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’m in the same situation. Teacher, decent wage, partner (much older and self employed), no chance of ever owning a property or inheriting one- 2 young children. Renting a small 3 bed, horrid property but can’t afford more rent for a better one. Just don’t know what I’ll do…

Do you have children or dependants I would if possible move into a room some where reduce that rent and save hard to get a deposit. I’m an older mortgagee, when my kids left home I put my stuff in storage became a property guardian then saved and saved. I bought a flat last year, out of London, my mortgage is for 10 years but hopefully it will be paid off before I retire.

Life isn’t like that though is it. it would be lovely if it was and we could all fulfil our potentials but we aren’t all equal. We don’t all have perfect health, partners who stay, job security in high well paid jobs, stable family homes, families who don’t need support, contraception that’s water tight.

Not the back end of nowhere. Just a really shitty location. When we moved here it was cheap (it’s not now) and dh is self employed so set up here, he now has employees and work here. So packing up and going isn’t as easy as for others.

EffotlessDesmond oh yeah they are so much less deserving than the abusive alcoholic who is living underneath me.

Yeah so much worse not to have saved enough than it is to abuse your neighbours Yeah the former is SOOOO much worse 🙄 FFS

This is it isn’t it and what I was trying to explain. Most renters are just normal people on a normal wage. Not on benefits, just doing ok. You’ve done ok in life, you’d have considered you’ve done well years ago, just not quite well enough for today.

It’s not possible to buy a house now if you earn less than 30k as a household. But if you do (even if it’s joint and benefits supplement it) then it is possible - my cousin has done this. They moved to Wales (he’s a cleaner, his dp works in a call centre) and luckily his mum has moved with them so they don’t need to pay for childcare. Wales was chosen specifically because he wanted to own a house.

For heaven's sake @JenniferBooth , where on earth do I reference any abusive alcoholic? What do they have to do with this thread?

Honestly, I see the whole system imploding.

The gap now is essentially between those who inherit and those who do not.

The do-nots are rising faster and faster, more in private rentals.

We need a sensible non-Tory Government to put robust legislation in place to protect long-term renters and cap the larger corporations hoovering up properties for profit.

Wow - maybe I need to move to the UK!!! Where I live you can only access accomodation like that with a much, much, lower rate of savings/assets.

I have inherited money, but not enough to buy outright, and I'm too old to get a mortgage, so my only option is to private rent until my savings are reduced enough to qualify for council rentals. While I don't mind doing that I am still faced with not having a secure place to live, and could well have to up sticks and move into my 70s.

Wow that's huge rent? Can't you buy a house in the north for a third of that and then sell? It will get you on the property ladder

It is mainly in London and the South East that people rent although obviously there is a proportion on low income and insecure contracts or for other reasons cannot buy their own property. I don't suppose they pay rent as high as £2500 a month though.

If they don't have sufficient pension income to cover it in retirement I assume they will need to move. It will be a problem which has been foreseeable for the last few decades since housing costs in some parts of the country bear no relation to salary. Housing benefit may be available to some presumably.

I struggled to find one full time job that worked for me. I actually have 4 jobs that fit around my childs SEN needs. So weekends, evenings, bits of day. They each are under the amount for auto enrol. Im not the person you are replying to but I knkw so many people with multiple jobs who have the same issue. Maybe just one of their employers being just over but not the other.

Effortless because you seem to think the worst neighbour one can have is one that hasnt saved enough Thats very privileged. Your own post at 20.40

I find it so interesting that everyone says 'move somewhere less desirable, cheaper, further away' what about then the price of a train ticket and car parking at a train station? We live in London and pay £1900 a month rent. If we moved somewhere more 'affordable' we would have to move 1.5 hr commute each way from our jobs in London, which isn't even that affordable at £1,200 a month. Plus then both of us commuting at £50 per day each as train fares are ludicrous. £10 per day for parking (actually £20 as 2 cars at the station) and a 2nd car because you both work different hours or one needs to leave early and one needs to be back late to deal with childcare as that's only available 7am - 6pm. Living in London is cheaper than that alternative and we still get to have a life and not spend 3 hrs a day commuting!!! Oh and you still can't save any more money for a deposit because its not cheaper when you take into consideration everything.

What do you do ? How are you planning for your retirement ? Do you expect to get support from the government to stay in London ?

This has to be a joke, right?

I'm in social housing, when anything happens to my mum I'm going to buy a house with my share of what she leaves, I'm going to name ds as joint owner & then when I die ds & his husband can live in my house if they want or sell it.

Like I said further up, I’ve downsized now and live rurally. But, before I did, I had a large Victorian house in a location central for transport and amenities (in the Grim North, so that doesn’t mean I’m loaded).

I remember daydreaming about taking retired women tenants into my home so we could all live communally in the future, as I could see where things were heading. The rooms were large. Six potential bedrooms, shared communal rooms, and a large lower floor that could have provided four more bedrooms plus bathroom. I’m in my fifties.

I’m NHS, and also a landlord, so felt I was informed about what this would entail. (I had a colleague who was sad I’d sold up
as she wanted to move in further down the line.)

This arrangement would have given me a decent income, I admit, but it would have also been an appealing way to live. It was a nice house, so I don’t believe there would have been a sense, for the “tenants”, of having fallen on hard times.

Old age can be so lonely and isolating, with nobody to regularly talk to. Kids emigrate, partners die. One can feel
vulnerable and afraid living alone; worried about being taken advantage of by trades and cold callers.

I still think it would be a good idea, if the property owner is a decent person. I feel happy that I’ve moved out and downsized though; it will be easier for me in the future.

I’m away on holiday and have had few gins, so this may be a bit of a scramble of a post…but the OP’s post is something I think about a lot .

Actually co-sharing might not be as crazy as some make it out to be. I know several very old people who either share with a companion or siblings who live together. It works very well - companionship, shared expense etc. I would consider living with my sister/s if outlets partners passed and we were much older.

Absolutely.
My mother will move in with her best friend if my father dies first.

If you are in the US, you end up Iiving in government asisted housing, counseI housing maybe, over there? Some are IoveIy, some are not so IoveIy. You pinch your pennies to pay the utiIities and buy groceries, and go without things so the cat has cIean Iitter. You make choices every day abou what is most important to you, what you cannot do without. I do not ever eat out, and so I can have internet and three books from an onIine used books store.

The op has never come back!

Journalist??

We are moving into a corporate feudal system. When the large home owners die, their homes are already being bought by businesses and turned into flats to be rented. Moving that land from private ownership to corporate ownership. This is increasing and I can’t see it stopping. Instead of being Lord Piddlebottom’s serf, renters will have living conditions that are good or bad at the whims of a faceless Board serving their shareholders bottom line.

Of course .