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?

I dont really understand why people think that gaving a mortgage is more secure though. If you loose your job you cant get housing benefit which means that you loose your house.
If you loose your job while renting you can get benefits.

I think it is the attitude towards renters that needs to change. My well meaning MIL asked me if i have my own house. When i replied that no as i wanted to remain in my nice town and with dd af her good school rather than move to the local rough atea i was told that this was 'dangerous. ' er ok right then!

Sorry typos!

Apparently i am odd for not scrimping for 19 years in order to buy a shoe box. Life is too short.

malificent7 I totally agree that attitudes towards renting need to change. It is very understandable to me why you would rent. If it is going to take you 19 years to save to buy then it really does not make sense for you to buy your home. Also, if you want your DC to attend a specific school you can move so you are in catchment for the primary of choice and then move again for secondary. A lot of people in our area rent in the burbs during the high school years. It is a total of 4 years if you have one child so not worth going through the hassle of purchasing when you can rent a 2bed apartment for $2500 a month.

Having a mortgage adds stress to your life. If you are already stressed financially it is not worth adding to that stress with coordinating home maintenance (which I do sometimes find stressful).

Having a mortgage at 18 for me means I now have choices. Do I want to stay in the UK or move to Barbados.
Do I want to rent my house out and go back packing around the world.
Or do I want to start a new business on the other side of the world and wake up to the sight and sound of the ocean lapping on to the shores.

And for the record it took dp and me a year to save enough money for the deposit on a flat most would turn their nose up at. Yes it was tiny and yes the loo shower glass and tray and wash basin and taps were painted in black gloss but it was a start.

I still think that making studio flats unmortgagable is the problem. It is taking away that first rung that made it extra difficult.

And no the sums are fine. She has a very healthy bank balance and it is added to every month. By the time she is 18 if she does find it difficult to get a mortgage she may by then have enough for a small place in a different area that doesn't require a mortgage. She will then rent it out and start saving again for her next place.

Sorry but I think we are right to focus on home ownership, people should try to achieve this is they can and this is why something needs to be done about soaring house prices in relation to salaries.

I am glad I have a mortgage because in 20 years time, all being well, we will own our home. I will not be having the think about paying my mortgage from my pension when I retire, and I could retire earlier if I want to, and use my money to do home improvements, help my children out with their life expenses and take a holiday instead of paying rent. We have also had the freedom to rent our house out and move abroad for a year - we still have a home that we can afford in the city we want to live in when we come back soon; we don't have to try and find an affordable, appropriate sized rental in a place we want to live.

yes waiting, the question of how private renters will pay the rent when they retire is an interesting one. Some will have inherited just in time for retirement i suppose, but by no means all.

Of course it's not a new issue - but longevity and increasing numbers will mean the housing benefit bill will increase quite substantially. On a macro level, if people can't accumulate assets (a house) when they're working, they have to be supported one way or another in retirement.

Absolutely Ciutadella. In a society where living costs are also going up, I would worry if I was trying to pay rent out of pension or retirement savings, as well as cope with the cost of living and possibly supporting children.

My dad is a case in point here; he and my DM split up a long time ago - my mum got a mortgage on a 15 year term and worked her socks off and has just paid it. She retires next year and now has no worries about housing costs. My DF moved abroad and rented - he is now in his late 60s, in poor health and renting . I do not know how he will afford the cost of his rent and living when he has to stop working in the next couple of years. I wish he had got a mortgage too, it might be a slog to pay it but I think it is worth it in the long run.

*actually quite shocked that banks will give an 18 year old a mortgage. I didn't have a clue at 18 hence blowing my student loan on crap.^

Why shouldn't they?
I was 18 when I applied for my first mortgage but I did use a broker due to having no real credit history. My application was successful. I was actually 19 by the time the house purchase went through because it was a six month drawn out saga with the vendor. I never missed a single mortgage payment. I had been saving hard for 18 months, working a full time job and a part time job. I saved enough for a 10% deposit, legal fees and survey costs prior to applying for a mortgage and then in the six months it took for the purchase to go through I saved enough to buy the basic furniture required and a spare £1000 which i was able to spend on an ex display clearance kitchen (back in 2000). I fitted the kitchen myself because I couldnt afford a tradesman but it actually looked quite good, much better than what was there when I bought the house.
Not all 18 year olds are clueless about money and responsibilities.

People renting in this country after retirement will get housing benefit of they don't have sufficient pension income to cover their rent. For those pensioners entitled to full housing benefit they are probably better off renting as they don't have to worry about property maintenance costs.

Six has a point.

My brother, despite earning 3x what I do, has always rented, never saved a penny, didn't start paying into a pension until it became mandatory recently.

I started paying into a pension as soon as I started working, scrimped and saved to buy my first flat, yet when we retire I will likely be no better off because the state will just give more support to those who have made no provision for retirement.

It's all well and good saying it's best to buy at 18 but that's not an option for most people, not anymore.

At 18 I couldn't raise the £20-£40k (10-20%) deposit needed to stay living (in a house with rooms to rent out) in the shitty, zone 5, cheapest bit of London, currently I think I could do it in just over 3 years (probably 4 if you count on prices rising at the current rate) if I were still living there and my parents let me live rent free.

Unfortunately I don't, I also don't have the luxury of being born 15-20 years earlier, or parents who have saved a deposit for me - in fact my "D"M said that I "shouldn't be getting rich living with them for free", so she starting taking the majority of what I was saving.

Also by time I'm of "retirement age" I doubt there will be a state pension and god knows what benefits will look like.

L.P. Hartley — 'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.'

Oh my goodness. If buying a house was as simple as saving for a year then buying a flat where you don't like the gloss paint in the bathroom then everyone would have one!

1. Housing benefit/universal credit may not still be around by the time people are 70 and entitled to state pension. It may be but may be not. Don't bank on it.

1. However in the old days your family looked after you and in fact most of us would (it's called love) so even if there are no state benefits in 30 years people could still live with family in old age. Plenty of people do it around where I live - it's culturally the thing to do - new daughter in law moves in with Indian husband and his parents and cares for them in old age and children get to live with grandparents.

1. For those who might get a reasonable job with career progression it remains sensible to buy a property and if your pay will rise quite a bit over time as it tends to do in professions rather than say if you work in a shop then property purchase is certainly sensible.

1. However lots of other EU states have people happy just to rent and indeed live in flat - see Paris etc. The English psyche has traditionally liked to own if we can and to have our space away from other people rather than being cooped up next to others but as people say your studio flat you own might be more cramped and near others than the 3 bed rented place.

1. It depends on your income level. If you have and always will have a low income renting from the council is probably best choice, next best social housing, next best a private landlord (or put that higher on the list if you find agood one) - in fact renting, squatting or living with family is probably your only choices. If you earn in the middle range I still think it gives a lot of security to buy. I recommend it to my children.

I live in zone 5 London and it's perfectly nice and a lot cheaper than inner London.

and good saying it's best to buy at 18 but that's not an option for most people, not anymore

I'm not saying that people should buy at 18. I was just saying that there is no reason people shouldn't be able to get a mortgage at 18 if they have a steady income and a deposit. Some 18 year olds are responsible enough to manage a mortgage. Some 18 year olds aren't responsible but then neither are some 40 year olds.

'However in the old days your family looked after you and in fact most of us would (it's called love) so even if there are no state benefits in 30 years people could still live with family in old age. Plenty of people do it around where I live - it's culturally the thing to do - new daughter in law moves in with Indian husband and his parents and cares for them in old age and children get to live with grandparents. '

Wow! And you claim not to be a sexist. I guess that's only when it suits your right-wing agenda. Woman as live-in carer, let's assume she does it for love. Bugger educating women, marry them off to be live-in carers for their PILs.

In 'the old days' only a tiny percentage of people lived 30+ economically inactive developing increasingly complex health problems.

Maxwell we worked for a year doing shift work 3 nights per week at the week end as well as holding down full time day jobs + other evening jobs. This wasn't about waitressing a few nights per week.

I have know FTBs turn down a garden flat in a very posh area of zone 3 within walking distance of shops and transport for £125000 for less reason than having to replace a shower room.

The second jobs point has already been addressed rather eloquently. Actually being able to take that path is evidence as much of good fortune as it is of hard work.

I don't understand the equation 'I worked really hard so there mustn't be an issue and young people are just lazy'
I understand you worked hard, I know your house wasn't given to you on a plate but that doesn't mean that it's as simple as work hard = get house now.
Yeah those first time buyers might not want a house where they have to do up the bathroom but that doesn't mean that all first time buyers are choosy, I bet my bottom dollar that house was snapped up very quickly after those buyers decided not to take it.

"I have know FTBs turn down a garden flat in a very posh area of zone 3 within walking distance of shops and transport for £125000 for less reason than having to replace a shower room."

I'm really sorry Olivers, but you are either trolling, or are looking at prices from 10+ years ago.

You could not buy a flat for £125k in London zone 3, nor could a 18 year old build up sufficient deposit to buy in this city without significant family help.

Help to buy on the cheapest one bedroom flats, start at about £450k. Even only paying for 60% of this (gov. Pays other 40%). Even on £59k salary this is a serious stretch and will cost you £1,600 a month in mortgage and bills.

Search in zone 3 for under £125k:

• garages
• parking spaces
• house boats
• studios up for auction
• one bedroom retirement flats for over 65s only

Where exactly are you finding all these garden flats in posh areas Olivers?

Yes it was. By me who changed the kitchen and bathroom put down new flooring and painted then put up for sale. 3 FTBs said they wanted to buy it then each dropped out at the last minute. 9 months of messing around. Eventually a BTLetter bought it for more money than it had originally been first put up for sale for in a few weeks.

Can FTBs really afford to be choosy.

I think FTB are more nervous than they used to be, and for good reason.

If they've had to save for years and years to be in the position to buy their first property the fear of getting it wrong must be dreadful.

Olivers what year was this in?

I've never seen something remotely that cheap in five years.

Do you think everyone can do some shifts at the weekend and then buy a one bed flat for £125 k in zone 3?

A studio can easily start at £350 - I don't know what planet you are living on!

Not trolling just not buying into this "oh there's nothing in London for under £500000" stuff that is pedalled around.

You just have to look and be flexible on location but you can find places. They might not be perfect and they might have shit smeared on the walls or have black gloss painted toilets or have yellow nicotine stained windows and walls but there are places out there. You just can't afford to be choosy.

I was the 4th viewer after 3 Ftbs had turned it down.