To think it's selfish to deliberately plan to rent out the old house when you buy a new

[jdoe8]

I understand why people do it, its dog eat dog out there and people look after number 1 even if it means it screws others.

But how are the next generation going to ever afford to buy if people carry on doing this?

This makes for depressing reading especially the comments - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/26/the-sad-cost-of-renting-never-having-somewhere-to-call-home

I don't believe any generation worked any harder, you just had to be lucky and in the right place at the right time. Its very well to say just rent but renters have such poor rights in the UK it's very undesirable.

The reason the statistics show such an increase in private rentals is quite simple really - in the 80's and 90's more people were in social housing so they didn't need to be in private rentals. The RTB scheme has reduced the number of council houses that are available so those who want to rent / have to rent can only look to private lettings for somewhere to live.
RTB is still happening and the govt keep talking about expanding the scheme to include RTB from all housing associations (which the housing associations don't want). The govt are not bothered about keeping social housing available for those who want to rent a low cost secure home.
I have several siblings, they all rent from private landlords. They have done so their whole lives (starting in the mid 90's). They could have bought when I did as I am the youngest and was lower paid than them all when I bought a house (at a young age, with no financial help from anybody and no partner). The area I bought my first house in is still affordable to most people despite about 50% of the houses being owned by landlords. The house where I live now is not affordable to people on low wages without a substantial deposit but we have hardly any landlords here (there are none at all in my street).

I agree with Six and think RTB is a major issue and extending to HA a very bad idea.
In fact considering the low amount of social housing they should now snap RTB all together. We need much more affordable housing being built.

We escaped the 'renting trap' two years ago. I was very lucky in terms to getting a decent deposit together due to inheritance. Without this, there was no chance we could have bought somewhere as we were not able to save any money due to housing costs in the private sector.
None of my friends or infact anyone my age has been able to buy and they have no plans to even though they want to. It's an impossible dream for most people. We were lucky when we rented our last house and asked for a 3 year let, not for one second thinking we would get it but they actually said yes and 3 years later they gave us another 3 year let giving us the security that families need. Previously we had moved 3 times in the space of two years. One of these places because I was pregnant and the landlord didn't allow children! We had to move out straight away. Thr government needs to tighten up regulations on landlords and rented properties. Giving families security and habitable living. More houses need to be built, especially social housing.
The way the housing market is now. The UK needs to adopt a more European rental system.
The landlords arent the problem as a whole. The system is.

Absolutely agree with flowering re: "life isn't fair". What a sad attitude to have. "I have more and you have less but oh well, suck it up and stop having an iPhone and you can afford the 3 BTL's and house in the country with 3 dogs and a horse that I have".

Whilst I don't view paying rent as paying someone's mortgage, as I need to live somewhere, that is in effect what renters do. My issue is when a mortgage is under £1k a month yet a LL charges £1600-1800 a month, and agents charge through the roof (both for LL's & prospective tenants) and then after a year it's time to move on and do it all again. And as a PP said, god forbid you should want a cat or decide to have a baby. There should be far more protection for renters than there is.

Small landlords aren't the issue so much as vacant properties just kept as speculation.
Re students - our town has a uni and there are no 3 or 4 beds available for families in the area as you can make much more money by turning the living room into a bedroom and letting to 4 or 5 students on individual contracts.

Yes, but to leave properties rather than buy to let. I don't think buy to leave is fair - lots of expensive new builds in central London are bought up by wealthy people from all over the world and just remain empty until they've made however much and then are sold to release capital.

How old are posters who say they can't afford to buy and dont know anyone their age who can?

I assume early twenties Six, or older and living in London.

But outside of London it's very doable.

But even before the buy to let boom most people in their early twenties didn't own a house. I bought at 19 but all my friends thought I was bonkers and didn't even think about trying to buy until a decade later. I'm in the north where property is still affordable in many areas so I don't recognise the lack of affordable housing first hand although I am well aware it exists in other regions.

Most jobs are around London and the south east though.

You cannot buy a house without a job.

8 million people live in London. That is almost the equivalent of the population of Scotland and Wales. They can't all decide to go and live in Middlesborough

Of course many people now living in the south east have travelled from the north west - hundreds of miles - to find work, so the problem isn't that people aren't prepared to travel. The problem is that availability of jobs and housing don't match.

Do people really believe that there are no jobs outside of the south east? I must be imagining all those hospitals, shops, police, social care services, accountants, media, solicitors
There are jobs all over the uk, proportionate to the population of each region.

Re students - our town has a uni and there are no 3 or 4 beds available for families in the area as you can make much more money by turning the living room into a bedroom and letting to 4 or 5 students on individual contracts.

But the students need accommodation as much as the family, so I don't see an issue with this.

There are jobs all over the uk, proportionate to the population of each region.

Yes, but there is not enough industry for the population to increase.

hospitals, shops, police, social care services, accountants, media, solicitors are all secondary services. You can't be a solicitor without clients and you can't be a doctor without patients. You certainly can't run a shop without customers.

I too am appalled that Right to Buy is still going on. Everyone slams Margaret Thatcher for it, but successive governments have failed to call a halt to it. I am particularly, personally cross currently because our friends - parents of 2 children, have been renting the only council accommodation available to them in our area, which is a two bedroomed flat. One set of their parents (grandparents of the the 2 children therefore) bought their 3 bedroomed council house back in the eighties, and the other set of grandparents continues to occupy their four bed council house along with one other grown-up child, (they pay the 'bedroom tax' for the empty bedrooms). So those are two properties that would have been ideal for our friends and their children, but instead, our friends have looked around the country for an area in which they could afford to buy, and have moved 200 miles away. Grrrrr.

merry of course industry can increase according to population. Industries relocate all the time. The bbc came up north and brought a load of staff with them and I best those staff are living the fact that they can now afford to own decent sized houses in Trafford with its excellent schools, rather than a poky flat in London.
Uni of Manchester oso Me of the biggest research centres in Europe - but yeah those research jobs are just menial and unimportant so only suitable for thick northerners.

There is no reason that industries have to remain centred in the south east.

Yes, I agree, many industries can relocate.

However, the BBC moving is just a drop in the ocean - only about 2000 people were relocated.

Without large scale investment and improvements to infrastructure, people will continue to move to the south east to find work.

Uni of Manchester oso Me of the biggest research centres in Europe - but yeah those research jobs are just menial and unimportant so only suitable for thick northerners.

Not sure what you are getting at here. Manchester might be a great university, but there is a limit to the number of people who can work there.

I'm making the point that there is a variety of decent jobs available up north - research jobs being just one of them.

Justalittlemore The European system, at least where I am, is heavily skewed in the landlord's favour. It is not the same system all over the EU.

I'm making the point that there is a variety of decent jobs available up north - research jobs being just one of them.

That is great for people who have good jobs and cheap housing in the north - good for them. I hope they appreciate how lucky they are.

Unfortunately there aren't currently enough good or even average jobs in the north to enable large numbers of people to leave the south east or even to stop people moving south.

Do people really believe that there are no jobs outside of the south east? I must be imagining all those hospitals, shops, police, social care services, accountants, media, solicitors

I wish I was imagining all the cuts which are directly slashing these jobs outside London, and the slow reduction of the economy as a result.

Don't blame individuals. However, the introduction of buy to let mortgages in early 90's and massive increase in mortgages by banks at that time has contributed to very high house prices meaning more of next generation will no longer be able to buy. Not good more of income now goes on housing. Some of course done very well.

Ps renting throughout retirement must be expensive.

Excellent video on why house prices have risen so much since the 90s. If I could afford a deposit to buy a buy to let I probably would, but it is not a fair system and has increased gap between those on low income and others. positivemoney.org/issues/house-prices/

Why do renters trot out the endless 'paying someones mortgage' rubbish ?? get your own bloody mortgage then.... but oh well I can't afford it ..... that's a shame. I don't need a mortgage and will buy my £330K nice house with cash and rent it to someone who can't afford to live in it ..........