All That Is Solid: How the Great Housing Disaster Defines Our Times, and What We Can Do About It

The book is a tour de force critique of the housing market. In a nutshell, it presents the government and politicians as self-serving, protecting the interests of a few wealthy businesses at the expense of the general population. Its sprinkled with facts like Ian Gow's son is a property developer, owning 40 buy to let flats which are ex-council, turned private, through Thatcher's right to buy. Ian Gow being Thatcher's architect of right to buy. He highlights some measures to be taken such as introducing a land tax to stop property developers hoarding land, and criminalising banker misdemeanors.Its weakness is that it underestimated how long the trend could continue, where it was suggesting that there could be a property crash around the corner, due to rising interest rates. There always could be a fall in the price of property, but equally there may not be. I think the book was written in 2013 and the property market has risen a further 50% since then. Anyone who read the book back in 2013, looking to get on the property ladder could now be priced out of the market. From that perspective, a follow up book is really required.

Excellent timing for publication give the cynical pre-election boost being given by current government schemes to the housing market. Whilst not normally of the same political leanings as the author I found the first few chapters mirrored my practical experience of working in the housing market for most of my career. It is surprising how many things have different consequences from those stated by the politicians of all persuasions at the time. Definitely worth a read but draw your own conclusions don't just accept everything the author says. Probably best read in small chunks with each one considered carefully before moving on. I haven' yet got to the end but am enjoying the journey.

Excellent analysis of Britain's housing crisis. Far from just being a matter of building more, Dorling argues for root-and-branch reform of much of our housing policy and financing. There is lots of information here, not always as well organised as it could be, but everyone involved in housing has to read this and take what he says on board.

I *have* read this book and I found it rather disappointing, especially following its glowing reviews in the press. The problem isn't with the content. I am sympathetic to Dorling's political position and don't disagree with anything he says here. There is a welter of potentially useful facts and figures, but they come at you out of nowhere. The problem I had with this book is its style. For an academic author it's very conversational, but this actually makes it harder, not easier to follow the arguments and assimilate the important information it undeniably contains. Rather than being structured in a linear fashion, progressively building an argument, it's sometimes scattergun and very often repetitive, looping back and overlapping itself. It's so repetitive in fact that it could probably have been half the length and not lost anything. Dorling clearly cares passionately about his topic, but it's the passionate who need the best editing - this feels less like a persuasive argument and more like being bombarded with facts and figures and righteous indignation by someone who's cornered you at a party and occasionally gets so worked up that they lose the thread of what they're trying to convey. So, a worthwhile book, yes; but not a great read, and perhaps a missed opportunity to get an important message across.

I enjoyed this. Lots of useful data and anecdote intermingled with some positive ideas about social change.

This book tells it like it is and doesn't beat about the bush re greedy landlords and those who keep several houses empty all year. It also dispels the myth that we have a housing shortage!!! Lots of food for thought about how to make society a fairer place.

Great! It is very well researched. It is enlightening, but sobering reading. Looking forward to reading more of his books

This should be an entertaining read, the property market and housing are topics that fascinate the British.However although the author does make some interesting points, these are entirely undermined by drifting into hyperbole, so that the book is more of a rant, than something warranting publication.Not on that, but the book is massively repetitive, it could probably have been a third of the length without any harm.Overall the level of analysis and insight was the sort of thing that you would expect in a decent newspaper article, but wholly inadequate for a book of this length and price.There really was not much technical detail, and often London or newspaper articles were used to illustrate points.To be honest I read to the end of the book out of stubbornness rather than pleasure. I am slightly surprised that the publisher actually ran with this version, rather than insisting on a good edit to sharpen it up. There is a half decent book hiding in here, but it is an effort finding it.

Read the book if you want to know about dynamics of the housing crisis.