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?

Iseen, I've had a BTL before. I ended on a significant loss rental wise. And didn't make that much on the sale either. Alot of that profit I will need to give to the taxman next year anyway, despite the fact that I made a big loss on the income. One is not offset by the other, sadly (and ridiculously). I'll probably end up even at best. And HMRC have repeatedly tried to find ways to unearth squirrelled away cash from the property that they may not know about (there is none). For that reason, I don't agree with heavily taxing people with a second property further than they are already taxed (which is significant). It isn't a golden path to prosperity by any means, as any ordinary person with a BTL or second property knows. It's not ordinary people with one additional property who need to be heavily taxed, it's more the people/organisations with massive property portfolios.

its going to be worse for our children

Of course some people are unrealistic - you'll always get some of those in any given situation.

But are there really enough "doer-uppers" and/or places in "grotty" areas available anyway for those who might be able scrape together a loan ?

And, yet again, I ask about the significant number of people who will never ever be able to afford even the hypothetical ex-crack den no matter how much they sacrifice because unfortunately all their income goes on living in the here and now, and that doesn't include takeaways, holidays and so on for most. Is it morally right that a secure home will always be denied to people in that position ?

The older lending requirements were not easier. You had to have saved with that lender for year sand years, be interviewed by the bank manager and then if you were lucky got 3x your salary to buy with

But you've totally highlighted the problem there mariajenny

3 times a single salary was enough to buy a property then- it is nowhere near now.

Depending on which survey you read, average salary is approx 26k and average house price is approaching 250k.

You dont need to be an accountant to see that this is why it is now such a huge problem.

Dilys why should it be ridiculous that you can't offset losses incurred during the letting of a btl against the profit on sale? You couldn't do that if you sold a business

The do er uppers are either advertised as 'cash buyers only' or sent to auction. So no they're aren't

i think sometimes you have to talk about London as if its a different country tho

A house bought ten years ago which would be worth £220k if it had gone up with inflation is actually on sale for £500k. Wages have not risen like that.

And whoever said it used to be hard to buy because you could only get 3x your salary for a mortgage... I'd rather that than have to get 5 or more

X post housepricewoes

Av salary London 35k and av home £430k i think now and rising fast

We are planning for at least one of the DCs to be with us for quite a long time. Balance of probabilities means it's likely to be the case. We are very fortunate in that we have the space even if other halves enter the scene.

I think we will all be living quite differently in a decade or so. Property is just too expensive. My first house was £30k.

Im not sure whether this has been answered already but for those who reject property ownership and choose to rent what is the plan for when they no longer work and don't have income to pay the rent?

For all those saying you can choose to live in a grotty area etc- how does that really help the general equilibrium of it all?

People on average salaries need to be buying averagely priced houses- otherwise, if people on above average wages buy below averagely priced properties, there is nothing left for the average and below average earners to buy.

Holidays are one thing that annoy me a bit when hearing people fuming about property prices. We've been saving for one thing or another for the last 3 years and haven't had a holiday away that whole time (bar one cheap week in Ireland). We make sacrifices to get to where we want to be. I hear people at work talking about not being able to afford to buy and then they go away to Thailand for 2.5 weeks. You can't talk about rights and then spend money in other places, when other people are happy to sacrifice.

catsmother, I agree with you that there are some people who will never afford to buy even a 'crack den' type property with a long commute and who do make every sacrifice. I'm not talking about them (I agree it's awful), although I do think that only a fairly small proportion of the people who go on about not being able to afford to buy fall into this category.

The regional difference is huge though.
DH was reading me out some figures this morning, apologies if I've got them wrong, but I think it was that since 2007, London house prices have increased by 40% while Yorkshire and Humberside, where we live, has fallen (in real terms?) by 7%.

It won't be so much a difference to the way everybody lives as a difference in the relationship between the regions. I don't know what it's going to mean for London and south-east based companies - how they are going to manage to pay their own rents and attract staff in all but the most high-paying sectors. But somehow they are still managing it because that's where the jobs are.

Great post up thread catsmother
We live (with my parents as I posted early) in London suburbs zone 5. My parents bought here (their 3rd home) late 70s for £20000. House next door sold for £700000 the other week.
Anyway, our plan was to move and buy further out and one or both of us commute in. However, this won't be possible any more due to the MMR regs. We have to pay childcare for 2 under 4s and commute costs. I also have a student loan. No way will we get any mortgage now.

*posted earlier.

Have you already gone through the broker and been refused, pseudo badger? If so, you are the first MMR victim I'm hearing about and I'm really sorry to hear about your situation

Haven't applied Apatite, but with the distance of commute to make housing affordable (likely to be Northamptonshire) and the resultant costs of commute and at least 10 hours childcare I'm not hopeful.

Sleepwhenidie, it feels ridiculous to me because it should be treated as an overall entity. I lost money here, so that should surely be offset by any money gained there. Ordinary people buying one BTL shouldn't be discouraged. I let my property to a young couple who stayed for 4 years. During that time I didn't put the rent up once, despite the fact that the rental market was rocketing in that area. Meanwhile the properties owned by groups or multi-propertied types were following the market. Not because I'm a saint, just because they were good tenants and good tenants are sometimes hard to find.

Didn't know that about selling a business, but I think it's slightly different. Maybe I'm wrong. But people like me having a buy to let, who are not faceless organisations or people who hide behind estate agent management, is a good thing, because I'm not about trying to squeeze every last penny out of tenants. Should be encouraged. Although not everyone will behave in the same way, I accept that.

iseenyou it's my understanding that all monthly deductions are taken into account. Student loan repayments reduce the income available to service a mortgage so reduce affordability.

I bet if a few people who are in work on this thread who cannot buy gave us a few details we could find them somewhere even if it meant children sleeping in parents' bed room for a few years or moving to somewhere like London zone 5 where I live.

Ok, Maria. I am up for the challenge, and actually would be enormously grateful for any helpful and realistic suggestions, as our circumstances seem quite dismal, and would happily not slip into a pit of despair.

We have 2DC (7&3), are Surrey/Sussex based and DP works locally, all on word of mouth due to excellent reputation (a rare builder type who is honest, works long hours and is particular about attention to detail). We have built up his business since the contract with developers for work on new builds, which he depended on 95% of his work, collapsed to zero in 2008. I also work part-time for a business which is growing, and which makes the most of and refreshes my skills and qualifications.

However, since we have had to move 3 times in the last four years, due to lls promising long lets and then selling up, we have little in the way if savings, and rely on tax credits and a small amount of housing benefit (less and less as DPs business and my work grows).

I am also a medium distance occasional carer for someone with severe, enduring and highly complex MH problems, who has been badly mis-treated by services in the past (judicial review, complaints initiated by GP and obstetrician as care of unborn child made at risk during hospital stay) which has led to HUGE trust issues, making relative largely dependent on support from family at times. There have been many occasions when I have had to choose between intervening in a suicide attempt to save a child's parent, and turning up to work, without which I don't get paid. I chose the first, and will do every time, unless I am 100% confident I can link her with someone who can intervene effectively (not always her care team).

So we are being evicted. In our village, there is one 3 bed property available to rent, which is over the LHA. No 2 bed properties. We MIGHT be ok if we took it on, absorbing the shortfall in bedroom tax (or whatever its called) but will depend on both our work increasing. However, since we claim HB, we have been told by Housing Officer that if we "over house" ourselves in this way and run into difficulty, we wouldn't be eligible to any help as would have made ourselves voluntarily homeless. It also will only be a 6 month contract to begin with (they all are) so even if we do this, we might be facing this upheaval again in 6 months time. So really that's out.

We are on the waiting list for social housing, but no idea how long this would take, possibly up to 2 years in B&B. We will also have to face being taken to court in order to get social housing, so this may affect our reputation locally.

I am scared shitless to buy, even with help from the government, because of the multiples in salary it would take.

Any suggestions, please feel free!

dilys I agree with iseenyou however benevolent a landlord you were, the very fact you own a property you don't need to live in pushes the prices of houses up and forces people into renting.

Hoopy
Are there any shared ownership properties that you could buy close to where you live? That way you wouldn't need such a scary mortgage now and could look to purchasing the rest of the property when your income is higher. You would still have security and it would be your home.