House prices in 1988: What could £150,000 buy you?

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hat can you acquire for a budget of £150,000? In an era where €1 Italian ruins, a disused London staircase selling for £20,000, and lavish Monte Carlo penthouses and Californian mega-mansions worth over £200 million dominate headlines, providing a straightforward answer becomes challenging. However, back in 1988, when the Observer delved into the same question, the global scenario offered a mixed but much more promising picture.

UK readers, brace yourselves before proceeding further. The article revealed that £150,000 represented ‘three times the national average house price’ (currently £285,000), and it exceeded the average cost of a home in central London boroughs by a third. Lamentably, this budget fell short of affording a property in upscale Knightsbridge or Belgravia. However, the article held out hope by suggesting that it was still feasible to find an exemplary one-bedroom flat in Chelsea or a three-bedroom maisonette in the modern Holland Park, W11 area. For reference, the average house price in Kensington and Chelsea presently stands at £1,275,716. Alternatively, you could invest in a ’47-acre deer park with a five-bedroom house’ or purchase 11 unmodernised two-up, two-down houses in Hull.

In other cities, the possibilities became even more intriguing. While securing a view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris might prove challenging (though not entirely impossible for patient house hunters), the article suggested that acquiring a three-bedroom apartment in the relatively unknown but rapidly developing Marais suburb was well within reach. New York City presented a greater challenge, but according to an agent consulted by the Observer, searching in that price range would not be met with scornful laughter. The agent himself had recently purchased a one-bedroom apartment on Fifth and Madison for a price close to the target budget.

Since it’s holiday season, let’s consider options by the seaside. With £150,000, you could acquire a splendid four-bedroom Mediterranean villa on the Côte d’Azur, just a stone’s throw away from Saint-Tropez. Alternatively, in Barbados, you could secure a stunning beachfront property with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and still have some cash left to enjoy a couple of refreshing mango punches. After reading about such opportunities, we might all crave a mango punch or two.