So what happens when we're all old and we don't own our homes?

[user8665410]

Genuine question.

I'm a millennial with no hopes of ever buying a property despite earning a decent income.

There are many in my situation.

What happens when we're all in our 70s, 80s and 90s - which we will be because medical technology keeps letting us live longer - and no longer able to work. Where will we live? Who will support us? Will we just get kicked out of our homes we've been renting for (potentially) decades??

My current rent is £2,585.00, the State won't be supporting that I'm sure.

I do a public sector job that only exists in London. I’m old and can afford our house - we bought it 12 years ago and already had a flat with plenty of equity in it, and I’m now quite senior at work. My own DD will probably be OK as we’ll be able to downsize and give her a chunk of cash for a deposit (not that she knows that’s my plan).

As an employer I’m absolutely tearing my hair about where the next generation is going to come from; there are people out there who have the right skills, but they can’t afford to live in London on what we can pay them. I can’t control where the organisation is based, or pay more money, but I have huge sympathy for the people who can’t afford to work for us.

I’ve lived in London all my life and don’t want to see it become an enclave of the super-rich. Even if you think that’s sentimental and ridiculous, you ought to be worried about key roles making public policy, drafting legislation and managing vital public services becoming inaccessible to anyone who isn’t from a wealthy background. Some of those jobs could undoubtedly move out of London, but as long as it’s the capital city they can’t all move out.

When i inherited the deposit to buy my first home (aged 54) I had no problem with paying the Inheritance Tax due on my DM's unearned wealth - the threshold of £325k is far beyond the worth of many people and the rate of tax is only 40% of the 'wealth' over that threshold.

My 2 sisters felt differently and their solution was to help themselves to anything with any 'monetary' worth within hours of our DM's death and well before the estate valuation. When I asked them where these items were I was met with "think of the tax!!".

It really wasn't worth the upset of explaining that Tax, inc IHT, helped to keep our Public Services going - including paying the salaries and benefits for our Teachers (DM), Nurses (DSis1) and Civil Servants (DSis2).

Completely agree.
I grew up in a council house, on a street with loads of families and kids playing out. Same street of family houses is now occupied by single or pensioner couples, their now adult children are raising their own children in small flats paying every spare penny they have to a private landlord.

Where do you suggest these people live instead, to make room for their children raising their own families?

@TheHateIsNotGood for many couples it can be up to 1m

People will need to accept a different standard of living though as its a 1 room flat in a block that the hb will pay for

And are there enough ground floor flats to do this. They will have to be ground floor because you cant put pensioners in the upper floors of tower blocks due to mobility issues. Lots of HAs dont allow mobility scooters and tenants have actually been threatened over them yet those with electric bikes have been left alone which is very telling

@EffortlessDesmond Has this not been discussed by Labour as a possible way forward? Shh ...
don't tell Tory HQ before the GE !

maybe they could swap places with their children and move into their one bed flats? Or better still, vote for parties that'll build more council housing instead of objecting to ever new development proposed.

Swap to a private landlord where the rent will cost "every penny they have"?
You really haven't thought this through, have you?

@HarrietJet I would hope that people gave more of a shit about other people irrespective of their age. As someone who is 61 tomorrow I could "expect" that the elders would put the youngers first, as we should, but seems my peers and elders don't think like me.

Practically, us older people should downsize our housing whether owned, mortgaged, rented privately or socially. I hope to in 2 years ( with 4 more working years before I can get a pension after that).

My peers all cry about there's nowhere smaller to move to - I call Bunkem and BS on that debate - the retired have more time to spend on changing that; seems they don't really want to.

Or as I said, better still, vote for parties that'll build council housing instead of doing their best to block any new developments.

My peers all cry about there's nowhere smaller to move to - I call Bunkem and BS on that debate

Maybe wait until you’ve started the search for your smaller property before you start calling bunkem and bullshit. We live conveniently close to shops, GP surgery, dentist, etc. To live in a much smaller property we’d have to move much further away from those amenities. There’s more to future proofing than a smaller property.

@Kendodd IMO - no political party can alter the mindset of many people; many of my peers and older are not Tory voters, quite a few support Labour, but still many I know maintain their right to inhabit a 3-bed Council House alone or a 2nd Home where local people are desperate, etc apparently oblivious to the current plight of younger people and their families.

It's not a 'political' thing but more of a prevailing 'social' thing that makes people selfish.

So @BlossomToes if you actually give a shit do something about it

Absolutely agree.

?

I don't agree that there's nowhere smaller to move, more that the current UK housing stock is short of appealing options. We are both 67, and DH is winding down his involvement with the company he started 32 years ago and is handing over to his half-dozen employees. And so, we are likely to move. We don't know where we shall end up: possibly nearer to family and friends, or possibly somewhere with better weather... the jury is out, but the home will be central to any decision we make. A couple of days ago, I spotted a near perfect version of said house in another EU country (yes, we qualify on a specific retirement/asset value visa our privilege) for under £350k. I have not seen anything I like as much in the UK for double that. It's simple, a central but spacious living/dining/kitchen space with two en-suite bedrooms, a decent size garage for storage and tools, with solar hot water, underfloor heating and a wood burner for winter, and a flat garden, between two charming historic towns that have all the essential services. The equity we might release in such a deal will give DC24 a massive headstart to a secure future.

Its the same here. They're called 'Belong' Centres or 'Welcome' centres.

t's possible some of those people are saying that to "save face" because they find it hard to admit that they can't see a way to afford children. I found it hard enough to afford children and own a home a decade ago so I imagine it is even tougher now

Im 50 and child free by choice because i just didnt want them.

BUT LOL. Tories have been saying for DECADES that some of us should not have kids that we cant afford. So they lost their right to moan the minute they said this. They also lost their right to whine about it now the reckoning has to be paid.

Wouldn't such a visa require a more substantial investment than £350k?

Provided your income is above a threshold, there are retirement visa options in most of the EU, provided you have a proven income stream. A very long time ago, we bought a cheap warehouse, thinking our business would occupy it, which is let on normal commercial terms via a SIPP.

@HarrietJet we knew by our mid-30s that we weren't cut out for the sort of jobs with public sector pensions and we preferred not to enrich financial advisors and City whizz kids, so we have had 30 years salting away anything we could. DMIL only died nine months ago, so there have been no huge windfalls from inheritance or the lottery.

We need to get away from the idea that the UK - and the eeeeevil Tories* especially - are anti-migration. Net migration to the UK last year was over 600,000. That is completely unsustainable in the long term, but in the short term I would say the government are very welcoming.

Rents in London are batshit, and I'm intrigued as to who actually lives there now and how they afford it. I grew up in London but most of us all moved away (or emigrated to Ireland) years ago. I commute to a nice shiny office in Canary Wharf and it's daft that the majority of people who work there live miles away, getting up at 5.30am and spending £5k+ on train travel for the privelige. Yet you have people who live literally a stones throw away in new apartment blocks in Tower Hamlets that will never set foot in those offices in their lives. Or have any intention on doing so.

What do they do? How do they live? How do they afford it? Or is it all free?

*I have never voted Conservative btw

"With around 438,000 first-time buyers in this age category, 25-34 year olds are responsible for more than half (51%) of first-time home purchases in England." April 2023

"Provisional HMRC estimates pointed towards a 14.9% year-on-year increase in UK residential property transactions over 2021-22 (1,374,050), with annual volumes reaching their highest level since 2007-08 (1,473,950) and year-on-year growth in the post-financial crisis era surpassed only by that in 2013-14 (22.8%)." -- 2 May 2023

I think most people who want to buy a property still manage to do it, including relatively young folk.

Imagine being 70/80 odd and having to pack up your stuff every year or two. Find a new home somewhere safe and accessible, find a landlord that will take you on benefits.
getting all the boxes, packing your stuff up, sorting a van and then getting settled and unpacked again.
arranging post redirection and all that.

only to have to do it again in a few years time