To wonder how the next generation will afford a house?

[Housepricewoes]

DH and I want to move to what will hopefully be our family home, in 2 years. Work commitments means we can't do it sooner but I'm stressing about how much house prices might rise in that time.

That got me thinking about how today's children will ever be able to buy a home.

I know it's a very British thing to aspire to home ownership but rightly or wrongly it is the norm.

Many of my friends and extended family have only been able to get on the property ladder with a significant hand out from the bank of mum and dad, but unless their circumstances drastically change, they are not going to be in a position to do the same for their children.

What do you think will happen about houses with the next generation?

Not everyone is that extravagant thyme DH and I spent a couple of hundred on our wedding, I've never been on a hen weekend, Dh and I don't give each other presents, we don't have nights out, dds' parties consist of a home baked cake with family (for which I've been told I'm a bad mum).

This ^ is not a complaint btw, just pointing out that not everyone is extravagant.

I didn't say it applied to everyone ifnot.

I'm totally on your side. As I said in my OP, I'm stressing about house price increases scuppering our plans to move in 2 years and we have a house to sell (which, in theory limits our exposure to price rises)

I think it's shit that many of us have smaller houses than our parents and even shitter that many more have no houses.

iseen, I'm pretty sure there will be far more people who can borrow less than can borrow more.

To borrow more it seems you basically need to have zero direct debits other than for utilities, withdraw small amounts of cash, grow your own food, have no debts and never use your overdraft.

Not sure about you but that certainly doesn't apply to me or anyone I know.

The only reason I got on the property ladder at the age of 37 was through the help of my mum and only because my Nan died. My mum gladly gave me my inheritance early so that I could move back after a very bad birth and struggle afterwards. Extremely grateful to her and to my siblings who I checked with first, they did not mind and we aren't hugely close.

I fully expect to be giving my DS a hand when it comes to it or accept he is not likely to leave home until he's very old

I think the fact that mortgages are cheaper than renting makes us want to own our house even more plus add that an awful lot of people live in sub standard rental properties only increase our desire to want to buy.

I think we are more 'possession' obsessed nowadays and are more willing to get into debt for nonessentials which does't help.

It is very scary though especially as Uni fees will no doubt be extremely expensive by the time my DS is the age to go so even further putting that home ownership years away.

Housepricewoes - Its only for 3 months that they look at, and I was assuming that people wouldnt have debts or overdraft if applying for a mortgage anyway as they always look negatively on those.

But jasminemai, debts are far from the only consideration nowadays.

Lenders may look at up to 6 months expenditure and they are not just concerned with debt, it's about affordability so your food shop, leisure costs, childcare costs, travel costs etc are all factored in.

I know you don't believe me when I say there is no way in hell you'll get a mortgage for 8 times your salary now when you have dependents so just try putting your details into any bank or building society loan calculator and see what they'll lend you (and don't think they'll be a raft of non-mainstream lenders who'll be hugely different, cos there won't be)

I'm far more frugal than my parents were but still have no chance of stepping up the next rung of the property ladder. The next step for me would cost £80k, so about 13 years of saving £500 per month. That's so bloody impossible I might as well accept it won't happen and treat myself to a monthly take away

This depresses me. I live at home (paying rent) which I utterly hate and on my wages, I have no hope to buy a house - Starter houses and flats here are £250k.. very occasionally can you get stuff cheaper, but still over £180k.. I can't afford to rent either (rents here £900+ a month for bed sits) . . What I take home a month is less then the mortage my brother is paying on his first house, which was tiny and cheap for here :(

Kinda makes me wonder what the point is..

I wouldnt want 8 times I could buy a mansion! I thought it was ludicrious. Our next place will only be 4 times and our current place is only 2 times as we have luckily paid a lot off and our income went up. We arent even looking to move yet anyway.

If you have young children, you'll struggle to actually get even 4 times your income.

Seriously, try putting your details into Nationwide's calculator and see what it says- I'm genuinely intrigued now.

Its no point using me as I have over 50% equity in my current place so Im a bad example as can get a lot more. Im more intrigued by ones like my friend who was in negative but still did it.

jasmine your equity means bugger all if you still want to borrow 4 times your income.

What you can borrow now isn't really affected by your equity, all that affects is your interest rate (which, granted, does affect your repayments)

The amount you can borrow is affected by how much the lender deems you can afford to repay.

If only to prove me wrong, try putting you numbers into Nationwide's calculator and see if you can borrow 4 times your income.

The online calculators dont take in to account large deposits housepricewoes.

The nationwide one does. You put in what you want to borrow and the value of the house you want to buy.

175000 property I would need 120000 mortgage. 68% ltv they will give me rate of 3.89% so would be 602 a month.

Nationwide recently let me borrow five times salary and Im a single parent with one dc. I have quite a lot of equity, maybe that's why, I don't know.

And what proportion of £120k is your salaries?

1.89% first 2 years fixed rate sorry. 3.6 is over life of loan. I thought it was high rate for current markey sorry done right now

4 times

I think attitudes will just change. Home ownership will become the preserve of those in professions earning a higher salary. Except more of them will be living in very ordinary 3 bed semi's instead of 5 bed executive homes.

The rest of society will just rent.

The elderly that own their own homes these days rarely get the chance to pass it on as Inheritance due to elderly care needs. The NHS is going down the pan now so I don't expect elderly care to become any more freely available
With a growing ageing population it will become the next big money spinner costing individuals more than it does today. Homeowners will have to sell to pay for it but god knows if the renting population will get any help like they do now or if in years to come they will be resigned to a 21st century workhouse scenario.

It's all a bit grim for the future for anyone who is not super rich I reckon.

dolphin I think lenders become progressively more lenient the smaller percentage of property value you are borrowing. It's considered lower risk relatively speaking. Makes sense really, for example a person borrowing 50% of their property's value is less likely to end up in negative equity than someone borrowing 95%.