To worry about where 'Generation Rent' will live when they are retired?

[VestaCurry]

If they never get on the property ladder, what kind of 'retirement' and where do they face? With house prices outstripping wages by a huge margin and 'bank of Mum & Dad' not available to many to help with a deposit, I foresee vast numbers of ageing people living their whole lives in privately rented accommodation. Unless regulations change, they could be given 2 months notice to leave whenever the landlord wishes. At eg age 70 that really is a grim thought.

My dc's are 13 and 11, so considerably younger than Generation Rent, but I cant see how much the situation will have changed by the time they hit their mid-twenties.

I feel a right doom & gloom merchant but I don't think I'm wrong and have seen no evidence of the government or opposition parties trying to understand and/or tackle this issue.

I never understand why people think property prices will crash? It is basic supply & demand so unless there is a plague that wipes out millions of people and/or tens of millions of new houses are built, prices will keep going up.

If it was as simple as supply and demand, you might be right, but you have to add cheap money to the equation. Give people the ability to pay more for houses and prices will go up accordingly, as we have seen. Take it away (for example, by not having historically low interest rates), and things might get... interesting.

This subject has been discussed at length but it's an important and very relevant one and I think you are right to raise it OP?.

We need a house price correction, a bubble surely can't inflate indefinitely?
We also need rent controls, too much of the tax take is going straight into the hands of private landlords.
Affordable housing is a basic necessity and should be achievable in a modern liberal democracy. ?

House prices and rents are not the result of simple supply and demand, that is a very naive view.
The 'invisible hand' of market forces is heavily controlled by government policy

who sold off all the council houses? (and who bought them?)
why were new ones not provide to replace the ones sold off?
why is there the perception/part fact that all the work is in the over-priced, over-crowded south east?

and the usual rent controls thing, because of course being a landlord is a licence to print huge amounts of money. Do let me know how that is done - yes, my rental property is worth having but the net return is about 3% (a bit under real inflation), and it is not going to increase greatly in value.

Quite happy to do a long lease, current tenant prefers six months at a time.

I don't blame landlord's for being pragmatic and looking after their own best interests and I'm sure it's not all plain sailing.
That doesn't alter the fact that housing costs are not affordable and this has a detrimental effect on individuals and society as a whole. ?

I mean landlords!

I'm not in the UK so not really familiar with this but was wondering if low wages were the problem as much as high property prices?

The problem is that the supply is local but the demand is not. More than half the new homes in London last year were bought by foreign investors, many of whom will never actually live in them. London property is seen as a safe place to park your money by all kinds of people around the world. If they are non-resident then they don't pay council tax or income taxes either. It's not likely to happen but it would help if the government would put more restrictions in this area.

LeftRightCentre - That's my plan too.

Mamuzza - You post made me laugh, hollowly, with fear, but it was still a laugh. Thanks for that!

CatKisser Oh, I see. I misread your post. I thought it was saying a more generalised 'everyone should move up north' which I just meant wouldn't work for a lot of people re. finding a job etc etc.

I scares me and I really don't want to be a harbinger of doom, but the current climate suggests to me that we are definitely going back to the workhouses of old, and to asylums. I hope I'm proved wrong. Anyone alone and ill/can't work and who isn't loved or protected by a loving support network/family is doomed. Dignitas should be available now for those not wishing to be a burden and please, for those of us who would hope for some dignity.

No, I probably wasn't clear. I do maintain that there is work here, but obviously there isn't the range you'd get in London.

I'm planning to live in a cardboard box as close as possible to Downing Street, and spend my days haranguing the incumbent of no 10. If it kills me and my rotting corpse bothers them, so much the better.

I'll never own.
I don't think about what will happen when I retire -there's no point worrying about what I can't change.
I'll get by, I always do.

Lots of people will be in the same boat, no government will want mass homelessness so I imagine they will legislate so as to avoid it.

Governments pander to the grey vote, as they all vote and there's more of them. They currently hold most of the wealth collectively, much of which is tied up in housing. Until significant numbers of the elderly die off, I'm afraid all governments will maintain the status quo of keeping house prices high, protecting pensioner benefits, etc. Nothing will change until the majority of the voting demographic are in rented accommodation [cynical].

I'm generally of the opinion that the government really should be doing something to get big business to invest in having stuff in the north. They won't, of course, but I hate the vicious circle I'm in where DH and I basically have to live in the Thames Valley in order to get work in the industries we're in. I'd move to the North East like a shot. Oxford would not see me for dust. But neither of us have any career prospects there which is insane as we're both in jobs which have no need to be in the South. But they are. Why?

I hate hate hate this idea that London is the centre of the bleddy universe. Problem is I can't see how it stops.

ihategeorge - I agree about change in home ownership within the voting demographic.

ihategoerg - i agree, as a southerner it would be much better if everyone didn't want to move here for work. it would put much less pressure on our housing stock and also the environment. i know people need to live somewhere, but i would hate to see all the green belt built over.

having jobs in other areas would seem a very sensible solution

I might be one of these people :(

Lost £50k equity in our property in the crash in 08.

Now can't afford to buy a bigger property and can't live in the one we've got with 2 kids, so we're selling up and moving into rented.

I am totally aware that I will need to be out of rented quickly. I don't see how people cannot be aware that they will have no way of paying their rent when they're not working! State pension will not cover rent as well as bills!

We also don't have a pension. Well, we do. It's worth about £1k a year.

Sucks.

pensioners are eligable for housing benefit, are they not?

Suzanne, they are, but so what? If they rent privately, they could be told to vacate in 2 months. Unfortunately, this may happen to them every few months. Moving home is recognised as a major life stressor, and one which will hit elderly people harder.