Housing - the silent crisis?

[CrisisTime]

The shocking state of housing in this country for anyone who didn't get on the gravy train in earlier decades, that is.

The homelessness. The sheer costs of housing. The tiny rooms and tiny houses. Storage rooms converted to miniscule 'bedrooms'. The dirt and dilapidation of so many rentals. Increasingly greedy landlords and letting agents. A cool house-share like The Young Ones would never exist now. The gentle landlord I once had (a vicar's wife) and her relaxed tenants - is no more. Just the sheer lack of decent affordable housing for so many.

300,000 more people coming to UK every year as well, which makes bad matters even worse, if they could be worse that is.

Is any politician from any party ever going to do anything on this issue? All I ever heard is daft initiatives that are a drop in the ocean.

user1493759849 good grief, you are very vocal for someone who doesn't give a fuck about you or your opinions

Stop thinking that you are a victim of an unfair world because everyone else has been given 50 grands to pay a house (that would be nice). Of course not all tenants are vulnerable, or not more than someone on a mortgage who will lose their home if they suddenly can't afford the payments. Your home is not for life until you own it, that's common sense.

I've rented, never from anyone but private landlords and they were great. I never felt like a victim, it's ridiculous. I don't feel like a slaver when I have tenants either. No one is denying there are bad landlords, but putting everybody in the same bag is just childish at best. Most small landlords charge a rent that just about cover the mortgage repayments, hardly the way to make a fortune.

Most small landlords charge a rent that just about cover the mortgage repayments, hardly the way to make a fortune
Oh come on now we all know that landlords are in it for the capital gains, the Tennant pays the mortgage for you and you get to reap the long term benefits of property ownership

I am going to throw a spanner in the works cos I think it is housing benefit that has led to rents increasing.

Remove the housing benefit and after a period of adjustment hopefully the rents will drop somewhat.

You know most private renters aren't claiming housing benefit don't you?

Also where would those that do live?!

@strikehdonia

It's not a fairer society to give something for nothing, it's not a fairer society to give luxury accommodation to someone who has made different choices, chose a lower paid job. You want to earn minimum wage, or nothing but afford a house? How is that for entitled. Good grief.

WOW, I missed this priceless little gem in your post further up the page, until @53rdway pointed it out.

People CHOOSE low level jobs?

People CHOOSE minimum pay?

People CHOOSE a shit pauper's life?

So they don't deserve a nice place to live?

I've heard it all now.

Where do you suggest they live then pray tell? Under a bridge? In a skip? Coz that's where all the failures in life belong right? Good grief! You are beneath contempt!

Many people aren't dealt a very good hand in life, and haven't had the same opportunities as people like YOU, and they struggle to make ends meet, and feed their families from week to week. Having a super, high-end six-figure salary job is beyond the realms of reality for most people!

And many don't have 'parents who have worked hard so they could inherit something!'

The more I read of your garbage on here, the more I am utterly facepalming. You HAVE to be kidding right? I sincerely hope so. If you actually mean what you say, then you should be utterly ashamed of yourself.

Why does someone need a 6 figure salary and a handout to buy a house? We came from working class backgrounds with lovely but low earning parents. I worked 3 jobs to pay for my degree. Dh worked and studied for years and is now high flying We now both earn well & own a nice home. We were not gifted a thing. It's a cop out and disrespectful to suggest people only do well when "lucky"

As a minimum wage worker in a private rented house some of you landlords on here and your opinions about people like me have made me feel a bit sick.

Agree with previous poster who said all landlords think they are good ones. Very very few are.

Actually a lot of tenants in private housing are on HB. Mine are. They are normally the ones with dC. I look at my tenants in a way that others don't. I want at least one adult working and for that wage to cover my basic costs (I have between 40-60% equity in my rental homes).

I then charge them a market rate rent and if HB give them a hard time I just want to see a copy of the letter and that they have attempted to resolve the issue. No joke, I've had to wait 6 months before for a family to have their HB sorted out. I was very fair and charged them only the absolute minimum which was about £3 more than they were already paying out of their own pockets. I never once tried to kick them out and I called the council on their behalf to ask what the hell they were playing at because most other LLs would have started non payment procedures against them and probably kicked them out by the time I had called the dumb dumbs at the council. It took my tenant contacting their union rep who spoke to someone in the council to sort it.

So yes there are an awful lot of people in private rentals who receive HB. Many more than you think or realize.

I'm not greedy though and don't charge the maximum allowed. I charge a fair rent based on the cost of capital and what is being paid in the market. I'm about 5% lower than the average but picky about who i rent to.

artisanjam does that not beg the question why they started families without securing housing snd money to pay for kids?

Circumstances can change, but I do think there is a massive sense of entitlement towards social housing in the UK. The DM sadface stories about the family with 4 children living in a one bed flat as they have been on the waiting list for 3 years...yet they had another 2 children during this time. Or the families who have to leave London because of the HB cap and how unfair/against human rights this is. I would love to live in London (as many probably would) but it isn't financially possible.

I am a long term renter, we had dc early after marriage and I have to accept that I did not prioritise getting on the property ladder first. My dc have lived in 4 houses so far. My LL has several properties and rents them out below the market value. He fixes things immediately, no issues there. If he told me tomorrow that he was selling up there is no way I could stay in the area and would have to move somewhere much less desirable. That is life surely?

I think social housing needs a reform. The people I know who live in SH are either long term benefits (by choice) families or people who have good jobs but cannot afford to buy in their preferred area. The latter fabricate circumstances to get onto the list and then intend to buy the houses down the line.

Tiger skin, I agree that people end up making decisions which are not great but are entirely logical given the circumstances they're in and in many ways having more children can be an example of that.

However, I don't think people should have to own their own home before having children. As there are many 000s of people who will never do so, this is simply something the country cannot afford (let alone the enormous personal cost) unless we allow pretty much unlimited migration to make up the bottom layer of the societal ponzi scheme. We've seen how popular that one is.

It's a cop out and disrespectful to suggest people only do well when "lucky"

Well you are lucky, that you are both healthy and clever and able to secure good jobs. And yes you made good decisions as well but there is always some aspect of good or bad luck in life.

DH and I are lucky, we have a good income not 'highflying' but we got into the property market before prices went up. In one way that was really lucky but in another some would argue that we made our own luck because we had good jobs in our early 20s and settled down while others were still finding themselves/ travelling etc.

I do agree about the entitlement attitude and I think a lot of people are irresponsible in regards to education and don't try hard enough e.g. Attendance, submitting homework on time etc even if support is in place. They could do a lot better but chose not to.

However, it still is much harder to get on the housing ladder

want tobesupermum
Let's get some stats from shelter
37% of families are privately renting
Of the entire rental market (not just families)
In 10 years 912000 more children are living with the uncertainty and instability of renting.

18% work and claim housing benefit

Barbarian.
I bought a one bed house age 23 for 35k in Hertfordshire
My wages were 11,5k

I don't think the situation young people face now is at all acceptable

Oh and I'm only 45 now so it's not like I'm in my 70,s

If you look at the multiples, they just don't work. Average uk house being close to £300,000 now you'd need to be on £100,000 a year to get the 3 x multiple. What "average" family is on that?

There was a petition recently for mortgage companies to stop looking at multiples and for them to look at what rent you've paid. E.g (I've invented these figures) you've paid £1200 a month for x years, that's the equivalent of a £300,000 mortgage.

A lot of people can't get on the property ladder due to having less than perfect credit files with Experian, Equifax etc, so are pushed into renting. If you have any slight negativity such as a couple of late payments on a credit card, the banks use the information to refuse you a mortgage or offer you one with huge interest rates. Some people hit on hard times at periods of their life such as losing a job, illness etc and might go through a temporary financial crisis, but when back on their feet they are penalised for it for the next six years (that's how long negative info stays on you credit ref files). Seems unfair and I think needs addressing with banks, to try see each situation on its merits.

I have relatives in Europe who rent their homes. All manage to do this on income from work...none require benefits to do so even on lowly paid jobs.

Because they don't have the ridiculous land prices we do. Which affects not just housing but also the commercial sector, since if you want to rent or buy somewhere to conduct business from, that will also be considerably more expensive than it used to be.

You say the issue is that wages haven't kept up with the cost of living. I'd like to flip that, and say the issue is that the cost of living has been allowed to canter away from average wages. And the main reason for that is property prices.

I work NMW job but have s first class degree, low paid jobs are not just for those who didn't attend or do homework, PP!

live that makes perfect sense frustrates me that dd will rent at £800 for the moment, she is in a good job as a newlywed with 2 salaries but we cannot afford to give her a huge deposit, we have to be fair to our other dc

MissShittyBennet your absolutely spot on, my landlord put my rent up 40% last year.
My work havent increased their charges by 40%
Beans havent gone up by 40%
a loaf of bread hasn't gone up by 40%
You don't take your car for an MOT and service and thats gone up by 40%
Clothes don't cost 40% more
Its only property thats really pushing the cost of living up and wages can't keep up as everything else would have to go up for a company to pay that higher wage.

Everyone should be allowed to rent out one property at whatever rent they want.
Two to five properties can be rented out at HA rents
More than five and you need to take people of the housing register.

That would be an excellent start.

I would add:

1. people resident overseas prohibited from buying property in the UK
2. HUGE penalties for people hanging on to empty properties*, leading to compulsory purchase if empty for over 5 years
3. conversion of unused office space to residential (loads of that where I live, especially above shops)
4. big incentives for large employers to move to areas of high unemployment/cheaper housing
5. Any development to include a minimum of 50% of properties for social housing

*this is a real bugbear of mine. DP's last landlord had a huge 2-bed flat that he'd kept empty for over 5 years. He was refused planning permission to convert it into 2 one-beds, and copped the hump. He also had a 3-bed house that he'd built and kept empty for his son to move into at some future date. It's still empty after 10 years.

Many MPs have large property portfolios
Those turkeys won't vote for Christmas