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?

revealall

ifyourawizard Re wning your house outright in 6 years because you lived in a caravan.
You may have got the house through hard work but of course you are lucky.
How many people meet someone they are compatible enough to live a frugal life in a caravan with for 6 years plus both of you having good enough jobs to get a mortgage. I struggled to find a boyfriend who wanted even half the same things at me. That's the lucky bit.

Hello :)
Meeting a DH with similar views on future planning to me was the lucky bit. The rest is pure hard work and sacrifice. Marrying someone with the same ideals as you is surely quite normal though?

We are both self employed so no 'good jobs' here (and no reliable income. We only get as much as we work for).

We have no mortgage (never did) just paid as we could (new build) doing as much as we could ourselves.

All I was saying was, in MY circle of acquaintances, I know plenty of people who COULD make these choices and sacrifices, but don't because they want nice things now. Which is fine if that's their choice, but don't then complain and call me a smug fucker when I reach my goal .

Again, I recognise that this is not the case for everyone.

peanut everyone needs to be able to move and even buying gives you that flexibility. Tenants have to be able to also while having more rights, it's not an equal standing a tenant giving notice to move against a landlord taking their home away with a months notice.

What notice period was there on the longer lease?

I just know someone with young children who has been in this situation twice in the past 2 years

Peanut we were in our previous rented house for four years, and would still be there now if I hadn't lost my job at Christmas and had to relocate to find another one. So we are out there, but we're no more immune to the vagaries of the employment market than anyone else.

I'm a renter. Of course I can save bloody 13k but convincing a bank manager to lend me 100k + is the actual issue.

ifyourawizard (great nick!) I liked your story. It's just not possible for loads of people though and this is the tricky thing.

feeling tempted by thought of sleeping in caravan

Peanut, I agree with tobysmum - a long lease is in itself not satisfactory for tenants, unless there is a break clause, otherwise all that it means is that the tenant is responsible for ten years' rent whether they continue to live in the property or not. Do you offer a break clause? If not, I can see why no-one would touch it.

feeling tempted by thought of sleeping in caravan

It's REALLY not that bad! 2 pregnancies on a camp bed were pretty grim, granted, but we've got some very funny stories to tell
We got the land v reasonably then stuck a static on and just saved and did what we could. Realise its not for everyone though.

It must be very difficult to be stuck in the cycle of working to pay a big rent though, when the only houses near work are expensive. I really don't know what the answer to that is.

ifyourawizard I rent a flat in a block of flats and don't have a garden to put a caravan in anyway :) Really like the idea of doing it though! A little caravan to call my own...hmmm....:)

I'd totally have accepted a break clause and happily give 6 months notice.

I don't know why nobody went for it then, Peanut - I'd have bitten your bloody hand off!

Entirely agree about not building on fields.

We have had a huge population hike and we need to feed all these extra people. How can we do that if we build on agricultural land as they do in my county? If fuel prices go up again imported food will go up even more and then we'll be really stuck.

I have let. My daughters let. None of our tenants ever have wanted long tenancies. My daughter's longest - her current tenants - two young doctors wanted 14 months which was fine with us. There are loads of people who know they need to be mobile (obviously families are different - we have never found a family but that's because we are talking about 1 or 2 beds only).

As for what happens when people retire at 70 or whenever state retirement age now is and they rent - well if the nation can afford it those people will be paid housing benefit perhaps in areas of the country which are cheapest. If the nation cannot afford it then people will have to live with their families like in the old days I suppose. Not easy and never has been. My grandfather lived in a house with 26 young men in the 1901 census. My parents put off children for 13 years!! in order to be able to afford to buy their first house. My grandfather put off marriage until he was well over 40 as he could not afford a wife or to buy anywhere until then. I am not sure there has ever been a golden easy time for most normal people in the UK whether to buy or rent.

..not only that,,what about the bedroom tax? Those that are renting and have done raising their kids will be forced to move because they can have an extra bedroom when claiming housing benefit..OMG!

Dh and I work full time to pay the mortgage on a flat that 5 of us live in. As things stand we will be still paying the mortgage off when we are 70!
We need to increase the monthly payments to shorten the term, but with two adult Dcs still living with us we have no spare money for overpayments. Dcs will never have a deposit as we can't afford to help them out.
I don't know how they will ever get on the housing market unless eschew all my feminist principles and hope they hook up with someone richer than we are!

kotaku.com/want-to-live-in-a-large-aluminum-box-in-japan-you-can-471469513
Maybe everyone will end up in these or this
kotaku.com/5986944/japans-coffin-apartments-are-not-for-claustrophobes

If the nation cannot afford it then people will have to live with their families like in the old days

What about when renters who have no family reach retirement? Do they get a state-sponsored one way ticket to Dignitas?

Personally I don't find the idea of renting a problem. However, rents are unaffordably high, as well as insecure for families, and that IS a problem that needs addressing.

Deposits are the problem. Renting and saving up a large enough deposit is a problem for lots of people. 10% is unachievable for a lot of people in a short enough time frame. It might take them 10 years of being in a stable job to do that, after which time; who will give a big enough first time mortgage to someone who is 35+? Because someone of that age won't necessarily want to do the whole 'starter home' thing.

It's just shit. Unless you inherit; you're left floundering a bit while you try and negotiate saving a big enough deposit.

The way generation rent have been treated; it wouldn't overly shock me if they just shrugged their shoulders, continued to rent and then just threw themselves on the state when they could no longer work.

Ah ha! So retired bods who can't afford the rent move into the 3rd bedrooms of those who want to afford bedroom tax - you get a licence to make sure it doesn't affect any other benefits.

Young'uns get a grip and rent until they can afford to buy a starter home, a small family home that may end up being their only home. Then they have kids, even if it takes them until they are 35!

Mind you, when the fuck did 'starter homes' become a real thing? That has to have been a builder's wet dream. Did anyone see The Men Who Made Us Spend last night? A starter home has to be the absolute epitome of built in obsolescence.

And as for the rent and throw yourself on the state... as I said upthread, people who have paid off their mortgage are starting to consider divesting themselves of their apparent wealth so that their kids get an inheritance. All of which I find somewhat immoral, but I can see why they feel they should.

How sad that in a modern, western world we have to choose between saving for a deposit and having children when we want to. Just an observation.

We've chosen to stick with one DC so that we can help him onto the property ladder and give him a boost. We couldn't afford to give that opportunity to a second DC.

It's not so long ago that it was the norm for women to live with their parents until they married and then moved out. I was 23 at the time and my EXDH at 27 still lived with his mother. I have to add here that he'd lost his father so was now the 'man of the house'. All my friends (male and female) were still living with their parents until marriage. My DD lived with us until she married at 24. She worked and paid a contribution to the household. I really don't see why it's now a public expectation that people should leave home and make their own way accommodation-wise at the age of 18 or so.

HappyAgain living with parents is not an option for many. My parents live in a very remote rural area, and if I lived there I wouldn't be able to have the career I am qualified for. Would love to have family close by (free babysitting etc!) but sadly it's not an option for us.

happy that was a big motivator to move closer to London for us; so that DS isn't forced out of home at 18.

Happy because if your parents live in a work-deprived rural area it simply isn't practical. Can you imagine going through school being encouraged to find and follow your abilities and interests - deciding what you want to be, and then realising that there's no point in training for that as it's impossible in the area where your parents live. Even if you don't want to go to university - in the past there were secure trades and jobs for people in those areas that just aren't there any more.

It's going to be an issue for our dds, unless we manage to save enough to move somewhere else, which of course will be more expensive. We live where we are because we couldn't afford to buy anywhere else - did the "move to a cheaper area" that is advocated so often here. But that will now have a knock-on effect on our dds. It has worked for us only because we have the type of work that can be done anywhere, or done remotely, and jobs like that are pretty rare.