The reason young people can't afford to buy houses

[GrabtharsHammer]

Is because they all have iPhones and Sky telly.

So sayeth my mother.

Nothing at all to do with the ridiculous house prices then? They are baby boomers and bought their first house for a few thousand quid on my dads modest salary.

Apparently the youth of today just need to get rid of their gadgets and telly subscriptions and then they will easily afford a deposit and mortgage.

Are everyone's parents this judgemental and out of touch or am I just particularly lucky?

(Fairly lighthearted) AIBU?

You forget user they lived in a hole in the ground and were flogged to sleep and they were grateful !

I will be encouraging my DC to apply for apprenticeships and then to train whilst working (what my Dh did).

Yes, my friends who didn't go to uni are for the most part financially ahead of those of us who did

However none, and I mean NONE! of those career paths are still available for school leavers to walk into.

Almost all of the jobs that friends got straight from school and worked up through now require a lenghty apprentiship (at £3 per hour ) or a foundation degree or BTEC or NVQ. And that's just for the ENTRY level position.
The entry level positions used to be salaried, now they're zero hours or worse, replaced by apprentiships so less than minimum pay.
Once in the entry level positions, they worked up to management. Now many of those routes are closed, management positions that used to be achievable for people after a couple of years on the shop floor are not "graduate fast track programs" - and I'm talking about industries that aren't traditionally graduate routes.

So IMO, uni NOW is probably more important than ever, or at least some sort of vocational qualification route… which nowadays often takes as long as uni.

I would be better off if I hadn't gone to uni and had taken advantage of the abundance of entry level routes that were available to my peers when I left school, but I don't think that translates well to today.

Student loans aren't just £9k a year either - it's more like £18k including maintenance loan.

So that's £54k debt before you have even started working.

That's basically a mortgage to pay off. But simultaneously you won't ever be able to get a mortgage as house prices are so high.

Absolutely bonkers situation.

Pisssssedofff & hyacinth attitudes are starting to change in some industries, because 50% went to uni so now they need something else to differentiate. With what I do experience is key, if you can show you are good and have a previous employer to back you up your golden.

Apprenticeships are great, but I know they can be pretty hard to get and some jobs/employers (unnecessarily) require degrees.

Next summer when my peers are graduating I will have 2 years experience, references, a network, savings, no debt and I have a permanent job. touch wood

I completely disagree as somebody about to complete a masters, no way ate routes closed off, office juniors are being paid double minimum wage because you can't find them. The grads we are interviewing are 3/4 years behind the 19/20 year olds that did an apprenticeship the tide is starting to turn yet again

I wish I hadn't bothered with the masters btw

Oh yeah the unfortunate thing about apprenticeships is they don't have to pay you much and you often do the exact same thing as the regularly staff. Which then means you can't leave home to do it.

I think if you can't be paid more then maybe a maintenance loan to cover rent for the year should be an option, to be paid off over the next 5 or so years?

PissssedOff my friend is applying to do a masters in philosophy, she's hoping to get a job in civil service. Every time I think about it I'm like

TinselTwins You are missing my point that I think the rental rules need to be changed. I agree that right now they are terrible for all involved. As a LL I have very low tenant turnover and I don't hike my rents up. It is their home. I am making enough to pay for itself and pay me for my time spent managing their homes. All of these amateur LLs are a nightmare because they don't know what they are doing and they are financially very close to the edge. IMO if you qualify for housing benefit, owning a home really does not make any sense at all.

A Masters in Philosophy is the academic title. It doesn't mean you've studied philosophy and spent 2 years sitting around wondering if we're all really here.
Alot of my colleagues who have industry related masters have the title MPhil and they don't give a shit about cats in boxes, that's not what they studied, MPhil is a general adacemic title applied to all sorts of masters.

In my industry, the school leaver route that was available 15 years ago doesn't exist. An "entry level" job now requires qualifications or apprenticeship. Many modern apprentiships are bullshit - they've replaced the entry level route. Now instead of getting stuck in on a salary, you gotta do your time on £3 per hour, then at the end hope you can stay on even though it's cheaper to just replace you with a new batch of apprentices.

I have school friends who walked into and worked up through jobs that you can't walk into fresh from school any more. They're doing well, but their route can't be replicated today, not in the same way.

Until the government changes planning laws this will continue. Every building scheme is shouted down by, mainly, older people, nimbys.
See your local press for details, pictures of retired grandparents with placards and prams. Its quite ironic, their children may never own, their grandchildren less so.
The lack of self awareness is tragic.

Don't use! I'm surrounded by NIMBYs

Our local NIMBY associate got plans for another car park near the local shops stopped because "it'll attract youths who are up to no good"

Then.
Same group….
Objected to an under-used building being converted into homes because……"there's not enough parking in the area to support it because shoppers park all along our residential roads and something needs to be done about that first before they build more houses which would just add to the parking problem"

FML!

TinselTwins I shit you not, she went to uni, after a level philosophy, anthropology and german, to do a philosophy degree. And now plans to do a masters in cats in boxes, trees falling, meaning of life etc.

I didn't get kept on after my apprenticeship but the other apprentice did (we did different jobs but same apprenticeship). I know someone else who was let get and then replaced though, it's a really shitty thing to do.

They are in arms on my local FB page because permission has been granted to build 750 homes and a 250 bed care home facility ... I managed not to say most of you miserable buggers mosning will be in it soon you should be delighted !
Whiney on about will the GPs and schools be built to support them - well yes you twats with the extra council tax raised from these home owners !

They realise how lucky they have been, if others are allowed to join the party they will spoil it.
The drawbridge has to be tightly secured up.

That's fair enough then older
(I have one of them to: friend with a psychology masters - all theoretical nothing clinical…..the kinda masters that would only benefit you if you want to be an academic, which she doesn't want to do. not working because she want's to use her "qualifications" LOL)

"too"

DD is 16 and at college. She works Saturdays. One evening per week she sells shoes. She does a couple of jobs relating to her diploma course and will be ready to buy her first place when she is 18.

Taking A levels would not be for her. She only just passed her GCSEs.

LOL Tinsel there's always one. She said before she was going to be a lecturer/professor (I've not idea, teacher a uni) but seems to have gone off it.

Oliversmummy

Doing those jobs isn't going to buy her a house. She's doing teenaged jobs for pocket money - not trying to buy a house.

Comparing her 4 jobs to my 1 is a bit odd - I'm a lawyer. And I'm 29.

Working in a shoe shop one evening a week ain't going to help me buy a house...

Olivers ... Where the hell do you live? The north right?

Olivers must live in the 1980s

This is why we can't have a sensible discussion. Oh good god.

Assuming Olivers DD is on minimum wage she can get a mortgage for £58,000 plus 20% deposit ... That would buy a 2 bed flat in the west mids and a 4 bed house ooop north

Olivers daughter must have a time machine!

She'ld have been okay in 1993 - all you needed to do them was sign on the line

Even with a deposit you need a WEEEE bit more than a couple of years working a mish mash of PT jobs to have the sort of credit history that'll get you a mortgage these days..