in wondering what this generation of enforced renters are going to do

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

When they reach retirement and can't afford commercial rents on a pension? What happens then?

LL house insurance stipulates 'no benefit tenants'. How bloody demeaning and discriminatory is that!

A high percentage of HB is going to families where at least one member of the family is working, but just not getting paid enough to live! Dreadful state of affairs.

And we still have the media pushing the 'all people on benefit are scroungers' myth ....

Mijas where did you get this figure of 13,000 from?

What about stamp duty, solicitors fees, moving fees, furniture? The list goes on!

It is a very worrying situation. I foresee multi generational living returning in a big way. Retired grandparents living with kids and providing childcare.

The 13,000 is apparently all we need to set up home as long as it's 'out side london' ... Or possibly outside the uk ... not sure. So easy i don't know why everyone isn't doing it.

Fluffy but didn't the benefits change their privacy a few years back? As far as I know they made it so that tenants did not have to reveal their benefit status to Landlords at all.

I suspect legalised euthanisia will be in place soon enough to make sure that we will have the chance to depart this mortal coil before we get so old and frail that we are a burden.

Gilbert I don't agree that people under 50 all used inheritance to help garner deposits. We certainly didn't.

Twenty years ago house prices were manageable. My first house in the SE was about 50k. Prices had fallen after the MIRAS panic. I shared a rental and saved hard.

Cheap house here 350k
10% deposit £35k + fees we'll say 50k to make it easy
3x income mortgage borrowing would give us 90k

Even a flat is 250k.
Where's the shortfall meant to come?!
We pay £1100 a month in rent so can clearly 'afford' the mortgage side.
every minute of every day I stress about everything to do with renting retiring is a big part of it, where the hell As is;
Schools
Don't want to keep changing schools as we have to move house. I just want my ds to go to one school with his friends
pets
Can't have them in case the next land lord won't allow them
decorating
Can't even decorate my sons bedroom as not many land lords allow this. Let alone put up a picture
plants in the garden
Your only ever two months away from moving so those seeds you've lovingly planted with your children you might not see grow.

I have no idea how we will manage retirement, I should imagine we will have to use inheritance to live (pay someone else's mortgage) and leave fuck all to my son.

Damn the seeds thing is true and makes me sad. My children always ask "Can we plant an apple tree?" and I just laugh and say "Oh they take YEARS to grow!" and hope they don't say "So what?"

Interesting what folk are saying about a dystopian future. I think we've lived through a Golden Age (post WW2) which will come to an end soon. Meanwhile we're being sold the lifestyles of the rich & famous. There will be a massive gulf between dreams & reality. I feel sorry for young people.

I don;'t think we've had much of a Golden Age. It's been fraught with war and poverty.

But.... what the fuck is it about inheritances?

I have never had one and never expect to get one. Nor has DH. To be honest, if you live in London/SE expensive bits, then you sell you Effin expensive house and move somewhere cheaper when you retire using the money you saved to live off. Sod the kids, it isn't their money at all!

If you can't buy have a serious thought about moving. I live more than 200 miles from any family, mainly for financial reasons. It isn't hard to do and there are lives worth living all over the country.

I work with someone my age (about 50) who is currently selling her large family house to give money to her kids now so they can buy themselves a house. Then she will buy a small house which she will eventually sell, again giving the money to her kids and rent, so the government can pay for her retirement/care home etc.

AIBU to think that that is utter madness? Where did her life and her achievements go? And don't tell me into her kids... that sort of selfless sacrifice is martyrdom of the daftest sort.

And how wrong is that! That rent costs more than a mortgage! it shuold be the other way round.

How exactly do landlords pay their mortgages on their buy-to-let properties if the rent is 'supposed to be less'??

mrs winnibago
www.blackmoor.co.uk/category/347
Fruit trees for pots yes you'll need somewhere for the pot, but at least you can take it with you.

Nomama - I can kind of see what she means. She'd be better putting her house in trust though, so she can live in it right up until needing care and then it can't be sold for fees. It's what we will do.
Can't really downsize though, so will save a chunk of money for each child so they get a good deposit.

Dh parents put their house in trust over 15 years ago so even though dfil is now in a home and dmil is soon unfortunately to follow the house can't be touched for fees.

This is immoral, why should the tax payer pay for your in-laws care home fees?

A cursory glance through history indicates things don't get worse, they get better.

Yes, we retire later but we also live longer. It'll be fine, I tell ye :)

Do they name? You've somehow comforted me! Have you looked at similar periods in history?

Mijas - we live in a small 1 bed flat with children. Our rent is £1800 a month. If we brought the one bed flat we are in it's valued at £765 000. Meaning 10% deposit of almost £80k.

A one bed flat for £60k is crazy. I don't think there are many around at all only where no employment. Even my parents live 3 hrs from London yet a 2 bed flat is still £150k ish

mijas99 How much is Sky nowadays and a smartphone contract? That would go at least half way to meeting the monthly £200 target for a deposit for a £130k house

Our Sky bill is £45 a month, including line rental & broadband, and our combined smartphone bills are £27 per month. So if we cancelled those, we'd have a wacking £72 per month to put towards a deposit. To save £13,000 for a deposit it would take 15 years. By which time, house prices would have increased further and we still wouldn't be able to afford a deposit.

It's really not quite as simple as saving £200 a month for 5 years and then upping sticks and moving.

Renting is far more common on the Continent - I wonder what they do?

When I was a kid everyone rented and elderly parents lived with their children or old persons home if they were too infirm/couldn't afford to live independently.

No-0ne dreamed of owning your own home - that was for the wealthy!

Why should they not? where currently dfil pension pays most of his anyway, and dmil has some savings.
They've worked all their lives I can't fault them. I don't see it as immoral and will do exactly the same.

My dh is self employed so us upping sticks would mean ten people being made redundant. He'd also struggle to find a job, or start again.

Think about what things were like 100 years ago.

Think about what they were like fifty years ago.

And think about now :)

It's natural to feel fraught and anxious about things but it's all just circular. It isn't quite as simplistic as the "seven years of feast, seven years of famine" mentioned in the Old Testament, but just the same there is a period of prosperity and then a recession, then things pick up again ...

If you look at a broader context though, things do improve and get better. After all, one hundred years ago young men were cannon fodder (sorry to sound flippant, I'm not at all about this, it was dreadful) but now the prospects for young people are certainly different to fifty years ago, but not actually "bad."

I think the main differences are house prices - these surged unexpectedly in the early part of this century - but wages will (slowly) come into line with them. We do have a lot of elderly people, 'tis true, but people are recognising this and making provision for a long retirement.

I promise that when we are doddery old women our children will be moaning and groaning about how easy we had it!

It's better because we fought for it to be better, it didn't accidentally happen. Not to mention the advent of the nhs

Artandco - not all 1 bed flats are £765k in London. My brother has just bought a 2 bed flat a 20 min train ride out of Victoria for £240k. So there are more affordable options than that

You can get a flat for £60k in Lincoln which is less than 3 hours from London. Nice city, safe and low unemployment too