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

That's the thing isn't it, house prices in relation to salaries.

So if two people earn minimum wage 1.5x their joint salary is about £36k. Fifteen years ago that would have bought a normal sized house where I live. In fact my sister and bil bought their 3 bed terrace for £50k ten years ago. They had to save up a £1000 deposit and similar for fees and costs.

The same house is now worth about £140k and would probably need a £20k+ deposit. Their salaries certainly haven't tripled in the same way!

Many people I know do not have a landline. They use a mobile for you know, when work needs to contact them. They even have - - mobile WiFi and use it for work! Such frivolity.

Yup, 25% of our 1 bed flat we rent in London is £95k. I'm not sure giving up my phone will save that

And all this, 'I didn't, my parents didn't have (a microwave, an iPhone, a computer, a unicorn)'. Well, no one did because they didn't used to exist! Funny that, how times change. My great grandparents didn't have a car and they managed. No shit.

I hate the current trend for always blaming people for creating the situation they are in(even if its purely a societal thing) by others who aren't in it. There is no sense of fairness or community I am truly getting sick of it.

My question remains though; surely there will be thousands and thousands of people who will get to retirement age without having a mortgage paid off/nearly paid off?

The government has raised the working age, but really; I cannot see people in their 70's doing investment banking, engineering, teaching, other stressful/very physical jobs. Employers will discriminate. The aged will end up either unemplyed, or in less demanding (and perhaps less well paid) jobs. It's not right, but view yourself as an employer. Even choosing between someone in their mid-50's or someone in their early-30's. It isn't right, but it's true.

So a lot of elderly people, out of work to make way for the younger generation and no means to pay for a house. The welfare state will HAVE to provide housing solutions in the form of council housing or extra benefit, surely.

That is a time bomb waiting to go off.

Plus, say you save for years and years to get a deposit; you might be 40 before you manage to get on the ladder. The average age now according to The Times is 37 for a FTB. How much longer before the banks turn these people down, or only offer them a 10-15 year mortgage?

And forevergreek at 25% of your flat being £95,000. That is impossible. I wonder if there is going to have to be a 'top' amount you pay based on how much you earn, and the state buys the rest that will be sold when you die/to pay your care costs.

Because at the moment, the only way we will manage to buy is by moving to Germany, saving and paying fair and reasonable rent, and then coming back to buy outright/with a small mortgage. And we are the bloody lucky ones.

I now have started worrying about how DS will manage.

The flat I am buying used to be a whole huge house. I am buying the top 3 floors and there is a small flat in the basement. It was bought (the house) in 1999 for 3x average salary and now divided the top bit is 10x! The tiny basement flat would cost 4x what the whole house did! Things have risen so out of proportion to earnings people must see that. It is not a compettion as to who can make the most sacrifices to house their family! We are not talking about mansions here

I think people need to remember that most of our parents got a huge bonus from property prices (not mine as I am foreign) and that the right thing to do would be to pass this on to their children.

Similarly people need to plan. The poster whose parents lived in a rented farmhouse and now can't survive on the state pension must have realised this would happen? Did they not think to save into a private pension? Did they expect th state to give them a nice big house when they stopped working?

And yes people. If you have kids at age 20 with no savings and no deposit it will be difficult to save for a deposit! Surely people plan these things too? If you want to have your family young then accept it will be more difficult to buy a house. My parents saved and bought a house in far worse economic circumstances than these (and my dad put himself through university by working and studying at night and my mum paid their rent) and once they had a stable house etc they had us. People these days want everything now without working for it or saving for it.

You cannot plan if you are literally covering your arse every month.

'Because at the moment, the only way we will manage to buy is by moving to Germany, saving and paying fair and reasonable rent, and then coming back to buy outright/with a small mortgage. And we are the bloody lucky ones.'

And you may not bother coming back. A lot of people I've known who've moved there haven't.

Yes I'm not sure how pension age will work. I mean many people are still able to work at 70, but many also can't. It's really depends on both individual healthy etc as well as what job they do.

A 70 year old up scaffolding?! Surely that's unsafe

A 70 year old lawyer? Many hours may be simply too much

A 70 year old police officer? Depends on position.

We will def buy eventually but not for a few years and will need to look at a long commute ontop of long hours, so hopefully adapt work in the meantime. And hopefully then buy an average house on the commuter belt. I can't imagine having to work so hard to pay a high rent still when Im old, and would much rather have that side of things paid and sorted for

Why should people move to alien areas away from the people they know and love This sort of attitude is wrong.

Tbh I don't think about the long term future. It's too overwhelming and it absolutely terrifies me. I just stick with the day to day stuff. We live one month to the next.

I don't have any kind of future, not in a security sense, this is it for me, this is how it will always be. No amount of saving or cutting back will change that.

I just have to hold on to the hope that things will change for DS's generation.

'I think people need to remember that most of our parents got a huge bonus from property prices (not mine as I am foreign) and that the right thing to do would be to pass this on to their children.'

Yes, those people can inherit, others whose parents weren't so lucky can go boil their heads.

Youngsters, nowadays! Tutt, tutt! They just want it all at once. Stupid sods.

Those are some peoples' kids your talking about, or even themselves. Generalising they are all a bunch of greedy entitled gits who want something for nothing and have no concept of hardwork or sacrifice is lazy at best, not to mention patronising.

I encourage my children to emigrate because what is their worth in a country where people demonise them for wanting a secure roof over their heads and still be able to heat it?

numerical But your parents bought in a time where your annual wages, in most circumstances, were around half or 1.5x the price of the house.

NumericalMum, do you not see any way in which circumstances can change? You honestly don't believe in luck? You think everyone's lives go according to their "plan"?

My XH, like your father, put himself through university by working part time jobs whilst I, like your mother, worked 2 jobs to pay the rent. We had started saving with a view to buying but as XH was already 42 and I was 32 we decided to have DS.

My husband then had an affair. Should I have stayed with him so I could buy a house? Oh wait, no that wouldn't work because he lost his job not long after and hasn't been able to get back into the industry since.

Stupid me, I should have planned better.

Not only that; but a lot of people are only on about buying a VERY mediocre house in an ok-ish area. I don't think many people on this thread are after a converted barn with 40 acres of land, here.

They will pay a huge price, completely over the odds in fact, to have a 2/3 bed semi with a small garden to call their own. Which will be sold anyway when they die, or even worse, if they need care home fees.

Which, if you turn this whole thread on its head; seems rather pointless. Actually, if you look at it; why should people skint themselves out to buy a house? Fuck saving; just rent a really lush house, go on all the holidays and buy all the stuff that the older generation seem to think we're buying Really bloody live it up.

Then, when you hit pension age, 'give' anything of worth to your kids, get evicted from your house because you can't pay your rent and throw yourself on the mercy of the council to be housed. And they would have a duty of care to house you.

What's to stop people doing that? Because it's hardly an incentive to have your own home if the bloody thing gets sold off to pay for care home fees, is it?

The thing I find really depressing about all of this, is that no government wants to do anything to reduce house prices to acceptable levels. They must know that this is a huge issue and whole generations are being forced into miserable unhabitable hovels with extortionate rents, just to keep the land owners and baby boomers happy. How long can this go on for though? Surely, if nothing changes soon, anyone with any sense will leave this country for a better life elsewhere, then where will that leave the UK. Why can't governments think long term about everything? Why is everything about winning the next election? It's all so wrong. I guess nothing will change until the people without property out number the people with property and become the bigger voting demographic.

NOt whilst the Blairs own several buy to let properties they won't.
The baby boomers will die and then their properties will fall into the hands of their current 30-40 year old children hopefully.
Assuming they don't piss it all away first as mine seem to be planning to.

Slatternlymother my parents bought when interest rates were over 20%.

expat encourage your children to emigrate because of course they will be better off with higher interest rates and no NHS. When you find this utopia please tell us so we can all move there!

Randal I am sorry hour husband had an affair, but it isn't really relevant to the point. Nobody can expect life to follow a path. You tried to save and did and he was a cunt. Not the government's fault either.

I can't believe anyone thinks the problem is anything to do with people spending money on 'luxuries'. About 20 years, ago my Dad was earning around £25k, bought a house for around £50k. Mum didn't work. The house is now worth £250k. It is just a bog standard 3 bed semi. The demographic of the street is now totally different to what it was back then. The only people that can afford to live there are affluent professionals.

It's completely relevant because you're blaming the fact that I can't afford my own home on a lack of planning!

When house prices were more in proportion and mortgages were easier to get I would have been able to buy on my own. Plenty of people did.

You simply cannot argue that it isn't more difficult now.

I have one friend who bought a house on her own last year. She earns almost 40k a year, had 15k gifted by her parents, we live in a very cheap area, and she still could only buy a one bedroom flat on a deposit contribution/shared ownership scheme.

Back to the original question, I don't think the government is going to do much about this and certainly isn't going to build lots of council housing to accommodate older people who are struggling with rent, on verge of homelessness.

What I think will happen is that families will be pushed to accomodate older relatives and it will be assumed this will happen. In the same way that you can't get unemployment if you have savings (sorry, I think that's it) if there is evidence that you have a living relative that can take you in, the govt won't help. It's a win for the government too -- they'll be promoting 'care in the community, will reduce their burden and also spur on the construction industry building granny flats! (Must buy shares in those companies)

By the way numerica that utopia that has national health care is called Canada. Britain isn't the only one who has an NHS-model health care system!

And there is -20 weather in the winter! Not my utopia...