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?

(We have considered all of our options btw & unfortunately now do not qualify for many schemes as we earn just over max earnings barriers. help 2 buy still open to us but actual costs of homes where we live is prohibitive)

BTL have not caused the current house price inflation.

DH and I have a BTL flat, it is our pension. We don't trust pensions, history has shown us what can happen to the financial markets. We have put whatever money we were able to save in that property.

The estate agents, unfortunately, are a greedy bunch. Every time it comes to renewal they "suggest" we raise the rent, we on the other hand are not greedy so we have not agreed and have kept the rent exactly the same for the past 4 years. Despite insurance going up.

DH and I have also agreed that we will not sell the property while it's home to our current tenant. It's her home, we wouldn't do that to her. For us this property is not about milking the system, but about saving our money, long term, in what we consider a safe option. I think the government should put strict rules in place for the rental market, tenants should be able to plan their lives properly and feel secure.

I arrive in England in 1999, I was amazed at the number of DIY TV programs, so many home renovation programs which didn't focused on how to improve a home but how to make the most money out of it. Selling your own home and buying the next one suddenly seemed to become a business. It was easy to get a mortgage, it was easy for the greedy estate agents to ask for astronomic amounts because mortgages were easy to come by, people were treating their home not as home but as a money making commodity. That is what has inflated house prices so much here.

I do think though it's helpful to provide practical guidance rather than just indulge in a woe is me fest which makes everyone miserable and helps no one buy a property. I was trying to give practical advice. The thread shows those of us who have bought and our experiences and people buying now. I think it's a very useful thread.

I don't think 5x to my daughter and her husband was dodgy (and i t was completed just before the rules changed). If you are in a profession where you start on £60k and potentially could earn £1m+ 5x multiple is not a bad risk for a bank to take particularly when you have two similar types of incomes and jobs as they have and no children or childcare costs yet.

Anyway good luck to those seeking to buy and do consider the less desirable areas just to get started. Taking risks and enduring difficult conditions can sometimes be worthwhile.

I'd give my right arm for a landlady like you Timetoask.

All our landlords in the past 4 years have said yes long term, after initial 6 months, it's our pension yudda yudda, until they've seen a potential threat to the market bottoming out, done a few sums as to what they could do with the extra cash, and have sold up.

YY to letting agents milking it too. i know many who have advised landlords to evict at end of short-term let and re-let at current market value. Daylight robbery.

You can certainly get flats in zone 5 which don't cost too much. 1 bed £129k Wembley www.rightmove.co.uk/ property-for-sale/property-29174868.html

Where's she supposed to put her kids?

This is kind of the point I was making earlier. That lots of private landlords, with one BTL, are ordinary people who cannot afford to pay estate agent management fees and so manage the property themselves. You get to know your tenants. You get to see they are good tenants who care about where they live, you know their circumstances, you want to treat them right. You don't want to make it harder for them to live by putting up prices just because you can! In return they don't moan on about every tiny thing and are reasonable about timeframes to get stuff sorted that is out of everyone's control.

Yes, every BTL is a home that COULD have been bought by a new homeowner. More likely though, it would be bought up by a portfolio property buyer, who hides behind an estate agency lettings service. We rented again last year to suss out the new area we wanted to move to and the landlord (multiple property owner) used the lettings agent management service. They were awful, letting broken things just continue broken, never returning calls etc etc. I would be mortified to let my tenants down like that. I really wanted to speak to the landlord direct as he was probably a reasonable person, but they blocked it.

It's got to be better for someone to have a buy to let and live in a small property than live in a big property without letting. There should be controls on rents though and better rental terms.

If you are in a profession where you start on £60k and potentially could earn £1m+

.......then you are very lucky to have children with that kind of potential Maria and you should thank your lucky stars and try and show some empathy towards those less fortunate, ie the very vast majority of the population, rather than being so patronising and condescending.

Im really surprised you can get 1 beds as cheap as 129k in London. Its too late for older people, but for younger couples they can get on market and move up.

The thing is life is not all about money. And some of the views on here suggest that to buy a house you have to be prepared to work all the hours God sends to keep it.

We have been told that we could get a mortgage but the repayments would be too much for us each month. So we continue to save for a bigger deposit.

My DH and I both work, him as a lorry driver and factory worker, me as a language lecturer. Local jobs, expensive area.

I hope that house prices do crash, it might mean people like us have a chance of buying.

buy a raffle ticket to win a house !?!

I've just typed my hypothetical earnings for when I qualify. My bank will lend me 1.16 x my earnings if I have a minimum 5% deposit. I've found a 1 bed flat for 35k relatively close by to where we are now so would only have to raise a 11k deposit. As we still have to pay out rent in the meantime Dh and I think we can save 150 per month. Perhaps 200 if Dh I cut back on our food intake quite a bit. So we'd have the deposit in 5 years. Sounds good, only the flat will not still be 35k in 7 years time (qualifying + saving). It is also a flat with an incredibly leaky roof causing a massive damp patch, windows so shonky it feels like a gale is blowing through making it really expensive to heat, the kitchen is too small to house a fridge freezer do it would need to be in the small living room,we wouldn't be able to have a washing machine do laundry would become expensive and time consuming travelling to the neighbouring town for a laundrette. The bedroom is a fraction bigger than a double bed. Would certainly be a tight squeeze if we are expected to move dds' partners in in future too. In addition in this street in the past 2 years there have been 2 fire bombings, 6 assaults, one sword fight, an armed seize, a few drugs raids, innumerable counts of vandalism.

Of course it's so entitled of me want somewhere wind, watertight and safe. Saying I'll never be able to buy isn't woe is me, it's realism. My energy is better spent on surviving rather than trying to buy a property I'll never own.

so how does the "ladder" work with your zone five tiny hard to sell 1 bed? its 129k now. you buy it on 95% mortgage...
you buy it and in five years time your equity is going to be what? 20k? 30k that wont get you very far up any ladder .... and oh no one wants to buy it because it is still a tiny one bed hard to sell property so you stuck.

Jasmine, that was all I was trying to show. The first house we bought 30 years ago in outer London today costs £275k. Now that's quite a stretch, but is still doable for two young professionals without children which we were 30 years ago.

I realise or below average earners in most stages of British history have never been and never will be able to buy somewhere even with two full time salaries. However some can and if you choose areas carefully it's not impossible. I was trying to give hope. I'm a solutions person where I can be.

I certainly think for the young before children come buy whatever it takes as soon as you can. The slogan needs to be "jam tomorrow" and I am not sure all he young these days are prepared to endure what it takes, what those of us who are older endured to get to where we got. You might not be able to afford the £275k freehold house in outer London but you might be able to buy the £60k Portsmouth 2 bed flat I pointed to or start out in the £100k outer London one bed flat etc.

We bought one bed and then paid a lot off by working quite a biy, then bought 2 bed flat for around that price then paid off a massive chunk of that on very low wages and we were even doing that when the rates were loads higher. Once your on your poor all your extra earnings in to your place to get the mortgage down quick.

Christ Maria, you really have no clue about the vast majority of the UK if you're banging on about your daughter and husband buying a house when their earning potential is £1 million pounds a year!!

*you pour haha freudian slip there. Its shit at start but few years in you can chill out a bit

I don't see what's to stop people of my generation just renting until they hit retirement/long term sickness and then just throwing themselves on the mercy of the state and getting (admittedly small) social housing. Obviously some people will get b&b accommodation; but plenty won't, especially if they're ill.

Surely by ignoring the issue; the government is storing up problems for the future?!

For my part, we will probably do a BTL in a few years and another a few years after that. Am I contributing to the problem? Probably. But whilst there is this need for massive, massive deposits; I cannot see a way around it. People who rent for years with no problems should have this taken into consideration. You should be able to use a good rental history in lieu of a deposit.

Seriously maria - for all your 'I'm a solutions person' you are not actually providing any sound advice- in fact you've proved exactly how idiotic your stance is.

You've said your first house is now worth £275k, even with your 3x salary mortgage that you insist on, a professional couple need to be earning £80k between them to afford it plus a £35k deposit.

I'm really not sure if you are naive or stupid to think that is achievable for most people.

And the fucking flat in Portsmouth wasn't £60k- that was a shared ownership property

Channel 4 'How to get a council house' putting everything into perspective..........all about homelessness

I've never understood this whole concept of a housing ladder. Surely if the house you currently own goes up in value, that means that the next house you want to buy will also have gone up in value, only percentage wise, it will be a higher increase in the one you want to buy, as it was more expensive to start with. How would I therefore afford to buy a bigger house?

You are paying off your mortgage all the time. On top of that you can overpay every month. Also if you start small its often much cheaper than renting, and even if you have a few kids then the family is fine in a 2 bed and then you move up.

What does "jam tomorrow" mean?