If you're retired but never brought a house do you struggle?

[Poolnoodlepoodle]

Just wondering. I once owned a house but got divorced and couldn't buy again on my single salary. I feel like I'll never manage it again. I always thought when I retired I'd have a paid off house but I don't know if I will. Is it possible to have a decent standard of living if you're still renting??

I think it's certainly possible to have a decent standard of living when renting (after being retired) if you are in SOCIAL HOUSING. Lifetime tenancy, nice affordable rent, 2 or 3 bed home you have raised your family in all your life, (or a bungalow you may have moved to.) You can stay in your lovely family home til the day you die! Decorate it how you want, do the garden how you want, and have a good lifestyle due to the affordable/often cheap rent!

But being retired, and living in PRIVATE LET, sounds like a nightmare (to me.) Massively over-inflated rent, (often double social housing rent,) often a shithole and you cannot do anything to it yourself, (not even decorate,) and there's no security of tenure. Always wondering when you are going to be kicked out, never knowing where you will go, never knowing where you will be this time next year, and always having to have at least 3 grand available for each move!

A man I know who is 62, had been living with his life partner (a woman 2 years younger) for 20 years in the same private let 2 bed flat in Brighton. (2000 to 2020.) It was £350 a month! An absolute steal. They LOVED it! The flat was paid for several years before they moved in, so the landlord didn't NEED the money to pay the mortgage. The rent started at £300 a month in the year 2000, and didn't rise much. As I said, only £350 in 2020.

The owner died in early 2021, and the flat was left to his son who decided he wanted to sell it, and he gave a section 21 to this man and his partner, and they had to leave. Now living in a bedsit in a 3 bed house made into 3 bedsits with shared kitchen and lounge (en suites in room.) It's £650 a month! They're in their early 60s, with no security of tenure, the rent has DOUBLED, and the landlord is saying in 2025 he intends to sell the 3 bed house. So they will be looking for somewhere again, forking out moving costs and deposits and first month's rent etc... And having to pack everything up AGAIN!. In their mid 60s!

One thing I will say is there are a few more social housing options available once you hit 55/60!although not necessarily that amazing internally or in your exact current locality and there are less people needing this at any one time and the criteria is far more realistic

I think unless you can buy or have made provisions to buy, the aim should be getting into a HA property with an assured tenancy to provide stability.

Otherwise as you've seen from other posts it's very precarious to be privately renting as an OAP.

Please be boring about it this is the sort of info I need. If the capital from our house sale was enough to buy another house believe me I'd have done it! If it's not though what do I do?

How do you go about getting into social housing? I've tried to buy a couple of shared ownership places but always seem to be beaten to it.

They need to build a lot more housing suitable for over 60s, as a PP said the whole thing is a ticking time-bomb. Yes, if you don’t have much pension the local council will have to give you housing benefit but how on Earth are they going to afford to pay for millions of pensioners in the future.
Plus the council will only pay a specific amount which will not cover anything decent. So what will OAPs do?

They had the perfect situation to save for a large deposit, no logical person would have assumed it would always be a very low rate forever....

You can save a deposit but past a certain age you can't get much of a mortgage anymore as you don't have the working years to pay it off.

Exactly! Bit of a pointless and unhelpful comment from @TomatoSandwiches there. This couple were in their mid 40s when they got this place together to rent...,

And also, maybe they didn't WANT to buy!

Buying a place/landing yourself with a crippling mortgage for 25-30 years is not for everyone. EVERYone should have the opportunity to have lifetime tenancies with affordable rent. Not shitty private let dumps, with sky-high rents, and no security of tenure.

It doesn't make you a better person if you are a 'homeowner.'

I do wonder about the shared ownership option, Op., and whether people can get housing benefit for the remaining rented part. And, if they can, if the LHA will always be sufficient. It’s definitely worth looking into though, if the alternative is losing all of your savings to rent. You would be solely responsible for maintenance etc., even if only own a small %

my at the time 89 yr old mom sold her house and moved into an amazing seniors apartment complex. i toured a few at the time as she was interested and oh my some are really impressive.
so post home ownership i'm happy to rent in some of these places.

A neighbour who is now 81 rents, its a 3 bed house, been there for years so has a protected tenancy and cant be evicted unless owner sells....pays a low rent, but new law means they will get half of house value so enough to buy something smaller if needed.

Never BOUGHT a house - BOUGHT not brought sorry 😁

It wasn't a useless comment and nowhere did I say you are a better person for buying a property.

However they did have 20yrs of being able to save, even if they didn't want to buy they would have savings to cover an appropriate sized home instead of a room share.

I have lots of sympathy for anyone struggling to house themselves but there are some instances like your 62yr old friend where I can't believe they didn't make any future plans.
People have to take some personal responsibility in some cases.

Yes there are options if you are over 55 but sadly in London you cant apply direct to housing associations, your council has to nominate you and they wont unless you are homeless. Ive been through it so many times with them. They wont look at me. Even though ai fit the criteria. They are building a block for over 55’s at the top of my street it would be ideal for me but i cant get on the list.

Some councils class older people as vulnerable if they're in housing need and have medical issues so therefore are able to join the housing register. The wait for sheltered/over 55's properties is generally shorter than the main council list.

You mention you have some funds - you can buy retirement apartments from £60k (in Birmingham for example). In the SE I've seen some for £150k or less in very nice places like Lewes. However, the monthly service charges can be high.

Depends on the area - there are some providers that will take direct applications like Southern Housing.

Where I live they take direct applications age 55+ too. I think people have to wait a while sometimes though. As PP said, it depends. I’m 60+ and I live in (normal) social housing on an estate, which I had to fight for (long story). It’s relatively cheap - and secure - but some not so nice neighbours and lack of privacy. I’m sure I’d feel better in my own private flat and would have loved a garden.

My mum, at 60+ found herself single, with not enough capital to buy a place of her own and having to rent through no fault of her own ( a long story that I don’t want to go into here ) .

She’s now 76, is renting privately as the local council have a chronic shortage of social housing. She’s fit and well with no dependents and would never get chosen for a property with them as the housing is allocated on a banding system and she’s bottom of the priority list.

The housing benefit is barely enough to rent a bedsit in a shared house. She gets pension credit so if she gets a part time job ( which she had until she was 73) they take the same amount away from her pension credit.

She manages because she’s amazing at budgeting and myself and my siblings contribute towards her rent so that she can rent a small house with a little garden.

She has a lovely landlord and so far all seems fairly secure so she’s very lucky, private rentals in Cornwall are horrific to find as so many landlords got rid of long term tenants to rent to tourists.

It’s tough and definitely not as rosy as some on this thread would have you believe.

🤦‍♀️doh!

I live in a popular area with high house prices and very few rentals available but there is always over 55 social housing available usually on the for rent pages of rightmove. I guess anyone who privately rents moves into one of these at some point. I don’t think they are popular with the home owners or social housing tennants as they are small with shared outside space.

Oh my days where are you whenever there are housing threads that involve some idiot popping up and saying things about how everyone should be delighted to rent from idle rich landlords all their lives because “everyone does it on the continent”? I’ve lived on the continent (for the best and shortest few years of my life) and I know that actually renting is no more common there than here now except in Germany, and most people there want to buy too precisely because it is more secure.

The lies and hypocrisy in Britain all to protect the rights of the rich to take all the benefits of our labour, leaving us with nothing, are sickening beyond belief.

The whole system will collapse soon. The return to wealth being based on an inherited class system rather than labour and earnings is why.

I could add that those of us who, against the odds, with no inheritance, who have made all the sacrifices of moving away from all we know to cheap regions which we don’t like living in and can’t practise our old jobs in, just to buy a living space that the boomers could take for granted: we are NOT going to be happy when told to sell up and give everything to those who couldn’t be bothered to do anything but take benefits off the state. This is a ticking social bombshell, not just an economic one. It will end where vastly unequal societies always do end: in violence. ‘Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them’ - and what has been done cannot now be undone. It hasn’t just been for a few years, it’s been my entire working life, and social tensions have risen immensely.

@TomatoSandwiches

You are not even listening to a word I'm saying. Why SHOULD my friend (and his partner,) have saved every spare penny for a deposit to put down on a property? And then landed themselves with a crippling mortgage in their mid 40s, that would not have ended til they were 70?!

Why SHOULDN'T they have just carried on renting? Millions of people do it all over the UK, and all over the world, and no-one bats an eyelid, OR looks down on them. You claim you don't think you're a 'better person' because you are buying a home, but from the way you are speaking, you are acting like you think you're better. Quite a common attitude from some people who buy. Look down their nose at the renters....

You're literally acting like you know best, and everyone else is wrong. Not everyone wants to buy, and not everyone CAN. Many people can't buy a property for a number of different reasons!

As I said, my friends didn't want to buy, they were happy with the freedom and simplicity of renting, and yeah, the affordable rent. And they were reluctant to take on a big mortgage in their mid 40s. If YOU would have been happy to do that, then bully for you. Other people are not you.

My friend and his partner were entitled to have a nice life with a long term tenancy and affordable rent, just as many people in social housing are. They shouldn't have to buy because people like you say they should.

You clearly think this is all their own fault that they are now in their mid 60s, and are stuck in a high-rent, low security bedsit at almost £700 a month, with your smug and sanctimonious 'I told you so, nah nah nah nah nah' attitude. How charming you sound.

I manage fine. I live in a HA property, where I pay full rent.

I have 3 good pensions (one state, two private), and don't have to claim any means tested benefits.

I have savings to back me up.

My DH died recently, and I'm trying to sort out the estate/finances. It's a nightmare, but I will be ok when it's sorted.

I feel sorry for anyone (of any age) renting privately though. The cost and insecurity must be hard to deal with.

My friend's mum is in this situation. The mum is on pension credit and housing benefit. I think it mostly works because her rent is super cheap (lower than the local housing allowance- but she lives in the worst estate in the town), and she is lucky because she has lived in the same accommodation with the same landlord for 10+ years. However, if the landlord was to sell, the mum would be in trouble- mostly you can only afford a room in the area within the local allowance for housing - one bed flats don't come up often, there are so many HMO properties though.

Also, my friend doesn't live nearby - so it would be impossible for her mum to move, for example, if mum needed to be closer to the family (e.g. future poor health). There aren't many good jobs in the area (run-down seaside town) so it isn't feasible for my friend to live and work there. Where my friend lives, all the properties are way above the allowance for housing benefit. Maybe she would have to join the list for council properties if she was made homeless, I don't know.

The mum has very little spare money and fills her time at home watching TV and doing free things like walks by the sea. Doesn't eat out, go on holiday, no takeaways. But she has always been a saver and managed to save a few £100 every year for a rainy day.

It isn't great, but she is happy. She is mostly unaware of the wolf at her door - for example in terms of the landlord selling or massively increasing the rent (which I'm not sure would be feasible because the estate is so undesirable). My friend worries about her as she gets older.