To worry about where 'Generation Rent' will live when they are retired?

[VestaCurry]

If they never get on the property ladder, what kind of 'retirement' and where do they face? With house prices outstripping wages by a huge margin and 'bank of Mum & Dad' not available to many to help with a deposit, I foresee vast numbers of ageing people living their whole lives in privately rented accommodation. Unless regulations change, they could be given 2 months notice to leave whenever the landlord wishes. At eg age 70 that really is a grim thought.

My dc's are 13 and 11, so considerably younger than Generation Rent, but I cant see how much the situation will have changed by the time they hit their mid-twenties.

I feel a right doom & gloom merchant but I don't think I'm wrong and have seen no evidence of the government or opposition parties trying to understand and/or tackle this issue.

[angelos02]

YANBU. I don't see how the issue of house prices ever going to be resolved either. Population is shooting up & virtually no new houses being built.

[LeftRightCentre]

There won't e retirement. It will go back to how it used to be: you work till you die.

[EBearhug]

I'm in my 40s and still rent. My parents never owned a house. They did the sensible thing by dieing before they reached retirement.

I do worry about it, but I just can't afford a deposit, and unlike many of my friends, my parents couldn't afford to help out either.

[CatKisser]

I worry about this. I have crap credit and would never get a mortgage. My plan is to get rid of the last of my personal debt (3.5k) and religiously save £200/month. In my village there are some beautiful stone cottages for 90k but plenty of decent terraces for around the 50k mark. I just need to keep earning and saving.

[inabranstonpickle]

Surely a bad credit rating isn't permanent?

[inabranstonpickle]

Plus ime people are renting for longer but they do buy. Often when parents die

[CatKisser]

No, I guess it's not. I suppose I just assumed I'd never get accepted for a mortgage.

[LeftRightCentre]

What if your parents die and don't leave you anything?

[dreamingofsun]

perhpas the mindset of people will be different though. In my parents generation it was always expected that the woman would stay at home and look after the kids and then once they were at school do a PT stress free job if they fancied it. things change....sometimes for the better, sometimes worse

[LemonadeRayGun]

I worry a lot about my children's generation too. We have a mortgage and we were helped out by my parents. I can't ever see us being in a position to do the same for my children.

I suppose there is retirement housing, or those schemes where old people can buy part of a property.

I worry hugely how DH and I will survive when we are old, and what on earth we will do for money. I think a pp is right, we will have to work until we die :(

[LeftRightCentre]

The mindset that you 'retire' and spend decades not working will have to change.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Won't they rent? I don't really see why this is so much of a concern. It's not as though home ownership has been ubiquitous. There has always been a sizeable proportion of the population who don't buy.

[JuniorMumber]

I worry about this at least once a day. We still rent and have a little daughter now as well. Neither of us have parents with money. I've managed to save up 6k towards a deposit but we live in the south of England so we are still very, very far away from being able to get on the ladder. I've been looking into self build and am quite excited. There are a few organisations set up to help first time buyers self build, usually in a community of others where you buy a big plot of land between you and divide it up. You have to live in a caravan on site while the house is being built though. It's a scary prospect but we have to look to do something different because the current system isn't going to let us in.

[VestaCurry]

Boomboom, indeed they may well continue to rent, but if it's on the same terms as many 'generation rent' do so at the moment, that's on a tenancy where hopefully they can stay for the first 6 months (guaranteed), but after that they can be served 2 months notice anytime. Aged 70, 75 or 80, even if someone is fit for that age, it's not good. It may only be then that a government examines the rental system in this country.

[Flangeshrub]

I agree. I think it's a timebomb.

I think we will all work till we drop. The retirement boom is over. Our parents, the baby boomers are the luckiest generation and the extent of their good fortune will only be appreciated in hindsight. We will never experience the ease at buying property, small mortgages and early retirement.

Find yourself a job that you can do till you are 80. Thanks my plan. Maybe I will keep dignitas' number in my handbag.

[AdmitYouKnowImRight]

People managed to live a life renting before the great council house sell off. I'm sure they will manage again

[outtolunchagain]

The thing is most people on a pension won't be able to afford to rent, whereas if you can manage to pay off your mortgage before you retire then you have no housing costs other than utilities etc , the roof over your head is yours for life .

YANBU I fear for my children too

[VestaCurry]

Admit - 'before' the great council house sell off. Well yes, because obviously there was significantly more social housing available. Are you saying that inevitably much more social housing has to be built or Do you mean before council housing was built people managed to rent?

[LeftRightCentre]

I think the money will run out to support all these boomers living to 100, tbh.

I plan to end my life, as I face an older age in penury. No, thanks.

[dreamingbohemian]

We rent and I have no idea what we'll do.

A lot will depend on whether they are able to introduce real tenants rights in the UK like they have in other parts of Europe. For example in Germany, the longer you live in a property, the longer the notice to leave has to be (can be more than a year even). In France you can't evict vulnerable people in the winter months. Leases are multi-year and you can only raise the rent so much each time.

I know landlords will say this is all unfair and the rental market will collapse but the rental market is still very strong in the countries with these limits so it's obviously possible. I suspect as this generation gets older there will be more political pressure to make some actual changes.

[TooMuchCantBreath]

There are many countries where "generation rent" (what a horrible term btw ) is actually "perfectly normal thing to do rent" what do their elderly do? Personally I'm intending to buy a patch of land somewhere remote and a static as soon as my dc leave home but I'd quite happily use sheltered accommodation after retirement which is a pretty usual thing already. Tbh I don't really see the big deal. Retirement isn't going to be until at least 70 or more anyway so an increasing number of people will die before retirement in any case.

[Mammuzza]

I think a pp is right, we will have to work until we die

I'd be alright with that. I like my job.

But while it doesn't require me to be in perfect physical health, I'll be up shit creek without a paddle if my short term memory goes. And that does worry me. The thought that there could be years between being fit enough to work and dying makes my blood run cold.

I've just watched Cathy Come Home, Up The Junction and I'm halfway through Spongers. I'm feeling deeply deeply gloomy but very determined that I prefer the option to opt out rather than be sucked down more slowly by a welfare state that can't or won't provide for those who have dwindling options.

Since you can't even do an advance directive insisting on DNR in certain circumstances here I have little faith that volontary euthanasia will be on the cards anytime soon. So I am going to build and cling on to an inflation linked Dignitas fund. It's just over the boarder. Since I wouldn't want DS to have to take us, I think I'll just wheel DH up there with me on the train before my legs give out. Or splash out on a cab if needs must.

I am not selling the house so DH and I can eek out a miserable existance in an insecure rental, hoping we don't live long enough to finish the money. I'd rather get out painlessly while the going is good and leave DS with some security to buffer him and his during any life storms in his middle years.

[HamishBamish]

I think people will do what they have to. Many children will take more responsibility for their parents than in the previous generation of two. My great, great grandparents lived with their daughter's family when they retired as they rented and couldn't afford to live otherwise.

[FishWithABicycle]

boomboom the issue is that rents usually go up in line with or (more likely) fast than average wages, whereas most retirement incomes will (a) not keep pace with wages and (b) be significantly lower than the same person earned when they were in the work force.

What will happen is that the housing benefit bill will increase massively as there will be an unmanageable number of people whose retirement income is not sufficient to afford market rents and ridiculously insufficient numbers of LA retirement housing at reasonable rates.

However - "generation rent" members whose own parents managed to have and pay off a mortgage and then were lucky enough to die without needing expensive long-term nursing home care will inherit a house (or the means to buy one) just as they retire, so they will be OK. That will only be a small fraction though.

[Fluffyears]

My dp and me have a mortgage with no help from parents. We worked our arses off to get a deposit. Our first home was a one bedroom flat and now we have a nice home by being in the ladder young and waiting to start a family. It is possible to do.