Las viviendas resultan ser objetivos primordiales de mediano a largo plazo, por lo que concretar una compra o alquiler resulta gratificante, al mismo tiempo de brindar estabilidad. No obstante, se debe tener cuidado al pretender adquirir una. Bajo ningún motivo uno debe de exceder su capacidad de gasto y saber calcular las posibilidades de pago para no endeudarse innecesariamente.

En España, principalmente en Madrid, Barcelona y Valencia, existe un porcentaje importante de viviendas desocupadas que viene incrementándose desde hace años. La venta de apartamentos en Madrid o Barcelona y el alquiler de chalets en Valencia son dos de las situaciones actuales más demandadas por los ciudadanos. Ya a inicios del 2011 las estadísticas reflejaban que las provincias antes mencionadas eran las que más viviendas vacías tenían.

Además, está el hecho que durante estos últimos años se han construido muchas edificaciones que han contribuido al aumento de viviendas para alquiler o compra. Un dato interesante es que actualmente existen un número total de viviendas que podrían cubrir la demanda en los próximos 10 años, si la oferta se ajustase a la demanda.

Durante la burbuja inmobiliaria que se vivió en España el mercado inmobiliario no fue capaz de satisfacer la enorme oferta de viviendas construidas que existía en ese entonces, sumado a las viviendas vacías disponibles.

Hoy en día existe un número elevado de viviendas nuevas en venta, entre las que se encuentran viviendas nuevas terminadas y viviendas iniciadas que aún se encuentran en proceso de culminación. Es un hecho ineludible que existe una demanda importante de personas que buscan un lugar donde vivir, y que ésta se viene proyectando progresivamente.

The purchase of a home is the biggest investment of the average Briton. When looking at the home as a source of one’s happiness, it becomes apparent that not all dwellings will suit all inhabitants. Finding the right home is a definitive contributor to the overall enjoyment of life. Gartoo, an online property search engine in the UK, recently carried out a poll asking over 500 people from around the UK to rate which factors they felt provided the most happiness in their house. The results were rather interesting…

Overall, the people living in a house were the biggest factor for happiness.

However, what’s more interesting is that this pie chart suggests that there is very little correlation between the happiness provided by a house and the price tag.

However, when broken down by gender, age, and region we began to spot some very interesting trends highlighting that when it comes to what makes a home a happy place, there is certainly a degree of disagreement between men and women, youngsters and adults, and northerners and southerners.

Men vs. Women

While both sexes agreed that it’s the people that make a home a happy place, our research suggests men are far more interested in what you can do in a house and where it’s located, opposed to women, who appear to be more concerned with the social environment of a house and the safety it provides.

What makes a home a happy place factors split by male vs. female

The Young vs. The Old
Our research suggests that as British people get older they become less concerned about the colour, design and what is done in the house, and increasingly concerned by the location and safety of the house when it comes to providing happiness.

Northerners vs. Southerners

When it comes to happiness, it appears that those living in the north of England are more interested in the people and safety, whereas those living in the south are more concerned with the design, colour, and location of the house.

How to Engineer Your Happiness by Choosing the Right House
For the tangible bricks and mortar of a house to become a truly happy home that fulfils the inhabitants’ lifestyle, it is imperative that it follows the contours of what the owner holds as intrinsic to their individual preferences. For example, the golf enthusiast who finds a central source of their satisfaction on the suburban golf course will undoubtedly enjoy in a suburban town with a golf course. Yet the keen city-lover, who enjoys the hustle and bustle of the sleek and efficient urban environment, would likely find such a location far from fulfilling. In this case, a modern city apartment with a view of the beautiful London skyline at night would be far better suited.

In short, a happy home cannot be narrowed down to one particular formula that every person would find enjoyable. Naturally, an assumption could be made that anyone would be happy and enjoy living in a large town house in Central London, with all luxury that could ever be asked for. However, strip away the glossy facade and it becomes clear that such a property may not match what it is that makes you truly happy as an individual.

Investing in the right property ultimately involves the understanding of oneself before a reasoned decision can be reached. Does the house in question cater for your children? Are you living close enough to the people you hold dear in your life? Will your commute to work impede your sense of happiness? All these questions – and many more alike – will affect the choices you make in finding the perfect home. Yet it is very important to remember that once the search for the perfect property is over, it is the filling of its walls with the stories and memories of a life well lived that will bring true happiness to your home.

Buying a home is not simply an investment, but a basic necessity. Remember to take into account what it is that makes you happy when choosing a home and to not compromise on those needs because of market value and financial prospects.

Research data source: here

House prices correlate negatively with density of pubs at a national level. The general trend shows that areas with many pubs tend to suffer high crime rates. High crime rates correlates strongly with lower house prices at a national scale.

When a user enters in their postcode, the widget also links to a heatmap of the user’s city showing the distribution of pubs in the area, which on a national scale have a negative correlation with house prices and crime rate.

To download or view more information about the widget you can visit the widget page on Gartoo.net, or download directly from WordPress.org.

Website’s Using the How Tipsy is Your Town Widget

Londoners spend 38 minutes travelling from home to the workplace, 10 minutes more than the average UK worker (1). Depending on the use of car, the average may rise to 47 minutes (2). Is the long commuting worth it?

Distance from Work
Distance from work has often been the deciding factor for purchasing a home. If one resides in London, the closer one lives to work, the more expensive the home. Conversely, the further away from London one lives, the more affordable a home becomes.

Data shows that a mortgage repayment for an average three-bedroom home in Camden, London, will cost about £3,630 per month. If one works in St. Pancras, two tube stops away, the tube fare will be about £100 per month, a total of £1,200 a year. The total cost of mortgage repayments and daily travel combined would total about £44,760, annually.
We found by that buying a home outside of London using a property search engine like www.gartoo.co.uk it is easy to find a middle-of-the-market three-bedroom home in a place like Canterbury from about £150,000. Depending on the number of years required for repayment and the interest rate, the monthly mortgage costs on a £150,000 property will be around £886 per month at 5% over 25 years.

Travel Costs and Time
The annual train ticket for travel from Canterbury to London, a journey of about 80 minutes, is £300 per month. So the savings on living outside London, in terms of mortgage repayments and travel costs combined, total around £2,544 per month.

Below is a table comparing the average monthly mortgage repayment cost of a three-bedroom house with commute time and cost for a person working at St. Pancras in Camden.

London Total Monthly Cost vs. Time Spent Commuting

*Data collected using www.where-can-i-live.com/londonproperty. National rail train costs are for 8am departure and 6pm return on a weekday for an adult. Monthly commuting costs are based on commuting 20 days a month including rail card discount.

Edinburgh Total Monthly Cost vs. Time Spent Commuting

Birmingham Total Monthly Cost vs. Time Spent Commuting

A Vast Choice of Geographical Locations!
Not everybody is keen to make a million in the city. For some quality of life matters more, and there are things besides work that are important, like time with family or exploring other places. There are many different affordable and interesting places to live across the UK!

Dover
An apartment in Dover, where a £25 return ferry trip for a day’s shopping in Calais, France, adds a dash to life. Apartments available for sale in this area can start from about £40,000. Again, with a repayment of £171 per month it’s very affordable, and there might be no better time to buy than now!

Yorkshire
In northern England, one can purchase a house from £25,000 (3). Yorkshire has much to offer. Those who are attracted to outdoor activities, for example, would enjoy this county particularly. The Pennines protect this area from too much rain, which means Yorkshire benefits from a drier, sunnier climate than some other counties.

Shropshire
Towards western England, three-bedroom homes with gardens can be purchased in the charming county of Shropshire at great prices! Quaint, medieval market towns like Shrewsbury offer apartments for just £30,000 (4). Castles abound in the area and Ludlow, in south Shropshire, offers equally tempting surprises in the home market. The repayment on a mortgage of £30,000 over a period of 20 years at a 5% interest rate would cost £200 per month.

Surrey & Berkshire
Whilst not the cheapest areas in which to purchase homes, there are still some bargains to be found in Surrey and Berkshire. From Croydon through to Meadowlands, homes can be purchased from around£50,000 (5). In Berkshire, one-bedroom apartments change hands for about £60,000.

Compared to London…
For those working in London, there is a trade-off between accommodation and daily travel. Many are choosing to move to locations they had previously not considered and found that the joys of big city life are not lost entirely when moving to less populated areas. There are good schools, great restaurants and pubs, and sophisticated shopping malls to be found all around the UK.

Productivity Costs
Productivity losses from delays in public transport and stress from traffic add to the costs of commuting. On the other hand, lower crime rates and access to better schools in the suburbs may partially offset the costs.Although employees with higher qualification levels are likely to travel further to work than those with lower qualifications (6).

Conclusions:
Commuters do not behave rationally when deciding where to buy a house. The differences of value for money of commuting areas cannot be be sufficiently explained by house prices, commuting effort and even environmental quality. There is clustering effect (8) here by which areas that hold historical ‘High class’ or ‘Low class’ residential status, perpetuate it even when conditions change over time. Richmond for instance is allegedly the worst value area near London because the average three-bedroom house price is £703,000 and a commute into Central London takes 53 minutes, but also the noise pollution in some areas of the borough are “can damage people’s health” (9).
Wealthier families tended to live much further away but a rational home hunter working in Central London would nowadays buy a house in Stratford because the area is the best value spot: the average three-bedroom house price is £262,000 and a commute into Central London takes 16 minutes. Stratford is arguably the paradigm of the regeneration of a few areas in London: the impact of the Olympics, the new transport links and its strategic location in the future expansion area of London will almost certainly gentrify the area beyond recognition in a decade.

Whilst it can be still financially sensible to commute long distances to London, the trend of accelerating travel costs above inflation and the increasing travel times are quickly closing the gap to the cost of living in London. We identified Bedford and Stratford as the two best value areas in terms of the relative cost of housing versus travel time, where the average three-bedroom house costs £256,000 (Stratford) and £186,000 (Bedford).
Commuting to Central London takes just 16 minutes from Stratford and 43 minutes from Bedford. We also identified Richmond as the worst value area, where the average three-bedroom house price is £703,000 and a commute into Central London takes 56 minutes.

In Edinburgh we identified the town of Nidrie as being the best value area in terms of travel time and housing cost, here an average three-bedroom house four miles from Edinburgh costs just £122,000. We also identified Morningside as being the worst value area, despite being just 2 miles from Edinburgh the average three-bedroom house price is £400,000, which is almost double the cost of a similar house in Edinburgh city centre.
In Birmingham we identified the town of Bordesley Green as being the best value area in terms of travel time and housing cost, here an average three-bedroom house two miles from Birmingham costs just £125,000. We also identified Portway as being the worst value area, where the average three-bedroom house located 10 miles from Birmingham city centre costs £402,000.

Data set – Edinburgh

Data set – Birmingham

You may download a full report on the cost of commuting in London area: Final Affordable Homes can be bought by all in London.

Sources:
1. Greater London Authority, 2009, http://www.london.gov.uk/focusonlondon/docs/fol09-13-transport.pdf
2. Elephant.co.uk, 2009, http://www.elephant.co.uk/contactUs/pressOffice/pressReleases/daily-commute-is-47-minutes-of-hell-for-UK-motorists.php
3. http://www.nestoholic.com/houseprices/yorkshire (January 2010)
4.http://www.nestoholic.com/houseprices/shropshire
5. http://www.nestoholic.com/houseprices/surrey
6. Greater London Authority, 2009, http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/economic_unit/docs/wp36.pdf
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/mortgagecalculator.shtml
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_structure
9. http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/richmondreview/news/67740442.html

Taking data on the number of polluting factories in different areas of the UK and presenting it alongside data on average house prices, a trend starts to emerge. Areas in which there is a high number of polluting factories tend to have lower house prices, combined with a below average household income.

On Average, Every Additional Polluting Factory in Your Region Reduces the Average House Price by £800

Which areas are the most affected?

One such area is the North West of England, where the average house price is £153,000 and 63% of polluting factories (of a total of 244) fall under postcodes in which household income is below average.

By contrast, the reverse appears to be true for areas in which the number of polluting factories is lower. For instance, the South West of England has only 64 polluting factories, while the average house price is £228,000. As with virtually every other region of the UK, the majority of the polluting factories (in this instance 67%) are to be found in postcodes in which household income is below average.

So what does all this suggest? Well, this data shows a correlation but it is of course not possible to infer cause and effect. But what it does appear to show is that poorer families in the UK are subject to a far greater level of pollution – and therefore its harmful effects – than those who are more affluent. It also suggests that property in a cleaner environment in the UK doesn’t come cheap…

When analysing a website’s visitor trends, data overload is inevitable. Why? Because web analytics tools such as Omniture and Google Analytics present heaps of raw data in an array of visually pleasing graphs and tables, that by default, lack useful insights.

In order to make raw web analytics data actionable, KPI’s need to be put in place based upon business goals and then metrics need to be set up to show the progress and insight of these KPI’s.

“The difficulty for web analytics vendors and users alike, is that every website is different in some way – be it content, infrastructure, marketing or enquiry/customer follow-up. That means, each website has a unique set of measurement requirements. Whilst Google Analytics does an excellent job at data architecture and visualisation for the vast majority of report users, it often cannot meet very specific, detailed needs. Being able to export your data via its API is a great way for you, or third-party developers, to build custom applications to meet these specific needs.”

- Brian Clifton

Author, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics

One method of intelligently interpreting web analytics data and visualising it in an understandable and meaningful way is to exploit the power of Google analytics API tools.

Identifying the Problem

In mid-2010, Lokku Labs were searching for a low maintenance, well documented standalone Google analytics API tool for their property search engine Gartoo. The requirements included the ability to import data from and query all metrics available in Google Analytics. The objective is to interpret their web analytics data by combining it with other data sources of data, some of them offline KPIs.

Features that Gartoo required from a web analytics API tool

• - Simple and fast
• - Import data from Google Analytics to .xls and CSV formats from the command line
• - Queries all dimensions and metrics available in Google Analytics
• - Populates an Excel template
• - Extensively documented
• - Minimum or no maintenance
• - Dependable support
• - Standalone, portable software across operating systems
• - Adaptable to new versions of Google Analytics API and external software update

The benefits of using Google Analytics API tools

Google Analytics API tools make focusing on the right key performance indicators easier through customized data visualization, flexible dashboards and the ability to pull in data from multiple Google Analytics accounts without having to change the selected profile. Most Google analytics APIs also make exporting data to excel worksheets incredibly simple, saving time on reporting and allowing you to use the Excel commands to interpret your web analytics data and combine it with other data sets.

Download the full report here

In January Gartoo researched the combined house and commute costs of areas around London to try and find the optimum location for someone working in central London to live, the results were staggering.

Every five miles nearer to Bedford one lives from St. Pancras a monthly average saving of £515 is made on combined mortgage repayment and commute costs.

Moving from Camden to Potters Bar – an added journey time of 17 minutes a day – could save £1,234 per month in combined travel and mortgage repayment costs.

So why do people still choose to live in non optimum locations such as Camden?

Londoners are irrational

One very clear point that was highlighted by our results was that people’s home purchasing decisions are far from rational. For example, out of the towns sampled Richmond turned out to be the worst value area near London where the average three-bedroom house price is £703,000 and a commute into Central London takes 53 minutes.  A rational home hunter working in Central London would nowadays buy a house in Stratford because the area is the best value spot: the average three-bedroom house price is £262,000 and a commute into Central London takes 16 minutes.

To illustrate the comparison of the different areas sampled we produced a visual representation comparing commute cost, commute time, distance and average mortgage repayment cost – click the image above to open the full visualization in a new window.

So where’s the best value area to live?

Whilst it can be financially sensible to commute long distances to London, the trend of increasing travel costs above inflation and the increasing travel times are quickly closing the gap to the cost of living in London. Our research concluded that Bedford and Stratford are currently the two best value areas in terms of the relative cost of housing versus travel time, but whether these areas will continue to be the best value in the next year or even six months is uncertain, particularly with the 2012 Olympic developments occurring in Stratford.

In an attempt to try to see whether this trend occurred in other cities or just London we collected the same data for the UK’s second and third largest cities – Edinburgh and Birmingham. Interestingly, we noticed a similar pattern but on a far smaller scale – On average, a total saving of £133/month is made every 2 miles from the centre’s of Birmingham and Edinburgh, but only in a single direction, which is due to the Hoyt urban land use model on which both cities were built upon.

Click here to view the full report of house prices and commuters data or view the data in Google Docs.