to feel seething resentment towards those who profited from the house price bubble and hot anger at the Governments who allowed it to happen?

[TartyMcFarty]

You'll have to forgive my naivety here - I'm ranting about something I don't really understand.

DH and I are stuck. In 2006 we bought a (modest) property on a 100% mortgage. Foolish in hindsight, I know, but based on the advice of our IFA, the unshakeable faith of our families and society that property ownership was the way to go, and the increasing pressure at the time to get on the ladder or miss out, that was the decision we made. We then found that the lender, bastard bastard Northern Rock were unwilling to remortgage based on our lack of equity, despite us having overpaid by several thousand pounds. We couldn't shift the place, and with the agreement of a different IFA, remortgaged against the equity in my DM's property (love her!). It gets more complicated than that, but that's all that's needed here. Now we still can't sell it , our tax credits have suddenly disappeared, my pension contribution has increased (DH doesn't even have a pension) and the tracker rate is slowly increasing. We're on interest only, and as I'm part time since the having DD, with another DC on the way, there's not much of a cushion.

What's really angered me over the last couple of days is the dawning realisation of how people just a few years older than us have profited from the massive increase in property 'values'. I'm still in touch with our ex-neighbour. She bought seven years earlier than us, sold at £120k profit after 10 years (this is not London!), her partner was in a similar situation so they have ended up comfortably in a property of twice the size, renovated to a really lovely standard. Obviously my resentment isn't directed at them personally - they're good people, have profited from a stupid market and good luck to them - but it's just an illustration.

How can we possibly hope to survive in a property market that boomed by more than 3.5x in this instance alone? We can't even afford to maintain our own home to a good standard. Pay isn't moving at all, and we're currently looking at less than .75 of a pension between us. I can't even bear to think about how we'll support our DCs through HE, and the risk to my DM's home if interest rates shoot up.

I just need a rant. Those of us stupid enough to be sucked in at high LTV rates towards the peak of the market are fucked all ways, whereas people just 5 years older than us are untouchable. I know I've only given one example for which I know the exact figures, but there are others I can think of in the same lucky situation. There just doesn't seem to be any point in trying when you compare our situation with those who profited so enormously in the 00s.

Agree with you OP 'tis shit.

To people who say they 'knew' they were buying an investment - I doubt it.

It's only the benefit of hindsight that allows you to say that.

I do sympathise but count your blessings for what you have, really. Stop focusing on what other people did or have. You might be struggling but you have something. We're struggling and we have nothing. I've also come to the conclusion you'd have to be a complete mug to buy in London at these prices now so we've chosen to opt out of that option. You don't "have to" to buy in a grotty area and get fleeced on the price. You don't have to do anything.

There are schemes coming into practice now which are solutions for people like me. Developments that didn't sell so the schemes guarantee the 25% deposit, effectively making it 100% mortgage for the buyer. Barratt Homes have some promising looking schemes helping out first time buyers. You make your choices and you take your chances - the only positive that's come out of being forced to rent for so long is observing the mistakes of those that went before us. A 100% mortgage on a loan that is within your means isn't a huge risk. A 100% mortgage on a property 4, 5 times your means is/was foolish.

I still see it happening. A friend a work - she had a 60K inheritance, he earns close to 100k. They had a lovely THREE bedroom house in a lovely part of London. It wasn't enough. They sold, made a profit, borrowed a further 25K from family and bought a 6 bedroom converted barn in a village in lovely part of Essex. They should have had enough for them - what with her inheritance and his salary. But it wasn't, and I don't know the cost of their current property but she's crying because she has to come back from maternity leave for financial reasons and they're angry that they won't get child benefit. I can't see it as anything but pure greed, and have no sympathy for them.

I don't feel resentment but do get irritated when the same people don't realise what a good deal they got.

And don't get me started about a Govt that didn't allow reinvestment into replacing the homes we lost as a result.

We bought in 2006 and I feel zero resentment. Why would I, it's a market that goes in cycles and we wanted to buy.

It's in an excellent area with what many see as a good state school so still increasing at the same rate as pre-crash. We don't regret it at all.

Also all values are fairly relative so in real terms everything stays on the same level.

We are quite probably the worst offenders ever - we have bought our council house. We moved here in 2000 and were offered the chance to buy some or all of it in 2003 so opted, as it was all we could afford at the time, to get 100% mortgage on 75 % of the house. By 2008, we added the rest and are now buying a really nice house in Cambridge No way could we have done this normally. We both work and always have and it is still a hell of a struggle. So, I am definitely Very Very Tory. Except I'm not, but who would honestly have not taken this?

I just read your op rather than the title and can see it is frustrating so sympathy for your situation.

Some of this is cyclical - We bought our first flat into the 1980s property crash, went into negative equity as interests rates hit 15%, and hung on. Friends who couldnt afford payments had to declare bankruptcy and hand the keys back (still a good strategy IMO, they all turned out well over time).

The latest house price boom was driven by buy to let speculation, and now house prices are being propped up by artificially low interest rates.

But I actually think the biggest problem in the UK is we don't have a European style rental market, having to rent and renew every year at most leads to all sorts of abuses.

Going back to what yahyah said, the only people I know who own their homes (mortgages not outright) did not go to university. All my graduate friends rent.

We bought ours in the summer of 2007 and knew we were buying an investment. We were going to sell in 5 years.
Loads of sympathy for you but not really any resentment here. Probably just because we are not desperate (yet).

We are also vvvvv V lucky in that we bought at the right time.
When we bought it was the very top of our budget and we were very anxious about affording it. This was in 2000, the house is worth 3 times what we paid for it now.
We saved for our deposit for 2 years solid, scrimpt & saved and did without allot of stuff.

We had an endownment mortgage too! We swapped this over to repayment about 6 years ago, and cashed in the endownment to pay for extensions.

This has been our luck in life, probably our only luck tbh. But we are incredibly grateful beyond words for this luck. Feel very bad for those starting out and those who have bought over last few years.

Some friends buying a house recently were really really pleased that the cost of their house was only £140K, this number freaked me out completely as we could never afford the mortgage on this! House is much smaller than ours too.
Pure luck and timing.

I bought my first flat in 1982for 30k, in London. I had a mortgage of 2.5 my earnings (and a I lied a little). I had to have a deposit of at least 10% and to start with my furniture was 2nd hand and all I could do was paint all the walls magnolia to make it look light and bright. The flat was a throw back to the 60s so all orange and lime and turquoise. In the beginning I had to take a lodger because the mortgage was almost as much as my monthly salary. It was very tough and for the first couple of years I couldn't go out much - certainly didn't buy many clothes at all. Didn't do much of what 21/22 year old should have been doing except work which paid off in the end.

I took a huge risk at the time and most of my friends and my mother thought I was stark raving bonkers - but I rationalised it was better than paying a landlord rent, that the UK was coming out of recession and the market was at rock bottom and I wouldn't be able to afford it in a couple of years and if my fingers were burnt I had only me to worry about. The same friends were very very jealous about five years later when they realised they had missed the boat, but they got on it eventually.

But sparkle, when you came to the end of your fixed rate, what did you do? Despite having overpaid during our initial 2yr fix, Northern Rock put us under pressure to go elsewhere. Of course we couldn't because the value had dropped so we had no equity. They left us high and dry, which is why.we borrowed against DM's house to remortgage.

That's what's making me sick with anxiety now. I would be prepared to give the keys back but I can't risk her home.

Really? £150/mth on a house worth £400k? We started out on £850/mth

I'm so pleased we got on the ladder. As a year later after crash and it would have been so much harder.

I suppose we feel ok as our goes up while other areas not so much. Trouble is we don't want to move to those areas at all.

My neighbour bought nearly the same thing 11 years ago for not much at all and is nearly mortgage free. But we paid a huge deposit so our LTV is good.

Chubfuddler...me and DH are mid thirties, both gone to uni but not a red-brick one, own our own 4 bed in London house albeit with mortgage. Most of our friends from uni own too, some with houses in London too, some in other parts of the UK.

I think sometimes the problem lies in expectations, we know of plenty of people who can afford to rent in really expensive parts of London, Clapham, Highgate etc but would never get a mortgage to buy there but they become accustomed to that area and wont set their sights lower when it comes to getting on the property ladder. I'm not suggesting you have to live in some shitty hovel but you do need to be aware that there isn't the same constraints when privately renting as getting a mortgage

DH and I are among the lucky ones, but we could have been £100k 'luckier' if I'd rented out my first property rather than selling it in 1998 - there's always something and no-one is 'untouchable.

We've been in our home for 10 years and are only just starting to get it looking anywhere decent/how we want it as whilst we were fortunate on the property front, we've both (and me especially) had an appalling run of luck with jobs/redundancies. We've only managed what we've done in the last couple of years with the help of a small inheritance and family mucking in to help out with the practical stuff.

I can see how frustrating it must be for you though, and I dread to think how the next generation will ever afford homes of their own which I think is really sad.

I can afford the mortgage, but we don't have a deposit. We'd need to drastically underhouse ourselves to save for one, and not for a year or two but about six years. I won't do it.

I think you need to focus on your positives OP. Seething resentment is pretty extreme, although I would sympathise with some frustration and jealousy.

I look at your post and think:

• wow! your mum was able to and prepared to release equity to help you - not everyone has that
• you got tax credits when you could afford to overpay your mortgage by several thousand (although I don't know if that was before and after a change of circumstances)
• you have a house of your own - if you can make the interest payment increases, you do still stand to potentially gain over the long term. Remember that proportionate to salary, rent never goes down - but inflation can mean by the time you reach the end of your mortgage payments, they're not that high relatively.
• despite the financial uncertainty, you still feel secure enough to have another child (presumably the money you'll lose on maternity leave income, and salary if you don't return to work, and childcare fees if you do return) would have been quite a cushion against rising mortgage interest rates)

I'm angry on your behalf re tax credits - if they really had to be reduced, I think it should have been phased.

I'm one of those to whom you feel seething resentment - bought in 2004, sold in 2006 - not the lowest point to highest, but still an increase. Like most people buying one home to live in, not purely a speculative investment, all that profit is tied up in the next house I bought - not liquid, and I have the same worry as you about rates rising. I'm not angry though - it is what it is. My ex bought in the 80s, and sold his 30K house for 210K! And there are people now who will do the same, with the current crash I think, over time.

There is always someone 'luckier'. We lost £5k of savings (our cushion against interest rises) to IVF treatment. You said you had fertility issues - so you'll know how it can feel unfair that some people just do it easily - or for free! We can't afford that again (plus salary losses as above) due to current climate and commitment to mortgage - so we'll only have one child. A little jealous - yes. Seething resentment - no.

Incidentally, none of us know the future. Perhaps when I am 80, I will seething at the injustice of paying repairs on my house for 50 years, only to have it taken off me to pay for residential care (or an essential operation - who knows what will remain of the NHS?) whilst a renting neighbour gets it all for free.

You have to make your choices as well as you can at the time, and try to make your peace with that.

Really it's a systematic problem that needs legislation to change. Of course it is completely unsustainable that house prices are so far out of whack with wages. The property bubble has been aggravated by low taxation on BTL profits which have concentrated property ownership with landlords and pushed rents up. Our private rental shorthold tenancy agreements give us very few rights and put tenants absplutely at the mercy of landlords. There are so many aspects that need top - down correction. But govts won't do it because a) they are all landowners and b) any reduction in the total gross value of British property portfolio would reflect on our national balance sheet at a time where we are struggling to hold a AAAcredit rating.

I think however property reform COULD become a key election issue if enough of us stopped bickering amongst ourselves about who had won/lost and why, and turned our attention to the fact that unless laws and attitudes towards property are changed, all our children will be screwed.

Reading this with interest as I genuinely don't know what position we are in, DH bought a house in 1998, sold in 2008 and made £110,000, fantastic, I know! Then bought an apartment in 06 (rented out first house for two years). We got married and then had DS, apartment was too small so put it up for sale, fell through twice so we've rented it out, not worth much more than we paid for it. Then bought a house in a decent area for 310,000, deposit down of 170,000 so mortgage is ok (ish). BUT the price of the houses in
Our area have slumped dramatically, now worth about £220,000 at a push!

I don't want to move today or tomorrow but have never envisioned us here for longer than 6/7 years. DH now earns less than half of what he used to and I'm a sahm so earn nothing. We definitely couldn't
Move even if we wanted to.

So my question is are we screwed, ok or about even?
I genuinely don't know! How would you feel if you were us?