This is going to be controversial but...

[rosesarered95]

I genuinely don't understand the concept of charging your children "rent" to live in their own home. Wouldn't you rather help them by allowing them to save as much money as possible (especially in this current economy) instead of taking money from them which may reduce the amount that they can save each month, resulting in it taking them a bit longer to move out?

I bought my own property on my own aged 25 and would have never been able to achieve this if I wasn't allowed to stay at home rent free and save as much of my salary as I could. Can I just add, I contributed to the household in other ways e.g cooking for the family weekly, cleaning etc.

I totally understand charging your children rent if you are on a lower income and genuinely need the money, but if this is not the case for you, why do you charge your children rent?

Why is it? In response to the other who doesn't believe me which is infuriating!..

I was on around 10800 a year full time my boyfriend was on 11500 ish a year part time we bought a 100k house (run down and needed work but was all we could afford, we just wanted to get on the ladder) I paid my mum and dad 10% of my wage so around £100 a month so not a huge amount, my partner paid his parents £35 a week plus paid for the internet. I saved £500 a month and so did he and in 8 months we saved the deposit and solicitor fees plus a little extra as a fall back. We also bought a dog who is now 10. We were on a pretty high interest rate and skint for the first 12 months but I then got a better paid job and my boyfriend got a full time also better paid job. We now live in a nicer house and are in the middle of an extension. People are just entitled now and don't want to buy a starter house. We eventually took out a loan to do the big jobs in the house, added 40k in value and when we sold 5 years later had £60k to put toward a new house. If you have a brain and put in some actual work and don't expect to be able to spend all your disposable income because ' it's not fair I wanna buy this I wanna go on holiday I wanna do what I want' you can save some money for a deposit of a house easily just like me 👍

I think it entirely depends on situation. I can only assume you came from a comfortably off middle class family where they didn't need your money. I came from a working class family, 3 sisters and parents struggling along. I paid rent for 1 year prior to going to university. I took a year out for the sole purpose of saving enough money to make the 1 at year of uni as financially easy as possible but I still had to pay my parents rent because they simple could not afford to keep me for free. As me and my partner (also a graduate from a working class family) have discovered, it's bloody hard saving to buy a home when you have had a huge amount of student debt and no parental help despite earning a decent amount. We might be able to buy before I'm 40, I hope! I'm not saying I will charge my on son when he's older, he's only 7 now, but I will want him to learn go contribute in some way nonetheless as nothing comes for free.

@1stTimeBoyMumx

Well done to you. Where do you live?

The issue with housing costs is the min wage is the same across the country but the cost of a starter home is not.

You’re missing the point that what was possible for you even a decade ago isn’t possible now for young people.

In your earlier post you said you bought when you were 18 and are 28 now. So you bought a £100k home around 2012 with only an £8k deposit. Average house price was £165,908 (1) then so you bought a house that was 60% of the average. You earned FT £10,800 and boyfriend PT £11,500. For total income of £22,300.Your wages to house ratio was 4.48x

So let’s compare you to a couple who are both 18 and both working FT today (compared to you two where only one of you was or king FT)

Today the average house price is £292,118, so your £100k starter house would now be a £175,270k house. Wages for an 18yo working FT are £14,206^, if both in a couple work full time that would be an income of £28,412. the wages to house ratio is now 6.17

Banks won’t loan more than 4x your income, so this hypothetical couple would need a minimum deposit of 2.17x their income or £65,654 to buy todays equivalent of your £100k home back in 2012.

People are just entitled now and don't want to buy a starter house.. No, they literally can’t buy a starter house that is just like your starter house. Not without £66k saved up. Which would take over two years if every penny is saved. Much longer if they’re paying any bills or rent. Maybe never if the gap between wages and house prices keeps widening at the same rate.

*www.statista.com/statistics/751605/average-house-price-in-the-uk/
^www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-national-minimum-wage-in-2022

North wales. I am really proud that I managed to do it it was hard word and sacrificing. But yes I am lucky in that house prices aren't ridiculous in our area and appreciate that's not the case for everyone.

@Discovereads I appreciate what your saying in regards to this being 10 years ago however that was the exact same argument 10 years ago and I managed. All I was told was it would be impossible especially on our wages. We saved 12k I think iv got mixed up with some dates after 8 months we found the house and had to save even harder in the run up to exchanging so we actually had the full amount and a fall back for the bank balance as I am a worrier and didn't want to end up in an overdraft. A starter house in our area is now ranging from 120k-140k however a family member of mine bought a flat to get on the ladder for £70k on her own (2 years ago) she now has a semi detached house. People need to save harder and for abit longer it's doable still I don't care what you say. I do think however it takes two wages which is unfair but I have got friends who hadn't moved out so have purchased with a friends to get on the ladder. Being charged a small rent from your mum doesn't affect your ability to save but does teach you about having a responsibility to pay bills, even if as a parent you save the money to give back to help with a house deposit or for a car.

And thank you, sorry I was frustrated at the person who didn't believe me, I sacrificed the girls holidays, the nights out every weekend the nice car and the holidays with my boyfriend at the time to save my arse off and the house was ugly as for 3 years then we moved and I'm living in what feels like a shit tip whilst we sacrifice some more to do the house up we're currently in in the middle of a cost of living crisis (bad time to start a bloody extension over here)

Sadly this is part of the issue though. When I bought 20 years ago at 22 a starter home was well over £100k in my area, I managed to buy a 3 bedroom house as could buy it chesper but it was valued at around £180k then. Now a small 2 bedroom house is over £200k and there is nothing for under £100k. Wages aren't significantly higher than cheaper areas so it is virtually impossible for someone under 25 to buy alone.

If I can help my DCs get on the ladder I will, if it means them saving an additional £200 a month rather than me charging rent this could be make a huge difference.

I do agree though, many people don't make big enough sacrifices anymore to save deposits etc but if my DCs are willing to i am willing to do what I can also if I can afford it at that point.

In between A levels and Uni, DS worked full time for a couple of years, earning a decent amount while he decided what he wanted to do.
We charged him a fair amount of 'board' I don't like the word 'rent' for your children I must admit.
For several reasons - to help with the cost of food/bills etc
To get into good habits regards budgeting and saving, all of a sudden he had more money than he'd ever had, we didn't want him to have unrealistic views that things would always be this way.
Every penny he 'paid' in board in that two years has gone into a separate account. He's at Uni now. As soon as he needs it for a deposit or car, it will be his again. I do realise we are in a lucky position to say that. Friends have taken board from their children and have had to use it as part of their income, also completely fine.

Well I’m glad what I said has had some effect on you as you’ve gone from:
People are just entitled now and don't want to buy a starter house.,
I saved £500 a month and so did he and in 8 months we saved the deposit and solicitor fees plus a little extra as a fall back.
you can save some money for a deposit of a house easily just like me 👍

to
People need to save harder and for abit longer it's doable still I don't care what you say. I do think however it takes two wages which is unfair

Im not convinced that saving every penny for over 2yrs to buy a starter home equivalent to the one you bought ten years ago is “a bit longer” than the 8 months it took for you and your partner. It’s literally more than 3x longer!

Being charged a small rent from your mum doesn't affect your ability to save
Well, actually it does. If our hypothetical couple paid the equivalent “small rent” to your £135/mo, it would be £224/mo, or £2,688 per year. This would add six months to the 2yrs & 2mos they already needed to save a high enough deposit.

I sacrificed the girls holidays, the nights out every weekend the nice car and the holidays with my boyfriend at the time to save my arse off
Yes, for 8 months. Short enough for house prices to not rise faster than you could save.

Today though, it’s a minimum 2yrs and 8mos of saving every penny of take home pay (cant even pay for your own bus fare) to get a deposit high enough for a home equivalent to what you bought. But over the almost 3yrs it takes to save this amount, the house prices have gone up and you still haven’t saved enough. This is even if 100% of your costs are paid for by a parent, and you save every penny of take home pay. If you’re “paying your own way” even slightly, then house prices increase in value by more than you can possibly save in a year.

I don’t think you really understand how bad todays situation really is for people trying to buy a home.

I appreciate what your saying in regards to this being 10 years ago however that was the exact same argument 10 years ago and I managed

I disagree that it was the same argument in 2012. House prices had crashed. By 2012, the average value of a home was as low as 2002 prices. You bought at the bottom of the market. Your success is mostly down to luck…you bought in the aftermath of a crash. See attached chart.

It was certainly not the same in 2012. I know people who bought in the SE around then and their house has almost doubled in value since. Wages have nowhere near kept up.

Objectively it is much, much harder to get on the property ladder now.

We live in south east, true commuter belt, and bought our house in 1996 for £91k and it’s now worth about £600k!

There is no way we would be able to afford it now as our wages haven’t increased anywhere near that much.

@Discovereads I think we live in complete different areas which may be why our opinions differ so much. 2 people on minimum wage is around 37k full time, a starter house in our area is still around 120-160k mark depending just how starter you are prepared to go, there's houses for sale for less than 100k that require some serious renovation and may not be in the 'best area' that wage is absolutely more than enough to save within 12 months and buy a starter home. House prices have also started declining in our area now too. I personally would not be buying any time soon, iv just renewed our mortgage and the rates are awful but we will soon hit the point where the financial crisis works in first time buyers favours and now is the time to save ready for it.

@1stTimeBoyMumx
2 people on minimum wage is around 37k full time
The minimum wage I used was the Gov.uk NMW for 18-20yr olds to fully compare the earning power of an 18yr old today to the 18yr old you who bought her first house aged 18.

a starter house in our area is still around 120-160k mark
Yes, but these would probably not be equivalent to the £100k house you bought ten years ago. Need to compare apples to apples and not compare say a 2 bed terrace to a studio flat.

that wage is absolutely more than enough to save within 12 months and buy a starter home. Sure, if you assume two18yr olds are paid higher than the NMW for their age, resulting in £37k combined and you’re in an area where houses are far cheaper than the national average and these 18yr olds are living rent free with parents. This is a bit of a Goldilocks oddity tbh. Usually the parts of the country where starter houses are cheaper, the wages for 18yr olds are usually not higher than the NMW. Low house prices + high wages….that’s the ideal really…didn’t think anywhere existed in the U.K. with this.

£26637 combined wage... can still buy a house for 100-120k on that wage. Iv done a search around Warrington for houses and there's 3 bed semis on there for 85k+ I'm not from Warrington but Warrington is more expensive than my local area. It's doable you just have to want it enough 👍 obviously not the case in London and surrounding areas... I'm done discussing it we obviously have different opinions on the matter, I just don't like being called a liar and told sheer hard work and determination is down to luck, I worked my arse off thanks. And I also paid 'keep' to my parents whilst I saved and didn't get it gifted back to me when I bought my house.

Growing up I started working at 16. I paid my parents $100 per paycheck. This helped with rent, utilities, food ect. Looking back I'm thankful they did this. I'm now a single mother of 2. Managing a single income home can be tricky at times.