I was looking at housing prices in a small city in Scotland and you can BUY a 1 bedroom apartment for £40,000 ($50,000). And it's in walking distance to anything you would need on a daily basis. And the city has functional public transportation both within the city and regionally.
I live in a smaller city in :amerikkka: where there are like 10 bus routes that do nothing for me because I work in the next county over. I am forced to own a car to do anything. I rent a room in a house for $750/month and the cheapest apartment in town is $1000/month. A house down the street just sold for $500k (two years ago they were going for $350k). Moving closer to work would put me in an area where everything is $1400+/month and still no way to get to work other than driving unless I want to ride my bike in a gutter while cars go by at 50mph.
So, what's stopping me from buying a flat in Scotland other than immigration being a fuck?
Yeah it is. Fucking depressing and only getting worse. Been looking for an apartment and there's also lots of these co-habitation/micro living grift listing. Usually charging about the same as a studio apartment to stick you in what amounts to a walking closet. Worst thing is seeing influencers on social/digital media pushing this shit as 'trendy' living.
There's an unimaginable amount of money being thrown around to get people used to the idea of living in squalor and being happy about it. And then there's the other end where upwardly mobile people tear each other to shreds to put in offers 50% over asking on a decrepit shack, only for it to sucked up by some private equity firm.
Yeah that's literally Feudalism.