We scrimped and save, I tell you! Scrimped and struggled and sacrificed and did home improvements!

Or alternatively, George Osbungle obliged with some new rail links at everyone else's expense. Spotted by Former Tory in The Daily Mail/This Is Money:

A select group of homeowners, househunters and developers will be feeling a little happier this week, thanks to Chancellor George Osborne.

For those who missed the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on Tuesday, he announced 35 transport initiatives that will boost a number of locations: in particular North Cambridge, North Bucks/Oxfordshire and Battersea, South London. These rail and road schemes could be an important factor in choosing where to live, and might even bolster local house prices.

‘New or improved transport infrastructure can make a significant difference to the market, especially if it becomes easier to commute into a nearby city,’ says Grainne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. ‘Ease of travel is high on any list of priorities for new buyers.’

Gilmore cites the opening of the Hindhead tunnel in Surrey in July this year as an example. Prices in key areas south of the tunnel, such as Grayshott and Haslemere, rose faster than surrounding areas in anticipation of the scheme, and Knight Frank forecast that they could outperform the general market by five per cent over the next year.

So that's one group of land owners who benefit at everybody else's expense, but sticking with the principle "They own land! Give them money!" no doubt the government will run a compensation scheme* to make sure that those people whose sites fall in value because they back onto a new railway without being near the station don't lose out.

* Disclaimer: The last house we bought backed onto a railway line, and houses on that side of the road were selling for about £15,000 less than the houses opposite (i.e. £95,000 against £110,000) which backed onto a little park with nice big trees in it, which belonging to the local school, was gated off and seldom used. The other thing that depressed the value of houses on my side was the fact that a motorway was being built on the other side of the railway, this had been clearly marked on local street maps for at least ten years, but the general route was announced circa 1960.

The motorway was duly finished and opened about two years after we bought the house. The motorway didn't make the blindest bit of difference of course, because we were already used to the much noisier railway, and the price we paid had already been reduced to account for this.

To our pleasant surprise, the Highways Agency then sent us a letter telling us that as the motorway noise affected our house, we were entitled to compensation of ten per cent of the current value of our house. Houses had shot up in value, so the HA sent us a nice cheque for £15,000. So we got a double-discount or our tax-free windfall capital gain to date was increased by a quarter, however you want to look at it. Complete and utter madness.