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 don't even think it's about passing it on iniially. I think a lot of it comes from appearance. Right to buy came about in a time when visual displays of wealth became more and more prevalent. Nothing signifies success and having made it or come good as owning your own home.i could be wrong but I know that when I was a kid, despite living on a dog rough council estate the few that had bought seemed to develop airs and graces out of know here.

Just keep telling yourself you all flats are £350k and leave me to make a living out of bollocks.

So owning a home isn't just about not wanting to rent and be insecure but also about having something to pass onto offspring then?

Are you deliberately misinterpreting my posts or just skim reading

Because I said it was about the fact that they could see that their children wouldn't be able to have what they had: a SECURE rented home!

The desire to own is really just the desire to have a HOME! as opposed to temporary shelter. If people could have a HOME by renting, they'ld be happy to rent.

The GPs who bought under right to buy were actually very anti right to buy, but what would be the point in being the only one who didn't? that wouldn't change the massive loss of housing stock and would just mean that your individual family was disadvantaged.

olivers

Put some examples of these £150k flats in Catford and I'll believe you.

I'll even pay you a finders fee.

Half of the reason we have a housing crisis in this country, is that everyone who owns a house has heir head in the sand about it.

"Oh well I bought a five bed detached house in 1982 but I worked three jobs - a receptionist at the tennis club, cleaning at the weekends and shifts at a pub three evenings a week. Doctors and lawyers these days are so lazy, that's why they can't afford a house"

six I know it's stupid - people don't have much option though. A studio will still cost you north of £1000 a month so sharing is a better option for most (as then at least you get a living room).

Total nightmare if you have kids.

We bought mainly because it was much cheaper than renting. We didn't really think further than that.

This was in 1995 and it took us a year to save £2k in deposit and the mortgage was £180 pm whereas renting the same house would have been at least £350 pm. Luckily it all worked out OK for us.

Having something to leave to our non existent DCs or appearing 'posh' to anyone didn't even come into it. And I can't see how buying/renting on a council estate, which aren't all rough btw, makes a difference.

The house we live in now is an ex council house on an estate where about half are bought and half are owned. The smart ones are the ones that are still council owned because they all got new roofs, windows/doors, fences, central heating, kitchens and bathrooms a couple of years ago.

Two of the scruffiest houses on our street are both privately owned, ours included, although we are getting there slowly with resurfacing the driveway that was destroyed when we had the extension built.

We bought because we'ld had to move 5 times in as many years.

The last rented flat was the longest, and we got to stay until we CHOSE to give notice (for a change) - which is partly how we managed to save for a deposit.

Before that:

• the place the estate agent didn't tell us was due for demolition - after our 6month contract we were out and the place was flattened, the ceilings were beginning to collapse at that point anyway
• the studio flat, you couldn't close the "bathroom" door or there'ld be no room for your elbows when you were on the loo, noisy prostitute visit noises from downstairs yet he'ld fly into a rage and bang our door down if he could hear our footsteps in the middle of the day, he was very scary. The main door never shut properly, our post often got stolen. I didn't feel safe in the communal hallways, I'ld go from work to DHs work and wait for him to finish before going home. My mental health was in tatters, I moved out after 5 months and lost the last month and my deposit for leaving early even though they popped someone else right in with no gap after me
• the lovely shared house with the nightmare housemate. Wasn't covering her share of the bills and then decided she didn't have enough for rent, and that was the least of my worries as she was batshit crazy. Could have replaced her and stayed but figured a studio flat would be better than another house share.. it wasn't
• the "party house" - was supposed to be a "professional house share" but was more like a student house. It was okay actually, there'ld be strange bodies everywhere in the morning but I wasn't massively unhappy there, paid £400/month for the siting room which was my bedroom which was a "bargain", had to leave when it was sold and the buyer wanted to renovate it. Didn't get my deposit back because of partying housemates.

I'm not a bad tennant, I think I'm a dream tennant actually, if I was a landlord I'ld be happy to have someone like me in, yet I was moving every 6 months to a year..

But hey, it's just my grabby English psyche being obsessed with owning and building my empire

Also, 3 of them were on the market while I was renting them so had people in and out opening my cupboards and wardrobe doors etc for a lot of that time.

people could have a HOME by renting, they'ld be happy to rent.

I don't think that is true for everybody. I grew up in council housing and I could have got a rented flat at 18 because in my area there was lots of empty council flats and houses at that time but I didn't want to live in a council flat no matter how secure the tenancy was. I didn't see the point in paying rent for the rest of my life no matter how secure the tenancy.
My mum was happy to rent when her children were young because she had full housing benefit as a low income single parent but as soon as she was working enough hours to have to pay full rent she thought she might as well buy the damn house and only have to pay the mortgage for a finite period. Renting just doesn't make sense to some people when they can potentially pay less for a mortgage and know that eventually hose payments come to an end. Security is only part of it and for a lot of people there won't be anything to pass on to offspring to give them security because care home fees will swallow up the money.
It's also partly what frikadela said - it's about appearances.

TinselTwins - you sound like you've had very similar experiences to me.

Yes having hoardes of people coming into your bedroom and opening all your cupboards once a year is a bit grim.

Is a council house tenancy the new symbol of having 'made it'? Council tenancies are a lot harder to obtain now and it does seem that there is much more desire to have one than when I was growing up (or maybe it was area specific). It also seems there is jealousy aimed at those with council houses and I don't remember any of that when I grew up. In fact you were more likely to be pitied for living in a council house on the rough estate.

Marking place to read later. Very interesting thread.

I do sometimes wonder if I'm a bit of a mug. My house is ex-local. Across the road is a row of houses that are still HA houses. All of the houses are occupied by people who have stable jobs, apart from one where I don't know the woman's situation. They've all recently had work done on their houses, paid for by the authority. It's work that I can no way afford to have done on my house despite the fact I work 6 days a week most of the time.

Depending on my mood I might feel smug for making it onto the property ladder or I might feel like a mug for being on the property ladder and having very little money left over to keep my property in the same condition as the HA houses.

INeedNewShoes grass is always greener and all that

When DH and I bought our house, the majority of the deposit came from family gifts, not from savings. We wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise.

I thank my lucky stars every day and realise that not everyone is in this position, and I wouldn't judge anyone for not being able to afford a house.

Lifestyle costs amount to very little when you think about the costs of rent, council tax, gas and electric. My phone bill each month is £18, and my Netflix is about £7.50. My gas and electric is about £138 every month.

Also, if we're in such dire straits economically that you have to strip every last piece of enjoyment out of your life in order to scrimp and save for a mortgage, that is the bigger problem.

Ineednewshoes This is why I think someone who can't afford to save for a deposit shouldn't be buying a home. Much better off that they rent and get help through housing benefit if needed.

Tinsel You have had a horrible experience. Any chance you can get a LL who is more stable? I have minimal turnover. I have 15 properties right now and no tenant turnover this year and last year I got a new tenant when I bought a place that I renovated. I never use an agency as they charge too much and I just prefer to talk to the tenant directly myself. I used to advertise on gumtree. Rents are increased based on any additional costs I have, such as a mortgage on one place increase so I passed on that increase to the tenant, explaining this to them 4 months ahead of their lease renewal.

There are plenty of LLs like me. Not all of us are here to be greedy. I take pride in running my business and my viewpoint is that I am selling tenants a home. The best tenant stays. When they leave I always want to know why because its a sign I might be doing something wrong.

Older - I do know that but you still can't help but wish the workmen would just hop over the road and do my house while they're at it!

My financial situation is going to change drastically in the Spring. I will be a single mum and even though my basic outgoings will be more than my incoming maternity pay I won't be eligible for any help with my housing costs. I'll have to start work again when the baby is around 5 months as I'll have run out of overdraft to add to maternity payments to pay my mortgage and basic bills at that point. If I didn't have a mortgage and was able to claim housing benefit I would be better off and able to have longer off work. Its just one of those things.

It will be full soon unless someone starts a Part 2. Yes, it's been very interesting and people have been pretty good despite I am sure some of us with either a different age/life stage or income listening to each other.

If it's any comfort INeed I had fewer rights than you (years ago), went back with just a 2 week break off and although it might seem hard it was beneficial as it preserved my career and the baby gets used to its childcare sooner which can be better for the baby rather than having a wrench later - so there are definitely some advantages to returning to work full time when babies are very little. No one ever write that, however, as it's not PC .

Its not limited to young people, I'm in my 30s, and haven't even got the spare cash to save for a deposit, I'm hoping for a large lottery win (if I could afford to play regularly) in order to buy. Houses in my area are £280k for a decent 3 bed.

Those who feel green eyed at HA homes being upgraded, don't forget those residents have been busy paying for it in their rent. Those residents do not benefit from that added value like you may do owning the home.

Hahahahaha! Who are these people suggesting their DC can buy at 18 with a summer job before going to university? I take it you aren't aware that mortgage lending rules and affordability testing were tightened a couple of years ago - you won't get anyone lending an 18-year-old anything on 4 wage slips and a promise. You need a lot more than that these days; the boom days of putting in a couple of wage slips are gone.

Anyone else noticed that the upper end of the market - prime London - has collapsed since the summer? I have a couple of areas I follow and was shocked to see £5m properties collapsing to half the price within a few months. It could be the beginning of the end for the current overinflated market. Irony is, all those boomer Brexiters who are deluded about the cost of housing today might just have popped the housing bubble by voting leave...

With the change in lending rules, we can't remortgage our house, which we've been paying mortgage off for nearly 10 years - we have exactly the same income and it's now worth £100k more. We no longer qualify as risk worthy buyers. Although we did ten years ago, when it cost £100k less.

I'm not trying to borrow £100k more. We have more equity. Same income. But nobody will now lend to us what they lent 10 years ago, even though we've paid some off.

User...same here!
Dh now earns £20k more a year and I'm working pt too
House has got £90k equity
Never missed a payment
Excellent credit rating
Refused
Irony is When we applied for the mortgage in 2011 we didn't borrow as much as we could have!
Madness