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.

We are millennials and moved to a cheaper area and have a mortgage up until we are retirement age (although hope to reduce the term one way or another eventually, but that's the worse case scenario right now).

Most people I know my age (mid 30s) still own. I'm not sure we will see huge swathes of people not owning, not across the whole country at least, it might reduce, but with inheritance, or people making decisions like us, and more affordable areas, there will still be people buying.

That rent is eye-watering and as a fellow
millennial I’d think you could definitely afford to buy if you can pay that.

But you’d need to accept a huge lifestyle change to do so. Unless that’s a typo, you must be renting a family home in an expensive part of London. And have a household salary of well over £100k.

You could move somewhere cheaper, save the difference and be able to buy with a 95% or even 90% mortgage in just a couple of years. But you would be buying a small house or flat like most of us do, not somewhere in line with what you currently rent in an exclusive area.

Normally I really sympathise with those stuck in generation rent. I was there myself until 2 years ago when I got a stroke of pure luck that meant I could put a deposit on a 3 bed semi in the midlands. But I do think in this case you have exceptionally high rent which can be addressed and isn’t a reflection of most millennials stuck in the renting trap.

I doubt that. It might happen if we were an isolated system, and isolated economy. But there will always be buyers and the housing market will become more global, as is already happening in many cities with large swathed of property bought up by foreign investors.

No, what is much more likely is a return to intergenerational houses and many more elderly people living in unsuitable accommodation in shared housing.

£2585 in rent! That is an obscene amount. Where on earth are you living? There must be cheaper options. Move to a more affordable area and commute or a shared ownership scheme? I know several people in London who got on the property ladder that way.

It's a ticking time bomb.

With that level of rent though is there really no way of becoming a home owner? Different area, smaller property? Once you are on the housing ladder you can work your way back up to the home you want.

It just seems such a big expenditure for no future security.

The answer is so simple to me. Stop overseas investment.

I'm 53 and private rent. No idea what will happen when I retire, it keeps me awake at night. My pension won't cover anything.

Housing benefit is what steps in. My mum lives on benefits. (They got divorced long time ago and it wasn't a fair deal, my dad's loaded 🙄)

So she has her state pension and housing benefit which pays for housing.

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...

Your rent is ridiculous - where are you? We were faced with a high rent charge so we moved further away from work. We saved a small amount and then did shared ownership.

3 years later we sold it and moved up the property ladder. We made a decent profit with shared ownership. It was a huge success and there was a literal queue of people wanting to view it.

We didn't even need estate agents!

Best thing we ever did.

I think we'll see a lot more sheltered housing being built. These are housing schemes with a warden there during office hours to oversee the building. It will cost local authorities to build, but it will have to happen, with rent paid by housing benefit.

Then you’re in a bubble.

Housing first began inflating 20 years ago. It quadrupled in less than - oh maybe 2 years? That immediately impacted everyone who worked for a living and who did not have family support. The only people I knew who bought were those given deposits or indeed entire houses by their parents. The latter including my own landlord’s daughter, who was given the house we’d paid twice the original cost for, only to be treated like dirt and driven out when his feckless offspring wanted it.

I eventually had to give up my career and move back up north to afford basic living space. Here I found myself in company with the local middle classes who had always had family support and therefore never had to move for work in the first place - and with the local dirt poor who have nothing. I know working teachers with families who haven’t bought and are still renting at age 40, and rich 20 year olds living off their parents spending 20k on ‘life experience’ holidays.

Thats what inequality is, and the U.K. has some of the worst inequality rates in Europe. It does not have to be like this - it was not in the past, and it is less in the present in Europe. It’s a deliberate choice, and we can afford better - especially while the number of billionaires goes up and up and up, and healthcare and education go through the plughole. Those two facts are intrinsically entwined.

The current generation of home owners will leave their homes to their offspring (it's a myth that all the assets go in care fees they don't for the majority of people.

I have several friends who have inherited properties from grandparents and aunts and uncles etc. There are millions of homeowners and business owners who pass their wealth down.

I think in thirties/forties/fifties era there were fewer people owning property and older generation just lived with their children.

So the majority 2/3 own homes then. So inheritances to pass down.

Maybe some will stop going to Uni and racking up debt for a job that doesn't require it. Maybe more will consider apprenticeships for trades that actually pay a decent income and mean that they could home their own home.

Lowering expectations will likely also play a role.

If you can't afford a nice house, but a less nice house and do it up. If you can't afford a house, buy a flat

Shared ownership and multi-generational mortgages will all take hold to keep people buying houses.

Living standards are dropping everywhere for late millenials and beyond in Europe; Britain is no exception.

Then you’re in a bubble.

This is the new MN saying that is beyond grating. We are ALL in a bubble, the OP is, you are, I'm just saying I come from (and continue to live in other) cheap working class areas and nearly everyone I know still owns, working class families that haven't all had huge inheritances or earning six figures in the City, but in areas where house prices (and rent) haven't precluded home ownership from everyone (yet).

I'm not denying that home ownership is reducing or that it is happening later, or that it's not harder (I couldn't do what my parents managed in the 80s) but people my age are still buying, we won't get to 2055 with a whole generation renting, a generation later? Who knows, but millennials are those that are nearly 40, we are not talking about the generation now facing coming of age in inflation, high interest rates and high house prices, with low wages.

Just to say I'm not saying it's right, it's shit, but millennials won't be the worst hit generation.

ever increasing taxes

Where on earth are you living paying such a big rent, Kensington Palace?

housing has fucked so much of the economy

don't forget your pension age increasing even though life expectancy isn't

Even if you own your own home, it is quite likely you will need it for your care rather than hand down to the next generation.

and this, look at the state of social care & the NHS now. In 20 yrs with more older people it's not going to be bette

I think a lot will move into student accommodation (ie a en-suite small bedroom with shared kitchen/living room). There’s loads of that being built at the moment and I can’t see that being sustainable either.

You save and hope you’ve saved enough to rent a reasonable place on your pension. What did you think happened?

With people getting longer mortgage terms, and people having to rent in pension age, it's a problem.

Especially with people who have low pensions, who live alone.

The UK population is getting older. There are also a myriad of health problems that reduce the ability to work to get an income to pay rent or a mortgage.

It's a ticking time bomb that no political party seems to want to grasp.

Unless that’s a typo, you must be renting a family home in an expensive part of London.

For 2.5k? no way!