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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand why we need so many new homes

265 replies

Pebbledash7 · 04/06/2017 20:52

Just as in the title really. I keep hearing about us building all these new houses but where are all the people currently living? There are tonnes of houses for sale in the property pages of our local paper.

I really dont understand why we can't make better use of what we have?

OP posts:
MissBax · 04/06/2017 21:47

Are you for fucking real????
"I only know 2 people who don't own their own property". Erm, good for you and your evidently narrow spectrum of friends.

CustardLover · 04/06/2017 21:48

Dick.

fanfrickintastic · 04/06/2017 21:49

Whilst I think you are being goady and can't help but agree when I see the rows and rows of boarded up, empty houses in Liverpool and Manchester.

BroomstickOfLove · 04/06/2017 21:50

Where I live, pretty much every 3 bedroomed house has been bought up by landlords who rent it as a 4-bed roomed HMO.

The remaining family sized houses are in such demand that families who rent get evicted every couple of years when their landlord sells the house. I can't think of a single one of my friends who rents who's managed to keep their child in the same primary school the whole way through.

PatMullins · 04/06/2017 21:51

Are you saying no-one should have children until they own a property?

You're a special kind of stupid aren't you.

Believeitornot · 04/06/2017 21:51

A lot of housing does lay empty so it isn't an entirely stupid question. House prices have shot up because people are priced out by landlords and in London, very rich investors.

We need homes. Homes for those who cannot afford to buy. To me that means more social housing.

cluelessnewmum · 04/06/2017 21:52

It's a very complex issue but I think there are several changes that could be made that may ease the situation.

  1. Stamp duty is prohibitively high so empty nesters often can't afford to move out of family sized homes. There are not enough houses that older people want to buy eg bungalows / houses where it is predominantly living space not bedrooms.
  1. Planning laws are still too strict, if people could extend their homes to accommodate multiple generations (whether a granny annexe or a little pad for a son/daughter) this would ease the situation. But it is so prohibitive getting planning permission and you get saddled with having an extra council tax to pay if you build something self contained.
  1. Governments need to build the infrastructure before they can build housing, there's no point building somewhere where no one can realistically get into a bigger city to work.
  1. Obviously any kind of 'dementia tax' type move will just make older people stay in their houses for even longer.

I think expecting people to houseshare or empty nesters to live in flats etc is not going to happen unless the incentives are much better, as people just don't want to.

Bunbunbunny · 04/06/2017 21:57

Social housing is a tiny percentage of new builds, if anything it will probably add value to your property

averylongtimeago · 04/06/2017 21:58

So no new houses should be built to spoil your rural idyl, those pesky poor people should all live in high rise flats? Have I got that right?
Your a peach, op.

Original poster
Pebbledash7 · 04/06/2017 21:59

Im intrigued how many of you that yelled at me are doing so defensively.

Fwiw neither dh or i came from money. We worked flipping hard to have a nice family life in a nice place. Why shouldn't we be able to enjoy it?

I do think you should either have money to cover rent or own a house before starting a family and i do think you shouldnt have more children than you can afford to house. I.e if you are on a low income dont have 3/4 children meaning you need a big house that you can't pay for.

This wasn't a fight. I have a large family, average sized friendship network and colleagues and housing never seems to crop up as an issue so i can never understand why so much is made of needing more houses.

OP posts:
millmoo · 04/06/2017 22:01

Have my 1st ever too Biscuit

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 04/06/2017 22:02

We worked flipping hard to have a nice family life in a nice place. Why shouldn't we be able to enjoy it?

People on low incomes also work hard, OP. IMHO, they work harder.

skyzumarubble · 04/06/2017 22:02

The where do you live?

TypicallyEnglishMustard · 04/06/2017 22:02

I find it fantastically ironic that your name is "Pebbledash".

ElleyBear13 · 04/06/2017 22:03

This post! Ha! We rent, we have degrees but work in min wage jobs and have one living child. We left uni and couldn't find work in our field of expertise (we did try sending 45 applications a month to various jobs here and overseas)- well hubby did but it fell through after a year- we don't do forgein holidays, fancy clothes and buy second hand/charity shops- we don't have debts but live very carefully. It's still not enough to buy a house- our low income means the banks think we cannot meet mortgage repayments even through this is lower than our current rental (by £200!) and we have a small 5% deposit. I have no idea what the answer is, we choose to have children as I adore my son and he's the best thing in our lives. I have a feeling if we didn't have him now by the time we had the financial / housing security I would be too old to bare children. We do need more social housing and more laws to protect tenants.

tinytemper66 · 04/06/2017 22:03

Just when I think that people can`t get any stupider.......

Original poster
Pebbledash7 · 04/06/2017 22:04

clueless you make really valid points.

Too much housing sits empty & stamp duty is high unfairly penalising those wanting to buy bigger houses.

i think its awful to incentivise older people to move to something smaller unless its what they want. Health permitting i dream of a nice house with land for vegetable growing and dogs and grandchildren to run around for my retirement. Not a dinky flat so people with more years ahead of them can move in.

OP posts:
TypicallyEnglishMustard · 04/06/2017 22:04

Where do you live then, OP? Housing is unaffordable for all of my friendship group, save for one person, in my area (Cornwall). We are all twenties to thirties, and the mast majority in professional, "hard-working" (whatever the fuck that means, have you spoken to a cleaner lately?) careers.

Violetcharlotte · 04/06/2017 22:06

Seriously? The number of homes being built each year has been way off target for years now, meaning there's a massive shortage

I take it you don't live in the South East? Where I live, a standard 3 bedroom semi in an ok area costs £330k. So a couple would need an income of around £80k and a £66,000 deposit. So many people don't stand a chance so are trapped in private rent, paying an extortionate amount either month, so have no hope of saving for a deposit as well as no security.

LittleWingSoul · 04/06/2017 22:06

Total GF

MagdaS · 04/06/2017 22:06

Objectively Assessed Need. Look it up. The clue is in the words 'objectively' and 'need'.

LittleWingSoul · 04/06/2017 22:08

housing never seems to crop up as an issue OP? You must be living in a bit of a bubble...

alleypalley · 04/06/2017 22:08

OP, either you are being extreeemly goady, or extremely naive/stupid.

^ this

Original poster
Pebbledash7 · 04/06/2017 22:11

Herefordshire in answer to the question

OP posts:
kjvandtelt · 04/06/2017 22:11

OP you are an absolute no-righter Grin