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Original poster

Housing - the silent crisis?

380 replies

CrisisTime · 11/05/2017 20:11

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.

OP posts:
Instasista · 12/05/2017 12:03

Because people are mortgaged against the 10% more value, so would struggle with remortgage as well as sale.

Instasista · 12/05/2017 12:03

Sorry that was to beautifulsquid

StinkPickle · 12/05/2017 12:04

I agree with you OP. But it's not politically correct to suggest curbing immigration so nobody will voice the obvious solution. We need less people.

Stormtreader · 12/05/2017 12:07

How much would you be prepared to lose of the value of your house, in order to alleviate the housing crisis ? 10% ? 20% ?

Really doesnt matter if youre using that money for housing - your selling price drops but so does the price of the house you are buying. In fact if everything dropped 20%, the new more expensive house is actually now slightly cheaper than it would have been.
The people who would lose are the people using houses as a way of storing money - the BTLers.

LurkingHusband · 12/05/2017 12:07

It seems we have managed to institutionalise the housing crisis ... can't build more houses because the values of existing houses will fall and people will go into negative equity.

If that's the case, the problem can't be solved under the current system.

Unless there are any proposals to change that system (looks around at policies - no there aren't) we'll have to get used to it. Or rather we will have to carry on getting used to it.

53rdWay · 12/05/2017 12:08

It was briefly easier for young singhle people to rent when banks would happily hand out 100% and over mortgages, although I don't think we should bring that back!

Looking at when my parents were that age, in the 70s - they couldn't have afforded to buy when young and single. They did buy somewhere when they got married in their early 20s, though, and were able to pay the mortgage on one wage. No way would most early-20s couples in that area be able to afford that now - houses that size have gone from the £9k my parents paid to £200k+ today.

BarbarianMum · 12/05/2017 12:09

No offense crazy but not being able to afford your own home (other than a room) or a mortgage age 20 is perfectly normal and acceptable.

MyBeautifulSquid · 12/05/2017 12:11

BTW If anyone reading this is stuck in shitty private renting or waiting for a council house....its worth knowing that Labour are planning to build 500k more council homes (if they get in) plus another 500k affordable houses to buy

-VOTE LABOUR-- Blush

crazycatgal · 12/05/2017 12:11

Barbarian I was actually replying to a PP who was on about people moving to areas where people aged 18-20 are able to buy houses...

user1491572121 · 12/05/2017 12:12

It was the main reason DH and I left the UK for Australia. The sheer stress of being renters was just too much.

We rent here in Oz but the choice and standard is MUCH higher.

BarbarianMum · 12/05/2017 12:13

Sorry crazy my bad.

olderthanyouthink · 12/05/2017 12:16

stink in 2011 there were 36.7 million people aged 20+ in 2015 there were 23.5 million places to live that's more than half a home for each person.

Given that only 7.7 million live alone (2015) there are enough places to live.

Want2bSupermum · 12/05/2017 12:17

The best we can do right now is limit foreigners buying residential homes to sit on them. We have the same problem here in the Us with Chinese coming in with their all cash offers. These people are laundering money. It's so obvious it's money laundering but the current checks don't catch it because it's cash coming from a Chinese account.

Stopping foreigners buying residential homes would really help the housing market and the economy as a whole. If these foreigners want to buy a residential home they would need to go through the immigration process and pay taxes as would be living here.

olderthanyouthink · 12/05/2017 12:18

I mentioned 18-20 year olds buying because someone always comes along saying that they/their children did it so everyone else could if they wanted to.

Strikhedonia · 12/05/2017 12:21

What's the point of building council houses when you then give the right to buy - at a HUGE discounted price, and you can then sell back at market price?

I mean, it's great for you if you can get one, but it's not really solving anything in the long run.

Instasista · 12/05/2017 12:21

You do have to live in house for 10 years to exerciE Right to buy though. Also, you can remove the RTb with few issues

RaggyAnn · 12/05/2017 12:27

We have a village school with mixed age classs because there wasn't enough local kids for a class each. A doctors surgery in the next village over which has spaces. Yeah we have traffic but the projection of 140 houses with 2 cars each all leaving and coming at the same time is nonsense scaremongering.

They tried saying it was a flood plane (it wasn't), they tried bats and newts (there weren't any), they tried protected hedgerows and trees (they were bog standard hedgerows with no particular value). They ignored the local businesses who welcomed the new houses, the fact that no local people can actually afford to live in the village anymore.

It was fuck all to do with infrastructure and everything to do with not wanting their lives to change at all.

RaggyAnn · 12/05/2017 12:28

Right to buy is a ridiculous policy. Especially when you have companies leafleting HA tenants offering to buy the houses for them and rent them back to them!

LurkingHusband · 12/05/2017 12:29

What's the point of building council houses when you then give the right to buy - at a HUGE discounted price, and you can then sell back at market price?

It would make sense if the councils were allowed to reinvest money from council house sales into building more houses. But a certain M. Thatcher stopped that little wheeze.

peaceout · 12/05/2017 12:30

Chinese coming in with their all cash offers. These people are laundering money. It's so obvious it's money laundering but the current checks don't catch it because it's cash coming from a Chinese account
AFAIK they are taking money out of the Chinese economy because there are no good investment opportunities there and UK property is a good investment opportunity
so not actually laundering money (?)

It is however harmful to our society because it makes one of life's basic necessities unaffordable and this has other harmful knock on effects

Zaphodsotherhead · 12/05/2017 12:33

Back in the early 1980's, as a PA on an OK sort of salary but nothing dramatic, i could have bought a house on my own. OK, I'd have had to take a 100% mortgage, but I could have bought in a lovely little Somerset village, a tiny house but it would have been mine.

My kids, who are all in professional jobs, can't afford to buy unless they buy with someone else and save a huge deposit.

Times have changed.

user1491148352 · 12/05/2017 12:34

The real problem is the dominance of London and the South East which mean that people need to move there to find work and the demand for housing outstrips supply.

The solution is to redistribute jobs to other (Northern) centres. But this requires long term planning by successive governments. Not just a question of moving a few government jobs there but major investment in transport and communications infrastructure. You would still have a city premium on housing but nothing compared to what it currently is. And if you had fast reliable trains from Colne Lancs (houses available for £30000) to Manchester people could commute easily.

There are enough houses in UK,. They are just not in the places people need to live

Strikhedonia · 12/05/2017 12:38

There are enough houses in UK,. They are just not in the places people need to live

so true

Increasinglymiddleaged · 12/05/2017 12:42

Ah, you're blaming the foreigners.

Er no, she was blaming the system that allows people who often don't even have the right to reside in this country to buy property as an investment. The first role of property should be as a home for people.

MyBeautifulSquid · 12/05/2017 12:42

What's the point of building council houses when you then give the right to buy - at a HUGE discounted price, and you can then sell back at market price?

True...the problem was (and is..they are still being sold) they aren't replaced