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?

Isn't the theory that HS2 would make Birmingham a more attractive place for businesses - or is that wishful thinking?

I think moving to London for employment opportunities, away from your family and support network, is very different if you're on say £35,000 per year (which incidentally puts you in the top 25% of earners in the country) than if you're on NMW or the more typical median salary of £21,000 (the oft-quoted average of £26,000 is misleading because it is artificially inflated by the big earners in the City).

The desirable expensive bits of Chelsea contain very big houses. It's 10 years since I worked there, but the not desirable bits near North Kensington, Hammersmith and Fulham and Earl's Court just weren't very desirable. If prices have gone up around there it is because of general house price inflation, not because North End Road market is suddenly posh.

I don't have a problem with somebody wanting to live near North End Road market. I would have a problem with them getting arsey about the other residents not being suitably rich.

And if North End Road market has got posh, I would still have a problem with people getting arsey about living next to a cleaner.

Nobody on this thread has said they don't want to live next door to a cleaner, so that is perhaps a little unfair.

However, the fact that a cleaner's wage does not cover private accommodation costs in London without benefits is because of mad house price inflation, not because people on benefits are unjustly occupying desirable homes at the expense of the tax payer.

There are many areas of outer London that are far more desirable than a grotty flat near Olympia (e.g. Chiswick, Richmond, Putney, Barnes, Teddington). However people seem to get terribly affronted about social housing or unemployed people living in central London. They have to live somewhere.

It would help the housing crisis in London if things went back in time a bit - pubs shut at 11, no drop kerbs for buggies, an unpredictable bus system, filth and dirt and very few litter bins, fully leaded petrol churning out of thousands of vehicles. Few road crossings and minimal traffic calming combined with heavily built cars resulting in almost certain death in a traffic accident. Dodgy parks with no signage, no mobiles to call for help, no joggers or cyclists to keep an eye on things. Bad plumbing and rattly windows.

That would help! We'd all be rushing off to escape to the country.

And no George Clooney - the moment Mr California comes to London we know it's all over.

Ch, I don't agree that my children's generation has it worse than mine. We have all had difficult times and we should across the generations support each other not say - look at those older folk don't know they are born. The average pension is tiny and for those a bit younger./ my age we did not have an easy ride. Plenty of us had negative equity, lost money on property in the 90s crash, had no maternity rights at all - I never had any just about etc etc. We paid 8 -12% interest rate and the rest. In the last 30 years yes there have been some periods easier than others but when I graduated most of that generation didn't get jobs. The nation was in crisis. A whole generation of graduates (the 15% only who graduated) found it hard to get any jobs at all. It was very tough.

I think it's swings and roundabouts. If you live a long life you live through peaks and troughs. My parent's and IL's generation lived through WWII and rationing. They benefited from being the last generation who will get final salary pension schemes.

Even if there is a golden generation who by fluke have managed to hit each milepost at exactly the right time, it is far fetched to say this was more by judgement than by luck.

I agree, what matters is how to address today's problems.

Many people born in the 80's benefited from the prosperity of their parents in the late 90's early 2000's and people born in the 50s, 60's and 70's have children and grandchildren. I think wealth is far more divisive than generation.

Steady on Chunders!

Iseenyou you have come back to the point I made earlier on which I was accused of being a misogynist traitor of the sisterhood. The lending was not available in the past and generally based on one mortgage. Women being able to WOH with a proper salary (rather than a cash job) began the process. Removal of rent controls, the sale of council homes, deregulation of the banks, low interest rates have increased prices, but values remain the same - the value of a property is dependent on the availability of money. Demand is an issue in London and some areas but building loads of new homes in some ecotown in the middle of nowhere is not going to reduce that. When the easy money stops prices will come down and I hope that time is coming soon.

As a few others have said above every life lived lives over some terribly hard economic times. What we all agree on is seeking to find a solution to the difficulties people face today and that includes people my age who are divorced and having to get mortgages in their 40s and 50s of course (half of the married women on this thread will divorce).

It also includes today's pensions - average pension including state pension for many women is about £7k or something ridiculously small as they had low paid jobs or relied on men earning the pension who then did not stick around etc. It includes new graduates with £40k of debt at the new £9k a year fees who have it harder perhaps than the older graduates born a bit earlier in the "generation rent".

Let us take that first small terraced house in zone 5 which 30 years ago we two young professionals bought which today costs about £275k. It was a bit like this one www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42354784.html I am not sure when we bought 30 years ago people on normal wages could buy it. It was £40k. Our wages were both £7500 a year. You could borrow about 3x joint earnings in those days. 3x 2 x £40k the equivalent young professional wage today almost covers it - £240k. So yes it is a bit harder for that same couple to buy it but if you factor in interest rates in the past of 8 - 12% I still don't think the people today paying 3.2% or whatever on the loan do find it harder.

My own solutions would be stop supporting low wages - huge gift to big business - by giving benefits to those in work; stop interfering in the interest rate market and let that find its own level; build more properties in London - more conversions of commercial property, more of the type of 2/3 bed houses and flats people want further into the centre.

To those saying that we should become accustomed to being a nation of renters as much as owners, what happens when you retire? Given that however hard you save your pension will not be the same as your income when working? (And you won't be able to save much because you will be struggling to pay your mortgage/rent)

Cheapest rental property I found locally is this one at £575 pm, which is a 1 bed first floor flat with no allocated parking. Probably wouldn't be my ideal retirement choice, and not easy to have any grandkids to stay.

Jessica - your assumption that £40k is a young professional wage is way off the mark, and in no way equivalent to a £7500 wage 30 years ago.

Based on average UK wage inflation, £7500 in 1984 is equivalent to £20,439 in 2014 - which does not get you anywhere near the ability to buy a £275k home.

£40k is far above average UK wages - £80k for a couple puts you in the top 10% of earners.