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 get pension credit and housing benefit pays my full rent (and I get my council tax paid too).

Acesbaseball - But that is your choice to live in an expensive area and to work in London.

I’m a single person and my rent on a one bedroom flat is £700.

What area is this?

You definitely won't find a one-bedroom flat anywhere in London for that, that's the kind of rent you'd be charged to rent a room in a flatshare.

People on MN always say "just move to random tiny village in the highlands of Scotland where rent only costs 10p you found down the back of the sofa!!" but the reality is most people don't lead the kind of lives where you can just quit your job overnight, pull your kids out of school, and just magically find whole brand new careers for both you and your partner, walk away from all your commitments, leave your whole entire support system, not see your friends and family, leave medical treatment, have to register with a new GP and start over again on hospital waiting lists in a new area, etc. etc.

The area I live in - social housing. There us an abundance of over 60s social housing from bedsits in grouped homes, 1 bed flats, 1 and 2 bed bungalows.

There will just have to be more social housing built. I live in a housing association flat.

The problem we found with renting is that (sometimes) the rent is as much as a mortgage repayment would be, so you know you can afford the mortgage, you just can't save the deposit. We took second jobs to save the pay of and that was how we got the deposit. Our first home was pretty crappy when I think of it, but it was happy and it was sufficient and it's probably one of the favourite places I've lived. I think it's often getting that deposit that's the hard part.

I'm more concerned about higher demands on the health system as the population ages and what that will mean for access.

I don't live in an expensive area, unless by "expensive area" you mean just anywhere near London.

Woolwich is a violent shithole in Zone 4, nowhere near central London.

My job/career physically cannot be done outside of London.

If your solution is just "no one except billionaires should live in London, period, because living in a city should be only for the ultra wealthy elite, and everyone in London should move to some random village in the northeast and drive up property prices there" then that really is not a solution.

I don’t agree house prices will drop dramatically.

33% of the U.K. population owns their house outright without a mortgage, so there will be a big chunk of the younger generation inheriting money who will buy a home.

Over time wages will increase and propensity to buy will increase.

For those who can’t buy the government will hopefully invest more in social housing. They will have to if they want their votes.

I’m sure it’ll all work out. It’s society’s problem and we will need to work out a solution.

Nearly 40? The youngest millennials are 27!

Your rent is that per month? What type of rental are you in?
Presume it's a family home.

Where I live that rental would pay for a large, 5-6 bedroom luxury house.

Babies being born now will be paying tax to fund welfare/ health care for those pensioners who haven’t had a chance or couldn’t afford to save, pay into a private pension or buy their own home. The issue is that not enough babies are being born now, so will cause problems in years to come. In some countries women who have more than three children don’t have to pay income tax for the rest of their lives to encourage having more babies.

@Beezknees and the oldest are nearly 40? That was my point?

I managed to buy a 3 bed semi in Greater Manchester at the age of 24, which was about two years ago. However, I was happy to move to Wigan, which I know on Mumsnet has been seen as the ultimate sacrifice 🤣

Yes I know I have one but the government is automatically enrolling people in a Government workplace pension plan . There is a company workplace pension scheme also that is voluntary to join .

@Beezknees sorry I see what you mean, what I meant is that the oldest millennials are nearly 40, not all of them.

Acesbaseball - But you still chose that career so you can't complain that you can only work in London. There are plenty of cheaper areas to move to and commute in to London, who said anything about moving to a tiny village.

God, we're just going to get 30 pages of people in small northern villages going "you could buy a 18-room solid gold palace for that where I live!!"

£2500 is standard rent for a two-bed flat in London. Yes you could rent a one or two-bed house in a not so nice part of London for that, but that's a pretty standard rental price for a flat.

People need to accept that London and the SE are just that expensive, and that not everyone is in a position to be able to move to a brand new area where they don't know a soul, have no connections, and no employment, and start over completely from scratch with no work or emotional support.

I would bet the vast majority of them are council tenants though so less of an issue.

Not ideal due to service charges but some retirement flats go for as little as £60K and in a nice area ok ow we'll have dropped from circa £160K to £100k now. They can be bought from 55 years plus so potentially with a 12 yr mortgage or longer if you have a regular retirement income.

*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.*

Same here. I'm 38 and we bought our house age 30. I rented from the age of 21, my husband and I met and rented together for years from 22. We didn't earn much between us. Saved up the 13k deposit over 8years, lived in horrible rented accomodation to keep the rent down and finally bought our house. Of all my millennial friends, everyone has bought a house apart from one couple. Nobody earned a huge amount when they bought either. A mix of teachers/ care workers/nurses/ labourer. We live in a cheap area.

I think people not affording to buy is worse for the next generation not millennials. Those in their 20s now are fucked. Massive rents will ensure they never buy. Many millennials did have their chance, though it feels like my entire adult life has been either in a recession or nearly in one  We also put off kids until we bought our house, as did our friends. I could have never bought a house with the kids in tow.

I am disgusted at the situation at the moment with housing and the government. And yes, if life meant you couldn't buy a house when you were younger then I have no idea what will happen.

@peasblue I think you are misunderstanding.

My point is that the tipping point is fast upon us.

"More than one million over-65s will be renting in a decade, up from around 400,000 households today, as a growing share are unable to buy before the traditional retirement age."

"Over 50% of UK ‘Baby Boomers’ owned property by age 30, however, this figure has plummeted as less than 30% of millennials,"

"Recent figures suggest that up to 1/3 of millennials may never be able to own their own home and have no other option aside from renting property their entire lives – while 1/2 will rent well into their forties."

I think they are pretty shocking stats. And Im not sure it's much comfort to the OP telling her don't worry it will be even harder for those younger than you...

My mum used to say that paying a mortgage when I was was 22 was 'a fancy rent' I used to think wtf? She paid rent up until the day she died and I had been mortgage free for nearly 10 years due to over payments, which pretty much decimated all my savings.
I wouldn't want to be just starting out at 22 again, it's a shit time to be alive for housing and high costs. I certainly wouldn't have had dc in my time again knowing what I know now.

I have been wondering exactly this myself - I'm fortunate not to be affected but this seems to be a huge problem coming down the line that no one's talking about. Many non homeowners, even on decent salaries, will have spent so much in rent they will have little pension, and in many parts of the country, will have to work until they can no longer, but still not be left with enough to cover rent - let alone rent, food, bills, travel costs/car. And it's not viable for everyone to 'just move somewhere cheaper'

I wouldn't be able to afford my 20-something child's house they own. 😁

I was born here, and have been working in my "chosen" career since I was 15 (which really wasn't a choice on my part).

There's nowhere cheap that's within commuting distance of where I work, and you're not factoring in the cost of commuting. I have a Freedom Pass which gives me free train, tube and bus travel anywhere within Greater London, moving outside London would mean I lose this, so my transport costs would soar.

I am also physically disabled, so commuting would be extremely difficult.

Again: if your solution is just to say "the entire population of London save for the super wealthy should all just quit their jobs and move" without giving any thought to where the nearly NINE MILLION people who live in London would go and what they'd do, that is not a solution.

I bet you'd be the first to complain if property prices in your area soared and there were no jobs for your kids, due to Londoners moving in en masse.