Teenage reality hitting home

I agree with you in general OP but theres hope for your son yet, he's very young. I ended up bankrupt at 32 but tripled my wages in 4years and own a property now. Personally, I'd recommend becoming a tradie at this point - plumbing, electrics, gas, plastering. They earn well and can pick and choose the work!

Someone needs to send this to Labour HQ as they seem determined that they are going to be able to magic up healthcare staff/teachers etc from somewhere . I’ve worked in schools for 20 years , it is pretty much impossible to recruit teachers in some subjects in our school, they don’t want the jobs for love nor money.

Tbf there has never been a time when a single person working in a shop has found it easy to buy a house

Maybe not a single person but DH and I both had shop level salaries (he did work in a shop I had an admin job earning about the same) when we bought a zone 2 London flat in 2004. Not a chance someone could do the same now.

Whilst I do recognise that it is incredibly hard for younger people to get on the housing ladder (I’m late 30s and our mortgage is giant), I’m not sure many single teens working in a shop would ever had had much chance of getting a mortgage and affording a house. Definitely not 20 years ago when I was a late teen anyway. A 30k deposit at his age is a lot more than many teens have.

But most of those other countries gave secure tenancies and rent control!

It Is awful, no clear offer for young people, a lack of urgency on climate and no real policies to address increasing inequality, housing costs or higher education becoming increasingly inaccessible.

Its a shift in society concept that the majority own a home. We rent in our 50s - its common in lots of countries.

But in reality, he is likely to meet a partner and earn more.

Not saying that process is easy but the assumption that a) he'll always be single and b) will always be on minimum wage seems a very negative outlook.

He already has a good deposit and even in retail could work up to a higher salary.

Or while he is young and doesn't have a mortgage now is the time to consider a trade or other apprenticeship while he has low outgoings and meets age requirements.

I think this is the point for many where the reality that you have to make difficult choices and sacrifices for a different quality of life hits. The policy change I'd like to see is more support for retraining, especially for vital areas like healthcare. Bring in nursing apprenticeships etc.

I think many people need to experience life on minimum wage to understand they want something different but giving up all income to return to study is hard.

Very few people really know what they want from life at 16-18. Instead of the drive to put more and more through uni at 17, I think it would be more beneficial to open opportunities later in life.

No, I don't feel for teenagers.
Furthermore, I don't think they have the mental capacity to vote.
My generation had it damn difficult.
And before the hate starts, I'm 45,
born in a Communist country. No worries in life now, just thanks to sacrifices and careful planning.
Oh, and self discipline. Do they know what it means?

The "crisis" has been caused all the stupid fucking moronic, myopic, dickheads who wanted everything regulated and insisted on "standards" for everything.

You're wrong. Lack of regulation has caused massive inequalities.

But then there are people like my Dad who was a postman and bought a large 3 bed house in London in the 70s. Mortgage taken on his income only

My DS who is going into this 3rd year in uni in Sept says none of them are worth voting for. He's planning to leave the UK asap after graduating anyway. Not in the slightest bit interested in buying houses etc

We insisted on making landlords lives so difficult that they left the business, taking all those properties with them.
Oh, sure. It’s landlords that are the real victims…
🤔

I get you OP. Those saying “oh you can get a house for 150k” have never tried to get a mortgage on a low salary… I only just managed to get a mortgage of less than that on a single salary that’s a lot more than min wage, and with a fatter deposit.
I really feel for young people. Jobs are few and far between, social mobility has stalled and those older and better off have pulled up the ladder behind them.

Well.

Housing is a problem which could be sorted tomorrow. The "crisis" has been caused all the stupid fucking moronic, myopic, dickheads who wanted everything regulated and insisted on "standards" for everything.

Twenty years ago you could rent a converted garage for a few hundred quid a month. Or a dodgy flat for a little bit more. If you wanted to splash out and get a "naice" apartment in the bay, you could. You had choice.

But NO! that wasn't good enough was it!

We HAD to "improve" things, no flat could ever be damp, or cold, or have sketchy door locks.

We insisted on making landlords lives so difficult that they left the business, taking all those properties with them.

I lived in some sketchy places in my time, places with questionable electrics and rough decor. But it was an address, a roof over my head, and it gave me a start. But stupid do-gooders have taken that away from our children.

The moronic dickheads would prefer that our current crop of young people are homeless or depressed instead. Much better to have a 20 year old who can't afford a home of their own than "allow" them to live in a cheap dodgy flat that would give them autonomy and a sense of momentum.

It has pretty much been the case that it has been very difficult for a single income to be able to afford a mortgage on their own for about 29 years. People on minimum wage don't have a chance, your son needs to get a better job.

What your builder did was inflate the price and give you the difference of the deposit.

This! It's not even been 24 hours since the GE was announced.

@Globules is he 19 and managed to save 30k himself? It's very impressive. Agreed 18k isn't great but I don't know many 20 somethings on that amount. The chance to increase his salary is there for him.

However I agree, house prices have been used to fuel the economy plus there are people with vast amounts of investments in property (rather than invest in businesses). This is the switch we need.

Last 20 years it's been too easy for someone with cash to buy property, rent it out and watch yearly increases in capital value. I know someone who did this. They were fortunate to have spare cash from an inheritance and then bought lots of property, which raises the purchase and rental costs for everyone.

The governments over the last 20 years used migration to keep wages low but never built the infrastructure to support housing or NHS. It is a mess and caused by short term and quick wins

Agree things are bleak but they could change both personally for your kids and politically.
Change doesn't happen by itself it needs concerted, collective effort and organisation.
Engage with your MP, join a union (and try to influence what it campaigns for), make efforts to change things within your sphere of influence would be my advice.

Tbf there has never been a time when a single person working in a shop has found it easy to buy a house.

Yes, my son said “we are not the same as you. The earth is dying, there’s going to be a war, everything is hopeless, what do we have to live for.”

And he going to university and is just getting a student loan for nearly £80k.

It is pretty disgusting how the young are being let down.

The policies of each party will be announced as the campaign goes on. I doubt there is any party that will ever have 100% of the policies you want, but, you just have to pick the one that you think most aligned to your way of thinking.

For housing I would like to see … Council Housing being built (with a caveat that stops them being bought), Rent caps based on the local average income, ban on foreign ownership of rental properties (especially when they use it to launder Dirty Money and properties stay empty), a tiered tax approach to Landlords (the more properties you have the more % tax you pay), more restrictions on second home ownership in areas where demand is highest, more prosecutions of landlords who have people live in sub-standard properties.

We need more affordable housing … though it seems every development is protested against by people who already own homes, and don’t seem to want anyone else to.

You can blame the Tories for a lot of things...

But has a single teenage shop worker ever been able to afford to buy a house? They would live in a house share, lodgings or with their parents.

DD pointed out all of the parties are being silent on policies around their age group.

Well let's wait for the manifestos to be published before we come to this conclusion.

thats an impressive deposit for a teenager and would go far in many areas. My kids will be massively in debt with no deposits by the time they finish uni.
you are however NBU.