Yahoo Finance Comment: ‘Guzundering craze is the canary in London's mouldy coalmine’
This week we learnt that three in four of London’s would-be homebuyers are engaging in gazundering.
The last-minute lowering of the offer price is not a sign of rogue bargain hunters but rather an indication of how our decrepit housing stock is becoming a big problem — and not just for people in a property chain.
Buyers are backtracking once they see the survey results and totting up the cost of sorting out a damp problem or putting on a new roof. Even the mega-wealthy are resorting to gazundering once the full extent of the damage is apparent.
A contributing factor to this ill miasma is the cost-of-living crisis.
Heating our homes is expensive, making us less likely to crack a window on a chilly day. No one has the extra cash to undertake expensive damp-proofing and insulating. Period homes, now split into expensive flats, were not designed for so many occupants and their wet laundry.
Compared with our continental counterparts, we have some of the oldest, leakiest housing stock going. This combined with our notoriously damp, cold climate it’s a toxic combination that breeds misery as we breathe spores.
The death of Awaab Ishak should have been a horrifying wake-up call for politicians that the fabric of our homes is mouldering away, taking young lives with it. But beyond empty promises of more new-builds outside of the capital, housing has been a damp squib in the election manifestos.
I doubt No 10 has a damp problem, but it’s new occupant will need to contend with the nation’s, and quickly. We need a retrofit and refurb programme to root out the rot and help our homes breathe easy.
