Who still rents in their 40’s/50’s- What is your plan?

[Myhouseismyprison]

I live in the South East, for various reasons we have never managed to purchase our own home.

I am now in my late 40’s and DH is 50. We still have children at home who all have their lives here so unable to pick up and move somewhere cheaper just yet.

We have some savings but nowhere near enough to buy here for the house size we would need. We have rented the same house for several years but know this can change quickly and have no idea how we would afford current market rent.

I just wondered what plans people had in place for retirement? What savings accounts would be good?

I rent and I am retraining following my divorce. I hope to be able to save once qualified. I intend to move to a cheaper area or consider shared ownership. My children are secondary school age so I need to wait until they are out of school anyway. I’m lucky that I have a private rent that is long term and safe due to the landlord inheriting the properties. I may have inheritance come my way at some point but it depends on care. I looked at the help to buy scheme a few years ago but then it changed to first time buyers only which I’m not due to owning previously. Which made no sense to getting people to buy as not everyone is young and in their first housing situation. Plus situations change.

I sort of feel like Im in the same boat but with a mortgage milestone around my neck. My mortgage is now £2.5k pcm and runing until Im 72yo. I have a pension pot that is insufficient to pay the mortgage so obvs I'm still working - huge uplift as I had semi retired in 2012 but I did lose my DH in 2016 and as he was a SAHP, it def fd everything up esp given I'd semi retired in 2012.

My DCs are 22yo and 23yo now. I doubt they'll move out soon but I'd love to downsize. I'm looking at a rural setting tbh because we have dogs and I hanker for greenspace. I'd love to move somewhere in the middle of Wales, but that would take the DCs away from their friends and me from my clients.

I def would not live in SE - I'd commute from somewhere cheaper like Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, East or West Midlands. Obvs depends on your kids needs, but if needs must...

Out of curiosity, what happens if your adult DC decides to move in with a romantic partner and doesn't want to live with you anymore? I have friends in the same position and I'm the same age as their DC, and I always think about what happens when the DC wants more independence.

Those of you who are over 55 or 60 get on the council list for social housing. The list for sheltered accommodation is a lot shorter than normal social housing. I'm in a big city in the south.
I have a family member who granted isn't in the best health (so might have got him higher up the list) in his 50s, but got offered a housing association flat within 4 months.
When I initially inquired for him they said max wait for sheltered accommodation is usually 12-18 months if you are over 55 or 60 depending on the scheme.

Could your adult children pay you rent @Booboobagins ?

My adult son pays £400 a month which is nothing really as we provide everything for him but it does help to pay the bills.

Could you explain how pensioners pay income tax. Do you mean on interest payments from savings?

And lots of pensioners who rent get nothing paid by the state, other than the state pension they’ve paid into. They live off their professional pension.

What happens to people in your mums position who don't have family who can top up? Surely there will be more and more people like that who aren't in social housing.

Surely the council would have to step in to make sure she wasn't homeless? Could she get an over 55s council sheltered flat for example?

I feel very sorry for you. Try and do what you can to find something small. Rents are only going in one direction at the moment and that is up. I am a landlord and make a big effort to ensure places are nice and well kept but we are now selling a property as we have decided we will get a better return by putting that money in a fund. The agent said the rents are going through the roof as a lot of landlords are getting out of the market because of labourers proposals around rent reform but the demand is still there. Sadly, we are an overcrowded island

Of course pensioners pay income tax if you have income over the personal allowance. While the state pension is under the tax threshold, any income from both workplace, private pensions is taxable - so if effect if you've been responsible then of course you're paying income tax and contributing to society in this way. Income over £1000 from savings is also taxable. Obviously this is from savings not sheltered in cash isas. Both my husband and I are pensioners and both of us pay considerable amounts of income tax, which we're absolutely not complaining about by the way. We have a comfortable life and have helped out our kids considerably.

Sorry if I was unclear, when I referred to pensioners who are renting, I mean the ones who are on state pension only get everything paid for. There are many of my generation that never paid into a workplace pension, so do indeed get their rent and also a considerable amount of their council tax paid.

On my income I can only get a mortgage for about £80k. Even up north there aren’t any properties that low that aren’t doer uppers.

I’ll get a smaller place if they’re all sorted.

But multi generational living, as many previous generations have done, means you can all live in a bigger place and help each other out, e.g. with childcare. My DC are independent now. I live in my bedroom and they use the rest of the place. Depends how easy going you are and how well you get on.

I may be able to help (work for a housing charity). Do DM if you'd like to explore this.

You have secure housing in a council property though. Surely your rent is also at a level that housing benefit will cover it, if your income is low.

Its people in the private rented sector who are in trouble as they don’t have these two securities.

But people have the right to rent if they want, in many countries that’s the norm. Just because you rent doesn’t mean you’ll have more benefits later on, I have a good income and a good pension so doubt I’d get any help, I private rent.

I’ve already got all the inheritance I’m going to get so I’ll just have to keep saving. My pension will be pretty good and if I have savings to I should be alright even if I have no clue what I’m actually going to do.

I’d like to keep renting ideally as CBA maintaining a house (something that won’t be any easier when elderly I’m guessing). May have to move somewhere cheaper though.

Sorry if I was unclear, when I referred to pensioners who are renting, I mean the ones who are on state pension only get everything paid for.

But will this still be the case going forward? Or will it only be those on pension credit who get everything paid for?

The PC changes mean that it is only paid if you earn 218/week or less - full state pension from 2016 is already above this, so anyone with a full state pension entitlement going forward is no longer eligible for PC.

I think HB is tapered, so above that level you still get some

100%. I also remember in the past people having their ‘hands outstretched’ when interest rates went through the roof, the property market crashed and their homes got repossessed, leaving them tens of thousands in debt and credit blacklisted.

Smug owner occupier never a good look.

@Vickyvogue25 It's unclear, isn't it, as to what will happen in the future? Certainly with Rachel Reeves talking tough about revising the whole structure of benefits, then who knows? With the introduction of auto-enrolment for private pensions savings, it's only the current generation with no private pensions that qualify for such extensive help. However, surely the Government will have to provide some benefits for future pensioners who are renting, but on a fairly low income even with a small private pension- you can't have them all homeless.

I am genuinely worried about the future for young people in this country and this is just one of the reasons. What hope do the children of today have if they don’t have a rich relative or some inheritance? I think by the time they grow up it will be virtually impossible for most of them to get on the housing ladder.

We can’t just build our way out of this problem. Other factors are at play and the government needs to sort it out. Short term lets in places like Cornwall for example. I think they should be banned or policies put in place to drastically reduce the numbers of them such as a much a higher Council tax.

Second home ownership is another issue. No one needs more than one home. And I don’t think that people from overseas - and by that I don’t mean people who have moved here from overseas , but people who don’t live in the uk but buy property in places like London as an investment (especially venture capitalist companies) should be allowed to buy British homes.

But again, shared ownership is a way for someone like me to get a house, and I'm sure some people on this thread.

That professional pension is what they pay tax on

100% agree.

Though we can build our way out of it if we build decent council housing. It’s how we did before. Having the option of a decent council home means fewer people looking to buy or private rent, which brings down house prices. That’s what needs to happen, as private homes (to buy or rent) now unaffordable on an average income in many areas without inherited wealth.

Some councils now looking to restrict holiday lets via planning change of use requirements. Or much higher council tax on second homes. Believe Cornwall charging 100% council tax on second homes from 1 April.

We are shared ownership and long term it is bad and becomes unaffordable housing. They have increased the rent every year by the maximum. Last year due to inflation, they raised it by 9.4% but my wages didn’t increase by that. Our rent was £350 but is now £650 over 10 years and I’m dreading what the increase will be this year. We can’t afford to buy more shares as there are so many costs imposed by housing association.

just watch out for rent increases.

Oh fuck off. I’d say it’s equally “unfair” for people who own to get huge windfalls from property increases, far exceeding what they paid for it in the first place. My mum has made £400,000 on her house since she bought it so to begrudge someone help when they’ve not had the opportunity to have something like that is twattish to the extreme.