MOT and car prices question

Hi,
spent one week in lovely Cornwall with my mouse (wife) near Camborne.
It was beautiful, especially the very friendly people and courtesy everywhere. Travelled via Frankfurt-Hahn by air to Newquay airport, where we got a rental car (Vauxhall Adam) for reaching our annexe flat.
One question with reference to MOT: I saw many cars (younger and older ones) with blind plastic headlamp covers. In Germany the TÜV would not accept these. Don't they test the lamps in the UK?
Another question: years ago we travelled Wales and saw many advertisements of estate agents. But horrible prices for even ruinous sheds. When we visited Truro this time the same: half a million for average estates, 150 - 250k for small row houses. What the hell!
Compared to car prices, which are rediculous. My mouse took a picture of an '05 Citroen C4, long MOT, serviced, for only 900GBP.
How does this go? We both love the UK very much (especially the people) and maybe could imagine to move to there. But where to stay? In a detached house? In a shed?
Who can afford these prices?
Regards
Christof

Hi Christof. This question will open up a host different answers . First thing regarding the MOT and the head lamps . I presume that you mean that the head light plastic lens has gone hazy . Yes they should check the lamps but as long as the pattern of the beam is well defined they will pass .
On the subject of house prices, yes they are ridiculous and many young couples in this country of ours may never own their own home due to the mortgage repayments being so high. House prices do vary and it appears to be worse the further south that you are . It is a case of demand out stripping supply as there is shortage of houses , especially houses at an affordable price. Here in Yorkshire for instance . A 3 bedroom house in 1980 cost around £21000 , the same house today is around £200 k + ! CRAZY !
The lack of housing is due in part to the popularity of number of people buying houses that need modernizing , renovating and then putting the house on the market to let / rent at rediculous prices .
I know that my comments will upset some on the forum but , young people in this country will have to face renting property that will never be their own and won't be able to save enough to be able to buy .......Unless that is , the Bank of Mum & Dad comes to their rescue ! Big problem ! :nonod:

John

Move to Accrington where I live, it's one of the cheapest places in England to buy a house :lol:

50k will buy you a 2 bed flat and 70k will get you quite a nice little terraced house.

http://www.duckworthsea.co.uk/all-properties?eapowquicksearch=1&limitstart=0

Christof,

I thought propert prices were even higher in Germany!

Sundance

Hi Christof,

ich lebe zwar in Irland aber man bekommt schon mit was bei den britischen Nachbarn so passiert. Und besonders beim Thema Hauskauf sind sich Iren und Briten doch sehr ähnlich...

Anders als in Deutschland ist es eher unüblich, eine Wohnung oder ein Haus zu mieten. Die Leute sind 'obsessed' ein Haus zu besitzen, sobald man das erste eigen Geld verdient wird ein Haus gekauft - weil die Banken wieder alles finanzieren.
Ein eigenes Haus ist auch keine Anschaffung für's Leben, alle paar Jahre wird verkauft und neu gekauft.

In Irland musst du lediglich 10% Eigenkapital vorweisen, der Rest wird gerne von jeder Bank finanziert. Und jeder nimmt das wahr ohne langfristig zu denken.
Das hat vor ein paar Jahren zur Pleite geführt, wir sind wieder auf dem Weg dahin...

Bei Autos ist es ähnlich, man kauft gerne neu. Das Angebot an Gebrauchtwagen aller Art ist riesig. Und es muss im Laufe des Autolebens vielleicht ein bisschen weniger investiert werden, MOT und NCT (Irland) sind doch weniger streng als der TÜV. Hier muss ich ein Auto vor BJ 88 gar nicht testen lassen.

And a google translate translation for those viewers who are only viewing in English

I live in Ireland but you already get what happened to the British Neighbors. And especially when it comes to buying a purchase, Irish and British are very similar...

Unlike in Germany it is rather unusual to rent an apartment or a house. The people are ' obsessed ' owning a house as soon as one earns the first own money is bought a house-because the banks again finance everything.
An own house is also not a purchase for life, every few years is sold and bought ANEW.

In Ireland you only have to have 10% equity, the remainder will be financed by each BANK. And everyone takes it true without thinking long term.
This has led to bankruptcy a few years ago, we are on our way back...

In cars it is similar, you like to buy NEW. The range of used cars of all kinds is huge. And it may have to be a little less invested in the course of car life, mot and NCT (ireland) are less stringent than the tüv. Here I do not have to test a car before BJ 88.

Thanks TC, I was too lazy to do it bilingual... :beer:

Thank you all for your opinions.
Read the messages by the help of my mouse and we both were pleased about the special phrases of you Englishmen.
We love it!

This was our week in Cornwall...
Kind regards
Christof

Hello Christof,...I'm intrigued as to why you call your wife "mouse" do tell.

It's a kind of a tender lovingly nickname.
When we first met 28 years ago I was totally cozened from her beauty (and still am today!). She was the prettiest girl I ever met, and true blue on top of that.
In those days I found "Mausel" to be a convenient cosy name for her. At least better than "Martina", which sounds tough to me.
By the way: I don't like it to say "my wife" as she doesn't like to talk about "her husband". We still use our first names.

My two ladies.