Teenage reality hitting home

@Hereyoume By 'cheap dodgy flats' do you mean ones that are death traps? Dogdy electrics, converted garages with only one exit, boilers that are never serviced? So it's OK to allow human beings to live in these conditions so someone with an addiction to cash can get their fix?

Do you not realise how the cost of land is driving house price inflation? & guess who owns the land in the UK? A handful of people. But here we have the OP's son being asked to check HIS privilege.

NO OP it's not just you. I really feel for our younger generations. Those who spout that they just need to get used to renting will most definitely be home owners themselves. I will be looking very closely at the manifestos to see what they ARE doing for young generations but I suspect it will be very little. There will be money for the Triple Lock from all parties I guarantee. Climate change is here and it is disingenous to say the awareness has been consistent since the industrial revolution. The impact is cumulative; there is no way on earth someone living in 1890 would feel the same way as someone living in 2024, even for the simple fact of having an entirely different consumption relationship to news. Do you not also perchance think, the science was somewhat limited then?

What is it with the stupid comments on this thread today, is it something in the water addled their brains?

& no they absolutely do NOT have an obligation to fix the mess this country has become and stay. Children have been failed on a spectacular level in so many ways. We have collectively ignored their needs, think it's OK to let them learn in freezing, crumbling schools, deny them any mental health support because they are not deemed worthy of the investment, failed to protect them from the toxic developemental threat that is the mobile phone, SureStart gone, Youth clubs gone, opportunites to connect, dying, no personal accountability from the majority of authority figures they encounter. We expect children to put up with things that adults would not in a million years settle for. Like any bad relationship; if you are being ignored, then the wise thing to do is get the hell out of it. You reap what you sow. Let those who have voted for neo-liberal capitalism these last few decades now experience the consequence of that.

Your son is most definitely NOT alone and I am very hopeful that in the not too distant future his generation will mobilise and demand to be considered and will be heard. I'm definitely listening.

Dd is 24 living in a house share working full time she seems unbothered about home ownership (I'm a lifelong renter) she works hard paying off her student loans has a social life and is generally content however she is voting and in the absence of policy that will benefit her she is voting on policy that will benefit me and her siblings

I am in council housing and I've had the same property since I was 18, I'm now 34. You can swap properties with someone else if your needs change, it's pretty straightforward. Most of us just stay where we are and manage though.

Hpuses cost so much in London (and some other areas) because people can afford them and buy them.

If people can't afford them, the prices come down.

And with council houses... People want them to be for life... but you need different housing at different times in your life.

What salary is acceptable for someone to be able to buy their own home?

And what salary is acceptable for a single person to buy their own home?

Do you think a single person should be able to buy their own home?

Don’t encourage children to move abroad for good. They need to be encouraged to take responsibility for their country and lean in to improve it. That’s the whole point of having countries, a nationality, sovereign states.

Despite what some people might want we don’t live in a borderless world without belonging or obligations to nurture your environment.

People who say young people should just leave remind me of Margaret Thatcher, there’s no such thing as society. Kids and youth have to stay and work at improving this country so it gets better - for their sake and for their offspring.

Really....in some areas maybe....but in many areas?

This is why we don't only vote for what benefits us personally. Young people should be politically aware and vote themselves if they can but also, and as far as I'm concerned, more importantly: we should all vote in what we consider to be the best interests of the majority, even if we don't fall into that category. But that just makes me a socialist..

It's unusual to be in a position to buy before 25 though isn't it and 30 seems more normal. I didn't know anyone in that position when young and I am in my 60s now. So hopefully your teens will be in careers and see salary rises by that age. My own kids are now in their 30s and both managed to buy neither with huge help or inheritance.

Totally agree - our kids can't vote yet but I think a lot about how my mum said 'You'll become more right wing as you get older, you'll see' and the opposite has happened, largely as the future for our kids is such a mess. And we're the privileged ones, so how much worse must it be for others.

As I said, we're quite lucky, but we live in London and we'd need a spare 6-figure sum for each child in order to help them buy here already, which I can't see us having; right now the crappiest closet on the far edges of town costs a quarter of a million. Neither of our kids is the type to want a mega-paying City job, so they'll likely need some help. DH says, and sadly I agree, that we should advise the kids to leave the UK when they finish their education, as this country is heading into the bin on so many levels - not sure where I'd advise they go though.

His age isn't relevant, minimum wage workers also deserve the opportunity to own a home.

I'm keeping my teenager at home until he's saved enough to get on the property ladder, it's pointless him moving out, I might chuck a caravan in the back garden for him or a summer house so he has his own place whilst saving here, then when he's buggered off just keep chucking the next in line one in. 🤣

Globules

What’s your DS’s career plan if buying is important to him? Retail management, something else, evening classes, university?

My own parents and I’m 55 couldn’t buy until I was seven and they both worked full time so why does he think he should be able to at 18 on minimum wage? It does seem quite entitled.

He’s a teenager with £30K behind him, and he doesn’t need to take on uni loans unless his uni plans will news him either to a salary to make them worthwhile, or job satisfaction that make them worthwhile.

I don’t think he’s in the worst position!

You keep talking about the £18K salary. But he’s a teenager. Is that after uni? Seems not with his age. So has he actually got uni loans? Or are you all generally all handwringing about things that don’t apply?

I do actually agree that young people have in incredibly tough on housing, but I think one with their head in their hands over £30K needs to check their privilege 🤷🏻‍♀️

You can buy a 2 bed flat in the pretty Lincolnshire market town of Louth for £550 a month with that kind of deposit. He could even rent out the other room. I think he’s doing pretty well.

@JustFrustrated no, you clearly said outside of the south. £30k/£34k it's about the same. I didn't say around £30k but I'm sure it's clear I didn't mean to the penny. Are you ok hun?

@Ritasueandbobtoo9 - tell your son that's nothing new. When I was a teenager there WAS war on (Vietnam, I grew up in the US), we had petrol shortages, soaring inflation, and the planet didn't start dying post 2000, it's been happening since the Industrial Revolution.

Good for you. I clearly said the North.

Here, 30k would give you a 20% deposit on a lovely 3 bed semi detached in a nice area with a big garden.

And 30k a year isn't average in the north is 34k.

Yes, housing is a major problem. There is too much demand and insufficient supply so most young people are going to really struggle. That said, for me it's the fact the planet is almost on fire and the world is doing bog-all about it that worries me when thinking of the future. When I read Americans ( or anyone for that matter), who writes that climate change is all a conspiracy I think we're all doomed.

Respectfully, what the fuck are you on about?

Children are dying due to mould infested housing. Standards are extremely low with many landlords refusing to keep houses safe - some of those landlords appear to be funded by the same government that sets the regulations they ignore.

Well with these types of attitudes they will all be bloody suicidal. Rather than thinking they are screwed how about thinking what you can do to help them because the reality is voting isn’t going to help them in the short term. As others have said my kids won’t be asked to ir expected to move out. I have a three storey house which would have been sold once the kids were in college but I will now retain it as it will give us enough space for us all to live together as adults.

I live in the midlands and if you earned 30k a year (which is about average) the 30k deposit would get you fuck all. For £150k (4 x 30k plus 30k) you'd get a shit flat in a shit part of town.

Move North…I am as North as I can be in Wales. Not an option.

I feel the same. My nephews have good jobs but won't be able to rent never mind buy in Berkshire. They'll have to move far away. Also, I notice that working rights seem to be eroding for people in 20/30's - they get stat sick pay only and are expected to do unpaid overtime in jobs that will only give them a contract. For the niece who did buy, Liz truss's actions have endured a £700 PER MONTH increase in mortgage.
It's truly awful for youngsters now but they must vote and engage in the process.

I remember feeling so sad that I couldn't conceive a sibling for my DD. Now she's 21 and soon to graduate with a year's masters to follow. She'll have £80k student debt at the end of it, but thank goodness she's an only child so we can help her financially. It's awful to think like that, but at least she'll get a realistic house deposit from us, and will inherit everything later. Thank god she's got excellent god parents, uncles, close cousins and good friends too, but knowing that we can ease her life with finance helps me worry less about her future.

Mine have zero interest in mortgages but they are very angry and passionate about Palestine and global warming, vegetarianism/veganism… students. If we have to we would give them our house to share when they are older and live somewhere far enough away very happily and quietly in a 1-2 bed flat with lots of culture on our door step.