To think these baby boomers are missing the point?

[Hundredacrewoods]

I grew up in an area where house prices have quadrupled since 2000. I consider this an intergenerational equity issue. Whenever the topic of house prices and 'millennials' comes up with my parents' generation, all I hear is how hard they worked and how much they sacrificed to get on the property ladder. AIBU to think that they're missing the point? No one is denying that they worked hard and sacrificed. The point is that if they worked just as hard today, and made the same sacrifices, it wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

If you can't afford to buy in London, then don't buy in London. Why do people behave as though london is the be all and end all? Should all property in the capital city be affordable for everyone who fancies living there?

And what if all the jobs in your industry are in London, what then? Many people would love to move up north somewhere cheaper, but guess what, you need a salary to live. Who knew?

Speaking as the bank of mum and dad, the money was given without any strings or expectations. We had no involvement in the choice of the house (rightly), and stood back until after completion. We now still help in practical ways, waiting in for their deliveries, small DIY/gardening jobs. That gives us a lot of pleasure as we are retired/time rich and our busy children are time poor. In our case it was passing on an inheritance from my parents, which just seemed the right thing to do, rather than waiting until after we're dead. Also unless you're an investment genius, it's hard to beat inflation with savings. We lead a simple life and are not flash in any way, one car, etc. but that suits us. Our children are ambitious and want to progress to a bigger house, and that will be totally their challenge to achieve this. We will now stand back completely. But at least we've given them a start. Their previous rent for a fairly crap house but in a commuting area was about £250 more than their mortgage on their house. I think high rents are an issue as well as high house prices, but no-one in Government seems willing to tackle the whole housing mess. I don't have an answer either.

So don't join that profession.

This is getting ridiculous.

So it has got to the point where you say choose everything in your life based on staying away from London rather than addressing the housing problems?

I guess all of you making these comments are already smug home owners.

We also need nurses, midwives, hospital staff everyone from caterers to cleaners in London.
You cant just say leave London.

Why not? If the support staff you mention no longer found London desirable and left then you can be pretty sure that the rest of London would follow suit. Why are you so keen to keep the status quo going, I thought that we agreed that it was unaffordable and unsustainable.

So your answer to the crisis of house prices is to evacuate London?

Just when you think you have heard everything .

Everyone from London will just set up somewhere else.

Where are 8 million people going to go?

Then the same problems will descend on the areas where all these new people go. Housing availability and costs.

So don't join that profession

This is ridiculous for many reasons...

Firstly there are simply far more jobs in London and the SE no matter what profession you are in.

Secondly, the ship has sailed for many people, who made that decision in their early 20s (or before) probably when house prices in the SE hadn't spiralled so significantly.

Thirdly, many people don't necessarily actively chose their industry, they take what opportunities are available to them and it builds from there.

Fourthly London needs nurses/doctors/teachers/hcp like anywhere else. What are those people supposed to do?

You are being silly now Niki. Have you never been outside London, do you not know what the rest of Britain looks like (hint: it's got lots of housing and land but not enough jobs. Let's spread the largesse, eh?)

If they can't attract staff in London then the wages will go up.
Many women couldn't work AT ALL when having had children. Very dispiriting when you were a graduate or had trained in a profession. Never mind not being able to find work outside of London, you couldn't work like you can now.

Oh yes I've been outside London .

When did you buy your house puris?

The posters with views like yours are home owners and dont get it.

And as someone else said.....how could you say dont join the profession when the decision was made in my early 20s and when housing costs were not astronomical.

By the time I was able to look into buying they were astronomical.

Did you expect me to have the benefit of hindsight over 15 years ago and not join a profession because I could see into the future and know housing would be affordable

You are so utterly ridiculous.

When I bought my house I paid 17% interest rates. My maternity leave was 6 weeks full pay, 6 weeks half. I didn't blame the previous generation. That's the way things fell. My parents had to deal with the war. So it goes.

*unaffordable

ivykaty
It rippled out from london. As I said above. London became less affordable and prospective house owners looked further and further afield. The increased demand in commutable areas pushed up prices. It’s become the norm now to have increasingly long commutes, people forget so quickly. A smaller percentage of the population had always commuted into London of course. But that has increased.

Hence couples now have two incomes to buy on, whereas years ago a wife's income was not taken into account. Once more women worked and therefore couples had more money , lenders began to offer higher and higher mortgages, and thus pushed up housing costs. It's supply and demand.

Oh I thought you said that house prices hadn’t increased in the north - sorry misunderstood

screaming at each other isn't going to solve this. 'waah! you're old!' 'waah! you're a lazy phone-gazing millenial' . Grow up, everyone.

too many people, not enough housing for various well documented reasons. Refusal to pay more taxes from the whole electorate.

So of course houses were lower cost. Only one income was taken into account - at best only a percentage of the woman's. Why would you want to go back to tht?

I started university in 1998. Houses in London were affordable then .

A degree and a post grad later. A few years of renting in a junior professional salary and then paying off student debt and then saving for a deposit. House prices increased massively every single year and the more I saved the more they rose.

I dont understand how I was I supposed to see that coming in 1998 and not join the profession. No-one saw house price increases like that coming.

Posters like puris are just silly.

So don't join that profession
What a stupid thing to say.

Sorry places with high hpuse prices... you don't need cleaners and trades people or shop workers or teachers or nurses or people staffing your banks. You don't need bus drivers or rubbish collectors. You dob't need people serving you the overpriced coffee you get on your way to work. Nope. You don't need that. Those places don't need nursery nurses or childminders or small independent business owners. They don't need dog walkers. They don't need people to stock butchers or bakers. They don't need people behind bars or waiting on tables.
Calling all people. Just don't do any job that will make it difficult buy a house.

When i had my first career it was possible to get 100% mortgages but I was on contract work so couldn't get one. By the time i was teaching 100% mortgages were long gone. I'm a homeowner but dear me some of the homeowners on this thread are so smug they're almost punchable.

Out of curiosity which industries are only in London and not anywhere else in the country?

There seems to be this weird assumption on here that no-one comes from London so living here is always a lifestyle choice rather than just, well, living here.

Londoners get accused of being Londoncentric and elitist all the time but its not me that only sees London as The Capital and a tourist attraction and seat of Government and finance.
Its my home.

And yes apparently, non Londoners have to move away from their home streets all the time. Finding cheaper parts to buy in.
So do we. Haggerston is not a short walk from Hammersmith and its a bear bop from Crouch End to Woodford

Did you expect me to have the benefit of hindsight over 15 years ago and not join a profession because I could see into the future and know housing would be affordable

So you had a cushty upbringing and didn't envisage hard times? I, a baby boomer, lived through hard times and planned accordingly. It wasn't the benefit of hindsight, it was the benefit of foresight.
That's the difference in generations.

Yanbu!

It’s the baby boomers doing buy to let and replacing social renting I have reason to know who owns a lot of the rented property around me... companies, presumably pension pots; 40/50 ish year olds who have unfeasably well paid jobs who are taking time out to travel/work abroad; 20 somethings who bought here to help them live and work in London and then people who are probably in the Boomer age range.

It could be different elsewhere, but round here that seems to be the pattern.

It is far too easy to blame 'Baby Boomers', it has been all we have been told by the media for years. But a) it is not necessarily true/ that simple and b) it is does nobody any good to think / feel that way.

Honest question: What do you want Baby Boomers to do?

So you had a cushty upbringing and didn't envisage hard times? I, a baby boomer, lived through hard times and planned accordingly. It wasn't the benefit of hindsight, it was the benefit of foresight.

I had a very i.impoverished upbringing thank you witj an abusive father and living in homeless shelters after we had to run.

I thought I was safe guarding my future by entering a top profession

I hope you don't have kids puris.

Your smugness is distasteful and feel sorry for any children or grandchildren you have. You're of the attitude that your generation was somehow superior in every way.

Just don't join the profession then. What a stupid thing to say.

YANBU. The point is that average house price in 1980 was £22,600 - just under 4 times the average annual salary of £6,000.

Today average house price is £211,000 - which is almost 8 times the average salary of £27,000.

So it was undoubtedly easier to get on the property ladder for baby boomers and to pay off the mortgage.