Money Blog: Is This the Ultimate House Price Nightmare?
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Home » Money Blog » House Hunters » Is This the Ultimate House Price Nightmare?
Is This the Ultimate House Price Nightmare?
By Mark Adams
Jul 9, 01:05 PM
The credit crunch isn’t the only thing posing a threat to the value of our homes – Mother Nature is also wreaking havoc on the property market. In perhaps the most shocking “home hell” story of recent times, one Norfolk couple have been told that the value of their home is now less than the price of a loaf of bread – just a measly £1.
Jane Archer and her partner’s home is a cliff-top bungalow situated 60 metres from the cliff edge – but coastal erosion and the Government’s decision not to fund replacements for aging sea defences means her home is now virtually worthless.
When Jane and her partner Chris tried to get a bank loan to expand their motor engineering business, offering the house as security, the valuer’s report highlighted “chronic coastal erosion” and valued the bungalow at a paltry £1. Needless to say, the bank refused the loan.
Homes in several coastal villages could soon be rendered worthless as environmental quango Natural England pursues a policy of “managed retreat” and allows exposed properties to flood. And, unsurprisingly, there is no compensation in place for the homeowners concerned.
This is perhaps an extreme example – but millions of homeowners in places as far-flung as Humberside, the Fenlands and the West Country could also see the value of their homes drop dramatically as a result of natural phenomena. Just look at the effect of last summer’s floods for proof.
Millions of properties were built on flood plains during the 1970s and 1980s – and these homes are so vulnerable that the Association of British Insurers has warned that in future firms may not be able to provide home cover for such properties.
It’s a shocking situation that large numbers of families could see their biggest investment made worthless by factors outside of their control. Yet, astonishingly, there is no major rescue planned for these people – but are you surprised? The effects of global warming won’t be fully felt for many years to come, long after the present Government will be out of power – so why would they bother?
User Comments
Isak 11 July 2008, 10:12
To those who think £40m on saving the house is a good way to save tax money, don’t you think spending less than 1% of that on buying the house off them and be done with it would be a better idea?
Ron 10 July 2008, 11:27
Why O Why are we allwing this to happen when we have mountains of old tyres that just keep getting bigger and bigger. wouldn’t it be an interesting experiment to chain them all together and build reefs out of them, they would collonate with sea life, provide shelter for the small fish and protect our eroding coastlines, fish stocks would rise and it would improve the lifetime of our coasts by breaking the waves before they reach the cliffs.
Done properly it could create sand banks on the landward side eventually extending the beaches which in turn would take the power out of the waves before they get to the cliffs.
Debbie 10 July 2008, 09:27
Perhaps you should study global warming properly before saying the effects won’t be felt for years to come. Very silly to think that we are not already having knock on effects from it.
ian 10 July 2008, 00:47
Anyway Mike If It Was Your House I Think You Might Just Think Differntly And Want The Government To Sort It Out Dont You
Ian 10 July 2008, 00:28
Mike I Think Yuor Either An Idiot Or Have Shares In Nortern Rock. But Its Only Tax Payers Money Holding Up Northern Rock And If They Cant Make A Profit Without our Money They Should B Aloud To Sink
Ian 10 July 2008, 00:20
I Agree Totally With Marie o The Government Pumped Loads Of Money Into The Banks So They Can Make a Profit But Wont Help The People Who Need It Most ie Those Who Have Lost Thousands of Pounds On Their Property Because The Government Cant Afford To Re Enforce Sea Defences
Marie O 10 July 2008, 00:14
The Government Should Be Trying To Help These People Instead Of Throwing Money Away On ID Cards,Europe And Saving Northern Rock
Robbie T 9 July 2008, 23:01
oh!… and i’ll pay eddmacs quid next year so we can keep the queen.
stevethetiler 9 July 2008, 22:38
I think if jane & chris put their house on the market now they would get a reasonable offer, the property is 60 metres from the cliff edge so it makes sense that it would still be there in a few years. somebody somewhere has done a report on the erosion & should have some idea of the period of safety. the banks wont give anybody a loan because of the long term risk but i bet some city folk with money falling out of their back pockets would buy it for a weekend cottage & it would be realy cool to invite their flash mates up for the weekend
Eddmac 9 July 2008, 21:36
Big Yin, what exactly do you think that the queen brings to the country that runs to Billions? I am sure you are talking about money into the economy, but I think you are talking rubbish. I personally think (and it is just an opinion) that the monarchy should no longer be funded by the state, that the royals have enough value in their properties and holdings to be able to run themselves. The tax payer should not have to pay for their lavish lifestyles any longer.
I feel sorry for the people in the report, but unless the house has been in the family for a long time, they should have known about the possible problems. They should take a good look at their surveyors report from when they bought the house!! I would imagine that they did not pay very much for the property in the first place.
Choppley101 9 July 2008, 21:36
Burn it down and claim the insurance! If that dosnt work Ill give thema tenner for it.
Mike 9 July 2008, 21:09
Surely when they bought the property, the ‘sea views’ were pretty obvious? I highly doubt that they just woke up one morning to find the house had mysteriously moved ten miles closer to the ocean.
As regards managed retreat, it sounds dreadful, but unless we’re willing to let the government squander endless billions of pounds on trying literally to hold back the tide like some modern-day Canute, we’re going to have to accept that things like this are going to happen.
And Ian, you might like to know that if Northern Rock hadn’t been rescued, a damn sight more than one family would’ve lost their home. Potentially, given the state of the banking sector, everyone with a Northern Rock mortgage could’ve been out on the street.
And J Tait, protecting that house would probably cost 40 million over about the next 40 years. Multiply that out over all the threatened properties in the UK and it becomes obvious that we can’t save them all.
What is needed, I think, is to start building homes in areas which will be safe from coastal erosion and flooding in the long term. It’s time we start working with nature and not against it – after all, we’ll never win.
amy 9 July 2008, 20:58
its a house like any other house it should be worth the right amount
Big Yin 9 July 2008, 20:48
It is so easy to put all the ill’s on the shoulders of the government,but they are not to blame for everything,unless it happens to you of course…. that then makes it different matter,what!
Like J. Tait,who has to bring the Queen into the equasion,which is utter rubbish,the way it has been put across.The Queen brings more into the country than any other body,which goes into billions each year and her Palace’ and Castles belong to the State.
It is regretable what has happened to properties on the edges of Cliffs and near coastal fronts,but your not telling me that people dont take that into question when buying such places!
Sorry, but for once the Government is smack on right, it would be repetitive work going into millions and the erosion would continue regardless.
L hunter 9 July 2008, 20:12
It is very sad for these things to happen.
We live in a world forever changing,Global Warning,never truly heeded by the ordinary joe bloggs.
Only reflected upon when it is too late.
the elements will have the final say,like it or not.
MRS DENISE ANN MOREY 9 July 2008, 19:57
pity the house of commons isnt on a cliff edge . if they got washed away we might have some chance of rescuing britain from the mire mps have landed us in
maddog 9 July 2008, 19:01
If you live close to an area like cliffs or rivers you shold be prepared for erosion and the risk of property values dropping or even losing you house to nature, it costs alot to build defences and most look ugly anyway, most only slow down this process and so there likely to have the same problem in a few years anyway. Even if it was a goverment building it probly wouldnt be built because in the long term it would be cheaper to rebuild somewhere else.
robert ford 9 July 2008, 18:54
once again let down by money grabbing m-ps who call themselves goverment
TYPICAL LAW ABIDING UNREPRESENTED WHITE WORKING CLASS 9 July 2008, 18:01
ABSOLUTE DISGRACE BY THE GOVERMENT WHAT ARE GOING TO DO JUST
LET THE SEA SWAMP US AND WASH US ALL AWAY???? WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE DUMBED DOWN TO THINGS LIKE THIS AND AGREE WITH THIS – IM SURE IF IT
WAS MR BROWN OR MR DARLINGS HOUSE IT WOULD BE SAVED!!!
ap 9 July 2008, 16:58
If the government were not squandering billions of pounds of our money annually on keeping the EU bureaucrats in clover there would be plenty to repair sea defences and improve drainage in flood-risk areas.
Ian 9 July 2008, 16:57
Again The Government Will Not Help The Common People Who Put Trust In Them But Will Throw Away Billions On SAving A Bank
J. Ransom 9 July 2008, 16:33
Unfortuantely it’s a sad truth that we have built homes and properties in vulnerable areas. Our mistake has been believing that we can fight nature, we expect it to remain the same but our entire natural history is about change, we are constantly oscillating between one extreme to the other and climate change/global warming is no different. I know that there are river and coastal management schemes that can help the situation but they are expensive, don’t always last or stand up to the worst weather and more often than not they just move the problem elsewhere so someone else has to suffer. I think being realistic rivers have flooded and soft materials along the coast have eroded long before we were ever around. If you don’t want to be disturbed by these things don’t live there. I’m sorry if this seems harsh because i do sympathise.
j tait 9 July 2008, 16:12
its ok for the Queen to ask the government for 40,000,000 pound, and she will get it no doubt, for the upkeep of her properties, but if you ask them to protect your little home from falling in the sea and its a straight NO.
Would it be different if the house of Commons was on a cliff edge, i think so.
i think its disgusting that the government can just disregard there homes as not worth saving, but give the queen a ridiculous amount of money to give hers a lick of paint. if she had hart she would give the the money to help the people get there sea defence.
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