able to work remotely to work from home. The epidemic lasted for a year and a half, and the work-from-home model gradually became fixed. Even if the epidemic eased significantly, many companies Employees will not be forced to work in the office full-time. Such a major and long-term change in work patterns will naturally induce many people to buy houses away from the city centers. This has also driven up the housing prices in the suburbs of big cities, small towns, and even rural areas. Far exceeding this housing price trend in urban centers.
For example, many white-collar workers who were crowded into office buildings in central London before the epidemic were happy to work from home during the epidemic. They did not have to drive through the narrow and congested streets of London every day, or do not have to take long rides. , crowded public transportation, and go to work in the same crowded small cubicle in the office. They simply gave up the small but expensive apartments they rented in London and went to the suburbs of London or the countryside outside London to buy spacious and relatively cheap apartments. villas, and accordingly, they have also pushed up the house prices in some quiet small towns or villages.
Richmond, a beautiful, quiet and leisurely town in North Yorkshire, England, is like this. During the epidemic, real estate speculators who came from several nearby big cities drove up the house prices by nearly 10%. 30.
Jonathan and Sarah, a young local couple, complained: "We live in a small village near Richmond. We enjoy country life very much. We originally wanted to change to a bigger house in this village, but we never Real estate speculators from other big cities have driven up housing prices here, making it difficult for locals like us to afford big houses.
”
Jonathan works for a local charity, and Sarah works in a hospital. Originally, both of them had good jobs and incomes. Changing to a big house in the village is not an unattainable dream, but the epidemic blockade The resulting strong demand for country houses, as well as the beautiful scenery of Richmond itself and the surrounding areas, has attracted real estate speculators from big cities with higher incomes, crushing the expectations of Jonathan, Sarah and locals with the same income level. House swap dream.
This situation also happens in other picturesque rural areas in the UK, for example, in the Derbyshire Dales, North Norfolk, Cotswolds and other areas in the UK in 2020.
Real estate agent Ben Quintrell said: "The new crown epidemic has forced people to re-evaluate their lives and focus on what really matters, which is family and housing. For many, this means moving to rural or semi-rural areas. ”
A recent investigation by the British Halifax Bank confirmed Ben Quintrell’s statement. The bank found in the investigation that from March 2020 to June 2021, the British Average house prices in areas surrounding major cities (excluding London) rose by 10.9, while house prices in the city itself only increased by 8.9, said Andrew Assam, head of mortgage lending at Halifax Bank. , the factors that have influenced the UK property market during the new crown epidemic are "buyers' demand for more space, the desire to move from the city center to the suburbs and the trend of working from home." ”
For example, in the coastal city of Plymouth in southwest England, urban housing prices increased by 5.8% during this period, while housing prices in surrounding areas soared by 16.1%; in the central city of Leicester, urban residential housing prices increased by 6.5% , the increase in house prices in surrounding areas is twice that of the urban area. In the more rural areas of Rutland and Melton, the increase in house prices is as high as 22.5%.
British real estate agency Hamp. Recent figures from Hamptons show Londoners bought 61,380 homes outside London between January and June this year, the highest number for any half-year period since 2006.
Anisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “The out-migration trend driven by the new crown epidemic shows no signs of slowing down. Today, Londoners want to buy a house with a sea view, and their ideal living environment is Countryside that is more open, cleaner, and less densely populated. ”
Housing supply exceeds demand
In addition to the above factors, there are three more important reasons for the general rise in house prices outside major British cities:
1. In order to stimulate the economy and property market that have been hit hard by the epidemic, the British government has introduced a series of policies to encourage people to buy houses, including reducing stamp duty on home purchases;
2. The UK and even the entire West have been in a state of recession for many years. The unprecedented period of low interest rates is of course a major positive factor for British people who borrow from banks to buy real estate;
3. Generally speaking, villas and apartments listed for sale in the UK have always been Supply exceeds demand. For various reasons, the supply of houses for sale in the UK has become increasingly scarce and tight during the COVID-19 epidemic, not to mention rural areas where residential land is already in short supply. Industry insiders say that the supply of houses in the UK is foreseeable. There will not be much improvement in the future, which will naturally increase the upward pressure on house prices.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said that the average number of properties on the books of real estate agencies is now close to an all-time low.
Data recently released by the British real estate rental and sale website Zoopla also confirms this trend: the number of properties listed for sale in the UK is the smallest since 2015, 26 less than last year’s average.
The website said there was a severe shortage of properties listed for sale, pushing up house prices in many parts of the UK.
The latest house price index from Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, shows that UK house prices increased by 2.1% in August compared with July, which was the second largest month-on-month increase in 15 years. Analysts believe this is mainly because the supply of properties on the market exceeds demand.
Jeremy Leaf, former head of residential at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and now an estate agent in North London, said: “There is a shortage of properties listed for sale but there are too many mortgages being offered by banks. This has led to the current situation of soaring house prices.”
In the picturesque town of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England, the supply of houses for sale is even more severe than the demand. Maggie Owen, of local real estate agency Owen Realty, said they were currently marketing just 32 properties, compared with more than 100 a year ago.
“We definitely have a supply problem at the moment. We, like other agents, only have one or two properties available for sale some weeks. There are good reasons why people looking to improve their homes are reluctant to sell. Simple: They have nowhere to buy a house,” Maggie said.
London's "Wealth Gate" failed to turn danger into disaster?
There are many people with the same name, and many places with the same name.
There are 56 places in the world called Richmond. As mentioned earlier, mainland China translates it as Richmond, and overseas Chinese translate it as Richmond.
The "Times Universal World Atlas" ranking of the most influential place names in the English-speaking world shows that Richmond beat London to become the most influential place name in the English-speaking world.
There are more than 30 places named Richmond in the United States alone, five in South Africa, four in Jamaica and Australia, three in Canada, and two in the United Kingdom. .
Interestingly, some of the Richmonds, such as Richmond in the Greater Vancouver area of Canada, Richmond Hill in the Greater Toronto area, Richmond in the Greater Melbourne area of Australia, Richmond in the Greater London area of the United Kingdom, etc. There are also many Chinese among the residents.
There is a saying that many Chinese moved to these areas called Richmond because they liked the word rich (rich) in the English name Richmond. Some Cantonese-speaking Chinese even Richmond is also translated as "Wealth Gate", which is particularly in line with the custom of overseas Chinese attaching importance to Feng Shui and auspicious names. Just like they regard the number "8" as the "fa" for getting rich based on the homophony, they believe that living in "wealth and honor" If they open the door, they can turn bad luck into good luck, get rich, and bring wealth and wealth to their families.
But this is actually a misunderstanding. Richmond originally originated from the French language riche-monte used by the Normans, which means "powerful mountain". It was a town established in North Yorkshire in 1071 after the Normans conquered England. This town is the earliest Richmond in the world. Getting rich has nothing to do with it.
However, overseas Chinese who are eager to make a fortune have no intention of researching the exact etymology of Richmond. The most famous Richmond in the overseas Chinese world is probably Richmond in the Greater Vancouver area of Canada. Local Cantonese speakers call the city where they live "Fuguimen". It is said that in the "Fuguimen" of Greater Vancouver, Chinese account for more than half of the local population.
In the 1990s, many Hong Kong people immigrated to Canada. Many of them chose to settle in the "Wealth Gate" in the Greater Vancouver area because of their auspicious names. The famous Hong Kong artists Nicholas Tse and Edison Chen lived in Greater Vancouver. I grew up in Richmond, Vancouver. Over the years, more and more immigrants from mainland China have come here, and many immigrants from mainland China even jokingly call this place the "liberated area" of Canada.
Of course, the most famous Richmond in the world is the Richmond District of London, the British capital, where there are also many wealthy Chinese immigrants. The Thames River, the "Mother River" of the UK, runs directly through this area. Richmond Park, the largest royal garden among the "Eight Royal Parks" in the UK, is located in this area. It also has Hampton Court Palace, known as the British Palace of Versailles. Kew Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens are also located in this area. Celebrities also like to come here to get together, and even call it the Beverly Hills of the UK. The small town here Teddington was recently selected by the Sunday Times as the 2021 Best places to live in London.
But the London borough of Richmond has not fared well in the latest wave of British property speculation that has emerged during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rightmove, another popular real estate rental and sales website in the UK, recently released a ranking of house sales speeds, with Richmond in London ranking at the bottom.
As mentioned earlier, house prices in the Richmond District of London only increased by an almost negligible amount last year: 0.45. In June of this year, against the backdrop of a 4.5% increase in house prices across the UK and a 2.5% increase in real estate prices across London, house prices in Richmond, London actually fell by 0.4%.
Housing prices in Richmond, London have slightly increased or decreased. In addition to the aforementioned factors of Londoners migrating to the countryside during the epidemic, there are also other more complex reasons.
Of course, the slight rise or fall is not because the houses here are not valuable, but because they are so valuable that there is no room for continued appreciation.