To wonder how people are going to actually buy houses?

[slatternlymother]

There's going to be a whole generation that can't, isn't there?

What about those people who rented due to circumstances/not knowing if they wanted to live there long term/work commitments etc, and then hit the wrong end of the financial crisis?

We rent, and have (luckily) really well paid jobs for our age. We are 25, and between running a car, putting DS through nursery, and just living, I doubt we'll have enough of a deposit to buy anything reasonable before we're 30. 28/29 at an absolute push. And that will be pressuring us to make a choice on where we're going to be living, but we won't be able to leave it much later because otherwise we'll be tied up in a mortgage forever.

But we are so, so lucky. Actually, it was blind luck that got us here.

And if we're struggling, how the hell is everyone else coping? Tbh, I'd happily rent all my life, but I worry about retirement age and no longer being able to pull in a decent wage.

AIBU to think that long term, more and more elderly people will have been in rented accommodation their whole lives, so when they do retire; they're going to have to fall back on the state, aren't they? To put them up in council accommodation?

Isn't this just a massive time bomb for the future?

Sorry for rambling thoughts, I just have been thinking about this quite a lot recently

I am 43

About 20 years ago I was a newly qualified solicitor in the City. I bought a scruffy 2 bed flat five minutes from Liverpool Street for 95k. I earnt about 35k so very doable.

Flats in the same block now cost between 250 - 275k. As a newly qualified solicitor in the same firm I would get paid about £50k.

The salary / property multiple has gone from 1:3 to 1:5. No longer so accessible.

My generation got lucky, even more my parents generation as long as they own property.

That is before you open the conversation up to availability of jobs, the free education that My parents and I got. I could sign on during the summer holidays !

This scares me. DH and j are 31, one DC one on the way. My dad has given is £40k for a deposit (I know how lucky I am) and we earn £80k between us. We want to buy before DS starts school next yeR so we can't be turfed out once he is settled.

But yesterday there was a thread in In The News linking to a telegraph article saying lenders are going to lend significantly less to parents - in some cases only 30% of what they'd lend non parents. We live in an expensive city (but left Lkndon last year thank god) and need to borrow 150-180k. Don't think there's any chance of that now and we are in a privileged position with our deposit. It's messed up.

I agree Amber in principle, but because the rental market in the UK is absurdly under regulated and not set up for long term renters. Almost every place I have ever rented has been freezing cold as the landlord hasn't put in proper insulation as there's no payback for them, they don't pay the heating bills!

Even the 'good' landlords I've had don't do any maintance beyond the bare minimum whilst they have tenents in and paying rent, so the place gets shabbier and shabbier around you. For exaple where I live now, the window frames are so rotten it is like living in a wind tunnel.

I'm lucky that I don't have kids.

With the standard short-hold agreement you can be kicked out of your home with a month's notice (it has happened to me) and if you have children in school or other care commitments it can be hugely disruptive and landlords often specify 'no children' so it is doubly hard to find anything else.

I have no problem with long term renting in the UK (I don't have any choice) but it is not like palces in France and Germany where there is long term security, rent caps and an obligation on the landlord to maintain the property.

Do you have a link for that please bigkidsdidit?

This thread

here

I keep hearing how 'this generation won't be able to buy until they're nearly thirty ' and I'm confused by it.

We couldn't buy a house before we were thirty and both of us had good jobs and even then we only had a deposit because DH's grandparents had died and left us a bit of cash.

I think its always been quite normal to rent in your twenties, especially if you're single.

But people are managing to buy.

This isn't a new phenomenon. I am 35, I bought my first flat in London in 2001 when prices had pretty much peaked. Property was extortionate then. And pretty much remains so now. Yet people keep on buying

What ever way you look at it, there are differences in what generations now deem as a priority and an essential part of every day living. And its important to think about that as much as other issues

Yes red there probably are. Just as to my grandparents generation indoor toilets and washing machines were a luxury and something my parents generation took for granted.

I have always lived frugally. Haven't had a holiday abroad since (or of any description) since 2008, don't go out and 'blow' hundreds of pounds, shop in Aldi, Asda, H&M and Primark, have had two jobs in the past. I also have some savings. But still can't afford a deposit.

I can understand if others of my generation go out and blow their wages, saving up for a house is largely impossible, you can never save enough, it would be like trying to save up for a gold plated Rolls Royce, utterly beyond the majority of us.

I bought my first flat in London in 2001 when prices had pretty much peaked.

The peak of the market was 2006/07 just before the credit crunch hit. Anyway London is a bit of micro-climate and prices have continued to rise in London and other parts of te SE (a bit) due to the sheer number of people wanting to live there.

i was trying to explain this to my teenage son the other day

put simply

20yrs ago my house cost 50k average wage here approx 16k (i think)

NOW this house is worth 230k average wage 24k

do the maths it's evident what the problem is

ComposHat, if you dont mind me asking, are you trying to get a house, with just your wages?

Is it really true that most people in Europe don't buy? In France where I am, certainly most professionals aspire to buy their own places, and I know a fair few people in their retirement who own both a city and a country place...

Anyway, I definitely think YANBU for not understanding how so many people buy. I don't see that I'll ever be able to own property based on my current and projected earnings. The only "saving grace" is that I'm an only child of an only child so probably eventually some money/property will be coming my way but A) it will be decades from now and B) it's hardly a good strategy to just count on that.

My DP is mortgaged to his parents. He never rented, bought a house immediately upon starting work precisely because his parents could lend him the full sum outright. Plus he is in a high paying job. In fact, lots of people who I know who bought were able to do so thanks to family help or inheritances.

I don't know one single person in their early thirties who has bought without help from their parents

Might be different outside big cities.

I suspect that an awful lot of people will be buying trailers and living in permanent trailer parks. I think that's what dh and I'll have to do when dd leaves home and we downsize, if we want to have any money put away for living expenses. Forget pensions; we'll have virtually nothing from that quarter.

I think LayMizzRarb has a point upthread. But I would not be the one who would have to do it.
Also, I think people can get into that mindset,and not be able to leave go of it. So that every spend from then on is analysed deeply by one or either partner.

ComposHat, if you dont mind me asking, are you trying to get a house, with just your wages?

I have a partner. We aren't trying to get a house it isn't possible on our just below average incomes.

We're not trying or even thinking about trying to get a house of our own.

I've been a home owner for a long (since I was 19) and it has never been easy. We had a mortgage, but no central heating, no stair carpet and no holidays for the first few years.

I'm sure I will get flamed for this, but if we couldn't afford it, we went without......

It's making your own choices......

fwiw, and from what little I have seen, I have a theory. That the higher rent landlords are quicker and more eager to do repairs on their properties, than lower rent landlords. They are keener to keep their porperties in good working order.
I realise there may well be some MNetters about to tell me otherwise.

I've never seen the link million I think it comes down to how tight-fisted the landlord is. Some see it as an affront that they should ever have to spend a farthing on maintaining their property and will huff and puff and delay any work that costs money. It is a false economy as on two or three occasions, I've left a flat as I was cheesed off with stuff not getting fixed. So they lost out on a couple of month's rent whilst they found a new tenent.

Letting agents (the tagnut on the arsehole of landlordom) can sometimes add another level of feet dragging and inompetance. I am avoiding Letting agents like the plague next time I need to find a new place.

YANBU. I am so lucky to be one of the generation that was able to buy a house - I was 22 when I bought my first home, admittedly it was tough with 15% interest rates and then massive negative equity but I can't see either of my children being able to afford a house on their own. I am just so glad that I bought a house early on as now I don't earn enough to pay a hefty mortgage or rent.

I can see it being a "choice" for some people between having children and staying in rented to be able to afford a place large enough or buying a small one bedroom place - and that in areas where they are still affordable.

It also locks in inequality betwen those who inherit wealth and those who don't.

Agree, but twas ever thus.

Our parents will probably help our kids to buy property, iyswim, the inheritance will skip a generation.

I wouldn't actually mind not buying so much (apart from the retirement issue which is a big one) if renting was a better deal in this country.

I would like to see:
cap on fees charged by estate agents
longer term tenencies but only accompanied with tenents right to end the contract with little financial repercussion (I think in Belgium three - five year tenencies are the norm with the tenant able to sever the contact after 6 months with just a three month rent penalty. I think this is sensible)
no discrimation against families with children
ability to decorate (mainly installing brackets for furniture etc) even if it includes a 'return to original state' clause
I would also like a rent cap to be considered (but realise this isn't that simple)

Oh, and I just saw a pig fly......