Why don’t people understand that not everyone wants to buy a house?

And in the 80s, people thought a crash would never happen, because prices had risen inexorably for decades.

The crash at the end of that decade was shocking, and prices took around a decade to recover. My house had been valued at £87.5k in 1987, I sold it at the end of 1992 for £49.5k.

If I'd bought in the mid-80s, I'd have been in negative equity for years.

When I bought my first place it was common to do that, but I didnt do it, as I said, only an idiot would and many got stung

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

Ok so I’m not buying my house, I’m just renting it from the bank?

Well I have to say the bank is the best landlord I’ve ever had. They let me live in peace, never invade my privacy to do inspections. They let me decorate the house however I want, do what I want to it and don’t get funny if I put a few picture hooks up. They don’t care how many pets I have. They don’t raise the ‘rent’ on a whim - I’m locked into a 5 year deal. So long as I keep paying the ‘rent’ they will never evict me. Best of all once I’ve lived here 25 years they give me the house for free.

All things considered I’m very happy to be renting from the bank.

Ok so I’m not buying my house, I’m just renting it from the bank?

Well I have to say the bank is the best landlord I’ve ever had. They let me live in peace, never invade my privacy to do inspections. They let me decorate the house however I want, do what I want to it and don’t get funny if I put a few picture hooks up. They don’t care how many pets I have. They don’t raise the ‘rent’ on a whim - I’m locked into a 5 year deal. So long as I keep paying the ‘rent’ they will never evict me. Best of all once I’ve lived here 25 years they give me the house for free.

All things considered I’m very happy to be renting from the bank.

Buying a house is essentially renting from a bank. Interest on a mortgage is comparable to rent so saying renting is a waste of money just isn't true as in some cases the Interest would be more than rent.

We bought as renting would be 4 times the mortgage Interest. We also have no need to change location.

I love having my own property and wasn't keen on renting.

I doubt they'll have to worry much. Californian legislators are working on amendments to the euthanasia law, to allow patients with dementia to access assisted dying once they have reached the stage where they have no quality of life. A kind of advance directive made while you still have capacity, that says 'darling, I'm at stage 4/5 /6 now. 1000mg of pure nembutal, intramuscular, and read the tibetan book of the dead to me.'

Where American culture goes, Britain always follows (give or take 20 years). By the time Gen Z are getting ill, that will be commonplace. The ponzi scheme of care homes (or holding cells) for violently unhappy distressed patients trapped in a void of relentless anxiety will probably collapse. You'll be encouraged to spend your savings on a nice ceremony at the beach run by a ceremonial dying company, not an understaffed poorly run care home. Those will be for the ultra rich pensioners only.

(Or solent green 😅)

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

🤦🏼‍♀️

You ONLY own the property if you take a repayment mortgage then you ONLY own the property once the mortgage has been repaid.

The INTEREST on the mortgage is the rent you pay the bank.

The interest on the mortgage is therefore comparable to renting a property.

We rent a flat in London. Have a big deposit but would rather invest it across several asset classes. Prices around us in zone 1-2 are dropping.

People will often say things like “oh are you saving for a deposit” or “it’s such a waste of money to rent” when in reality, for the last few years smart people in London rent and not buy!

But you OWN your property at the end.

Having a mortgage is not renting from the bank 😂

Social policy bods and economists have been warning about this for years.
Not only are there implications in terms of supporting them to pay their rent, when they need social care, they won't have assets to sell to offset any of the costs of it.

A friend's father has sudden onset dementia and has had to go into a care home. The cheapest place they could find that could take him is £2,200 pw. He's 85, but still incredibly fit for his age, physically, so could live for some years yet.

He has a house and investments, so no cost to the taxpayer yet apart from attendance allowance, but imagine the cost when generation rent get to that stage.

I thought at the time that the valuation was high, so possibly overvalued. I remember being astonished that it was over £80k.

It was in Croydon, and London was particularly badly affected. There was a series of interest rate rises, and there was a change to the way tax relief on mortgage interest was given. Two friends bought a flat between them and had to complete by a deadline to beat the change. My recollection is that if there were two buyers they both got tax relief, so double the amount of relief, but it was a long time ago and that may not be right! Another friend who rushed to buy with her then partner was in negative equity until well into the 1990s, so much so that when they split, she didn't have to give him any money!

Lots of people had homes repossessed because they couldn't pay their mortgages, and Croydon county court issued more repossession orders than any other court in the country.

There's a bit more detail here:

See attached picture - on average a house bought in 1987 was worth more in 1992. The drop you describe is crazy, did something terrible happen in your neighbourhood? A flood or something? Or I see you say valued rather than bought, maybe it was very overvalued by someone?

Link in case picture fails to show - https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi/browse?from=1980-01-01&location=http%3A%2F%2Flandregistry.data.gov.uk%2Fid%2Fregion%2Funited-kingdom&to=1995-12-01&lang=en

Social policy bods and economists have been warning about this for years.
Not only are there implications in terms of supporting them to pay their rent, when they need social care, they won't have assets to sell to offset any of the costs of it.

A friend's father has sudden onset dementia and has had to go into a care home. The cheapest place they could find that could take him is £2,200 pw. He's 85, but still incredibly fit for his age, physically, so could live for some years yet.

He has a house and investments, so no cost to the taxpayer yet apart from attendance allowance, but imagine the cost when generation rent get to that stage.

It was the lack of security that really got me to buy a house, although a bad experience with a landlord that hated fixing anything was also a factor.

If we'd had secure tenancies in the UK, like they do in most of Europe, I probably wouldn't have bothered. The rental market here is totally dysfunctional in the UK imo, although I concede it may be less so in other regions (I'm in the SE). My DIL is paying £1400 a month for a tiny 2-bed flat, above a shop on a busy main road, and considers herself fortunate that she's been able to stay there for several years.

I don't get how they are going to keep paying more and more housing benefit for renters who retire. It's going to become unaffordable when generation rent get to this point.