I was on a previous housing policy forum in 2017.

Links to my notes from then are at the end of this post

Cost of housing in York

1. A new house in York costs almost £200K more than a similar one in Middlesbrough.
2. A plot of land in the York area big enough for a house costs less than £1K at agricultural prices. It becomes worth the best part of £200K when planning permission for a house is granted.
3. House price rises in York have risen 70% over the past 20 years. That’s roughly the same as UK inflation (mean 2.7% a year). However houseowners, who took out mortgages will have benefited in real terms because the value of this debt will have decreased in real terms by 40%.
4. Housing affordability estimates are calculated by dividing house prices by average annual earnings to create a ratio, The “affordability ratio”. It was 6.22 in 2003 rising to 8.8 in 2023 – but was 3.71 in 1997. A large increase occurred in 2001 to 2003.
5. Rents in York have risen by 10% over the past year and York is being touted as a good place for buy to rent because of its holiday property opportunities. Without decisive action this trend can be expected to continue taking more housing for long term lets off the market.
6. Nationally, we see the rise of the assetocracy, where the inheritance of property assets divides the UK into haves and have-nots. See Bank of Mum and Dad: why we all now live in an ‘inheritocracy’, Assetocracy: the inversion of the welfare state and The Plan Is To Make You Permanently Poorer where Gary Stevenson writes “This is ordinary families losing their homes and they will they will never have houses again. Their kids won’t have houses.