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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think their is no housing crisis.

112 replies

AmazingAmy · 21/05/2015 16:31

Instead their is a geographical jobs crisis, some nothern towns have streets of houses empty. Why because their is no jobs in many northern towns. London and other big towns are the only places of decent employment prospects.

However in London their is a housing crisis due to lack of building.

OP posts:
RooftopCat · 21/05/2015 21:50

Is part of the problem how people live today?
When I left uni and got my first job I lived with a group of flatmates - everyone did. But now at work all the young graduates leave home/uni digs and move straight into a flat of their own (perhaps with one flat mate). Are these people clogging up the smaller housing stock?
Or is it just there's too many people looking for too few properties?

tobysmum77 · 21/05/2015 21:56

I dunno rooftop personally when I left uni dp and I bought our first house almost immediately.... when exactly are you talking about? Confused

tobysmum77 · 21/05/2015 21:59

And it was a 3 bed Shock

OrlandoWoolf · 21/05/2015 22:02

rooftop

Given the cost of renting a house / flat, I'm surprised that people can afford to rent their own place.

Sharing with one person is reasonable.

I was lucky - I worked in the NHS so I was able to live in subsidised NHS accommodation for single people on site for 6 years.

RooftopCat · 21/05/2015 22:06

toby I'm talking 20 years ago but I'm from Australia so maybe that's the difference.
But is the housing problem mostly due to increased population or our different ways of living? Or both? Are there more separated families these days -using two houses rather than one?
I do think the mismatch between job location and housing location is a big problem though.

RooftopCat · 21/05/2015 22:08

orlando. Thegraduatesi'm speaking about are buying not renting. I think they have lots of help from Mum and Dad.

tobysmum77 · 21/05/2015 22:10

I'm talking about 16 years ago....

tobysmum77 · 21/05/2015 22:11

And I think family composition yes is another factor but population growth is also a significant one.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 21/05/2015 22:54

There are more single adult households than there used to be but whether those households are owner occupiers or renters I don't know. With reference to roof the situation in Australia is very different both in cost and space. Friends of ours in the US and Australia in the suburbs of major cities are boggled by the cost of similar housing here.
I bought a house with a £5k deposit 21 years ago on a graduate wage. It was affordable in the south east. To buy the same house today would require at least £25k deposit and two professional salaries.

keepitsimple0 · 22/05/2015 00:12

I believe private rental is fine for many younger people, students etc. but for families, disabled, elderly etc. living with the fact that you could be given 2 months notice to leave at any time must be a nightmare.

private rental is a nightmare, therefore build more social housing.

why not just make private rentals more secure?

Lymmmummy · 22/05/2015 00:15

I get where you are coming from - there is a national issue and a London issue but also local issues for example knowing a little bit about Cornwall having lived there it does have a housing crisis and some housing is out of reach for locals but this is just as much about the fact it doesn't have a major hub city which acts as a provider of decently paid jobs so therefore it has a low wage temporary work type economy combined with a high wage housing market fuelled in certain key destinations by those outside the county - to me this is more of an economic crisis

I agree it's more complicated

But equally we were looking at moving to London commuter land and even with significant equity and earnings of well over £150k we just couldn't really make it work so in this sense our wages are high but in the SE the house prices are well in excess of even high wage earners so to me that is a housing crisis

Lymmmummy · 22/05/2015 00:20

Sorry just to clarify I am not saying it's a housing crisis just because it affects high wage earner just saying when even those on good wages cannot afford to live in key areas it means the housing market is out of kilter with the economy it serves

London is overrated anyway )??

keepitsimple0 · 22/05/2015 00:26

150K isn't pennies... you can certainly get a small place in the city or a bigger one far out.

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 22/05/2015 01:19

Is Sommeren especially sensitive because her own name makes no grammatical sense? Wink

6cats3gingerkittens · 22/05/2015 01:59

Play nicely, children. Think before you type.

Muddymits · 22/05/2015 02:01

Dunno rooftops , 20 yrs ago I left uni and bought a house the next year as did plenty of friends. Ha my dd won't b doing that anytime soon!

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 22/05/2015 02:18

Think before you type is about right, 6cats3gingerkittens. I suspect that's what pp would have liked Sommeren to have done, no?

If people can't take a bit of playful teasing then I suspect they shouldn't be posting in AIBU (/on an internet forum) at all.

Oddly enough I did think before I typed. I even googled to see if it was an unusually-constructed name of a song or poem or something, to explain the grammar. I'm sure you'll be pleased so much thought went into my comments. But thanks for the condescension.

Out2pasture · 22/05/2015 02:32

look the typo doesn't interfere with the jist of the topic.

agreed there are vacancies in certain locations.
none of the options that I can think of seem like feasible options; relocation the unemployable to those area's means they loose friends and family support. renovating an abandoned property is very costly. and moving the units not possible.
creating a diverse economy is hard.

personally I would like to see less reliance on products made elsewhere.

someone over extending on their mortgage should not be a factor in the housing crisis.

6cats3gingerkittens · 22/05/2015 03:46

Hello Smilla, you just happened to post above me do don't take what l said so personally. And some of the comments people make aren't playful teasing but downright nasty and, l suspect, meant to hurt. Anyway, it's well past my bedtime now and l have to check on my post operative cat before l sleep. Nite nite all.

MrsNextDoor · 22/05/2015 06:53

I don't know if it's already been said, but the UK's population is growing at a rate of 40,000 a year. About 60% of that is immigration and the rest is down to babies being born.

That's a colossal amount of people to house. There isn't enough housing.

sandgrown · 22/05/2015 07:14

Where I live there are lots of very cheap houses and businesses. Some of the businesses ars being converted back to houses ,which is great as they have been empty for years , but we still do not have many jobs. My work takes me to places like Burnley where I am saddened to see whole streets of terraced houses being demolished. I cannot believe they could not be renovated quite cheaply. A few years ago they could be bought for under £20,000

tobysmum77 · 22/05/2015 08:12

But this is it Sandy, you can't really get a mortgage for 20k anyway and then would need money to renovate on top. So the reality is the only people who could afford to buy these houses are cash buyers.

MrsNextDoor · 22/05/2015 08:17

Can you really not get a mortgage for 20,000? Why?

tobysmum77 · 22/05/2015 08:35

There is usually a minimum of 30-40k ish it may be possible with some lenders, but definitely it would be difficult.

MrsNextDoor · 22/05/2015 08:40

Why is that tobys? Not enough return? They need to stop that now! People could buy a home!