When I first moved to Belgium I was living in a hotel and needed somewhere to live, quick. This was in 1967 and rent was so cheap here.
The first place I looked at was an old farm house compleat with fields, orchard and a fireplace that you could sit in for the winter, rent £1,50 a month! The next place I really liked and said YES! even before I knew how much it was going to cost me. A Summer chalet in a nature reserve that had once belonged to a Baron, compleat with three huge lakes and woods on the other side of the lake.I built some steps leading down into lake from my garden so that we could go boating or swimming. Rent £7,50 a month!
After I had stopped cycling I took over a pub in a nearby village. Dreams were cheap and we lived them. I now live in a four bedroom bungalow built some 30 years ago by the firm I worked for. It is worth now about £50 000, for the same thing in Brum you would pay at least 5 times that, maybe more.
Two years ago I was standing outside an estate agents in Acocks Green, looking at the photos in the window. I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing in the street. They had an end house for sale in a row, built in the 50's two up two down with loft conversion, no garage and not much garden. They were asking £500 000. That would have been a good cure for Ann W mom's homesickness for Brum.