to think I will never be able to own a house?

[igetmorelovefromthecat]

I am 30, and have been privately renting since I moved out of home 12 years ago. On average, I move once a year due to tenancies ending/houses being unsuitable etc (I am not an awful tenant and have never been kicked out of anywhere in case you were wondering).

I am now renting a lovely house and managed to get an 18 month tenancy on this one but I will definitely have to move at the end of that term as the owners want to sell. The thought of uprooting myself and my two DCs AGAIN makes me want to weep. DD1 is in school and we are very settled in this area which makes things harder as it is only a village and there aren't hundreds of rental properties to choose from.

I am really craving some security and stability for my DCs and have been looking into buying a house. With mortgages being what they are now I would need around £27K as a deposit to buy a very modest house in this area. I am a single parent and I run a small business which is successful but although I can afford to keep my head above water there isn't much left over for saving. I would die of old age before I saved £27K!!

It's so depressing to face a future of moving all the time. I know I'm not the only one in this situation and there are people a lot worse off than me but AIBU to just want to find somewhere to live and be able to stay there?

YANBU

House prices are an absolute joke and I fear not just for my family's housing situation now but for my children in the future.

My only advice is don't bother writing to Grant Shapps - he doesnt care!

YABU don't be so negative, concentrate on making your business flourish and you could get there.

YANBU

Me and my DP are in the same boat. It's ridiculous, there just seems like there is no future. We've been looking into the prospect of buying with the assistance of a housing association. Really cannot see any other way of getting on the ladder at all.

It will be some time away though, DP works full-time but with a teenager and a baby on the way, we too just keep our heads above water.

Some days it really does make you feel so down doesn't it .

YANBU

Owning a home shouldn't be something you have to hope and dream about and you might "get there".

You are right, there are lots of people in parts of the UK in your situation and it is unfair and bad for society at a whole.

A large part of the problem not that you can't buy, but that you don't get any security UNLESS you buy.

If tenants had proper rights to remain in their homes as they do in other countries, then you wouldn't have to keep moving all the time, so the fact that you can't afford to buy a home wouldn't be a problem.

But it is not right that your children are growing up without a secure roof over their heads despite having a mother that works extremely hard to pay the rent.

YANBU

We are in the same predicament. The problem here is that while DH earns a reasonable salary, our rent is so extortionate that there is no money left to save towards a deposit.

I often worry about the dc's and how insecure they must feel - we have had to move 3 times in 5 years.

At the moment our future in this house is very uncertain. My DH has a back problem and has been signed off work. He's not entitled to sick pay and his insurance doesnt cover him as its not classed as work related therefore we're having to apply for benefits until he has an operation to fix it. The Housing Benefit isnt enough to cover the rent and I'm not sure how we're going to scrape together the shortfall for the next 6 months.

Nice to hear other peoples thoughts. You are right Spidookly, I don't actually care whether I own the place or not as long as I could stay there long term, at least until my kids have grown up. Somewhere I could decorate how I like and grow stuff in the garden and just put down some roots. Long term rental would be fine, but that doesn't seem to exist unless you get a council house. I have applied for a council house but I am not holding out much hope as I am in the lowest band of priority and council houses are like rocking horse shit round here.

"Somewhere I could decorate how I like and grow stuff in the garden and just put down some roots."

Yes, a home.

But currently in the UK you only get to have a proper home if you buy it. It's totally shit :(

Yanbu, I bought my house when I was 19, been a millstone around my neck at times but when I look at my friends paying extortinate rents with no hope of being able to buy anywhere and having to move every year or so I thank god I did !

It's exactly that, a home [wistful emoticon].

Giving assistance in some scheme or another (don't ask me how because I don't know, that's the job of the politicians surely), to help working families have some home security, can only promote stability in the economy, I would have thought.

It really is demoralising. I think we are in a band of society that just has no voice .

Owning a home is a privilege not a right, in most other countries in Europe is commonly accepted that people rent for life, I blame Thatcher for making everyone think they should own a house and that it be some kind of investment.

it's all a lie, the bank owns your house for 30 odd years and if you do manage to own it at some point, how is it an investment when if you sell up you will only be able to afford something the same or less good, thats not an investment.

The difference in other countries, is that generally speaking, tennants have better rights than in the UK.

Owning a house may be a privilege not a right but surely every family, especially when they work damn hard for every penny they have, do have the right to a stable home.

Local rents where we live are ridiculously high, they are more than a lot of mortgages.

If you can't get a mortgage and you've got kids why isn't there some sort of assistance available to help us get a home and maintain that home.

My DP work full-time, 12 hour shifts, six days on and three days off. We have a teenager and a baby on the way. We currently rent in a shared house, two rooms for us with kitchen and bathroom shared. It's ridiculous, we can't afford to rent a 'whole' house and are on supposed 'high priority' for a council house, but it's still at least a two and half year waiting list!!!

DP works hard pays taxes, pays national insurance, he works too many hours to get working tax credit, we only get child tax credit but he's still on a low wage. He wants to look for other work but we're scared, with the economy the way it is, that if he does find other work, if that firm goes belly up or has to make future cut backs, he'll be last man in first man out.

As for me going back to work after the baby is born, well that's all well and good but childcare costs will swallow up any wages I earn, so what's the point.

It's totally demoralising and we just can't see how it's going to get any better .

The only people I know of my age who own houses either got in there just before all the mortgages went tits up, and are paying interest only mortgages (on houses that are worth a lot less now than they were then), OR their parents have helped them out.

assistance? this is ConDem Britain you are on your own.

don't expect things fight for them, I still can't believe that after god knows how many years of this shit the people of this country still seem to vaguely believe in their hearts that the government is here to help us all and will give us a helping hand to make life easier.

All the years of lies and spin and people are still falling for it, you can't have rich without poor and you can't have mega rich without poverty, all you will get from this government is a bin bag to waterproof your cardboard box with.

It was the same during the last government too Ryoko. Gap between rich and poor grew during a Labour administration, which really is shameful.

Totally agree with you OP - just somewhere stable to live is all we need. I also have no chance of ever owning a house.

They where not Labour, they where Nu Labour old Cons in disguise, all the real Labour people sodded off to The Socialist Labour party, Respect and the Sell Out Dems.

At the end of the day they are all scum, the crap that floats about on top of society, they only create laws that benefit themselves and their kind.

We need to be more like the French, fight for our rights.

YANBU

It is really messed up and homes have never cost this much in terms of multiples.

Talk of a 20% reduction in house prices within the year and I hope it happens- and we do own a small place with some equity in it.

It is usually people who own who seem to suggest that renting is no different- it is in so many ways. A mortgage ends one day and in effect you get all the rent back when you sell.

But reassure yourself- if you had bought in the last 4 years outside of london- you would have negative equity!

I hope you get a place one day.

YANBU. Tbh, I think we are overly obsessed with home owning in this country. Considering most people have massive mortgages, it really shouldn't be such a status symbol.

There has to be a move towards making renting a better experience. I would have been happy to carry on renting, but the behaviour of landlords and the stupid things they did to the properties were infuriating.

I am a landlord and I try to be as decent as possible. I'm happy for them to paint, put pictures up and to stay for as long as they want. It's their home, not mine.

can't you get a personal loan for the deposit with int only mortgage then switch to C&I when you've paid the loan?

Although I agree that house prices are too high, if they were to drop by 20% then most people I know and myself would be up shit creek. I bought my seriously tiny house for £115500 in 2007 just before Market crashed! With £6000 deposit (borrowed from FIL) my house I'm assuming is already in negative equity. There have been 2 houses exactly the same as mine for sale for 18months or so for purchase price of mine and they haven't sold!

But I agree don't expect condems to help!
All politicians are there to line there pockets and dint give a shit about public!

We have a similar situation, except we're very lucky that we've found a house in a perfect village location that is owned by a company. The same company owns the whole row of terraces. They have no plans to sell, it is a regular source of income for them, and the work they would need to do to make the houses marketable is prohibitive (replace windows, put in insulation, etc.). So they've more than happy to have long term tenants.

Next time you're looking, ask the agents if they have any similar landlords. However, I know exactly what you mean about the difficulty of finding a house in a speific village. We've had to make a lot of compromises on this house (tiny kitchen, downstairs bathroom, extortionate heating bills in winter) just to be in the catchment area for the village school.

We just have to hope house prices freeze for a while, to give us some chance of one day being able to afford them. You're definitely not alone..

(And I am so frustrated with the number of my friends who have taken advantage of the dip in house prices thanks to the bank of mum and dad. Bloody silver spoons.)

You can't usually get a personal loan (or any big hire purchase like a car) without it seriously affecting the mortgage amount someone will lend.

You also now can't get an interest only mortgage unless you can prove to them that in 30yrs you will definately have the money to pay the rest of the mortgage.

We were in an awful position as DP works mostly overtime, which isn't guaranteed, and I work for an agency, so neither of our incomes count... :S

Fortunately(ish) DPs grandmother passed away and left money for us for a big deposit, but we'd never do it otherwise.

Yanbu we are fnding it impossible to save at the same time as paying our rent etc, at the current rate our savings will have enough in for a deposit in around 25 years of savings.

YANBU it's awful so many are in this position, and also the shocking shortage of social housing.

We have a flat we rent out and would love long term tenants who stay there forever! Unfortunately it's too small for a family more of a bachelor pad.

We own our home, it's the third one we've bought we've always done it ourselves. We're alone in that however everyone else i know has been given huge cash deposits by their parents. Seems to be not only the norm but expected these days. Had a few raised eyebrows when I explained we DIDN'T do that .

We are fortunate though a lot of people aren't in a position to save and it's only because of dhs job we could. I couldn't have done it on my own (not now anyway although I could 10 years ago)

YANBU but ... why not buy a home before having children?

Boyfriend and girlfriend live at home with parents to avoid paying rent, make some sacrifices to save for a deposit, buy house, do it up, save some more for a rainy day and then start a family.

It's what we used to do in th'olden days.

Agnethafaltskog...doesn't work of both sets of parents are either dead or kick you out onto the street at 16/17 does it :)