To worry about 1/3 of people that will never own a home

[jnfrrss]

www.theguardian.com/money/2018/apr/17/one-in-three-uk-millennials-will-never-own-a-home-report

Isn't the housing benefit bill for all these people when they retire going to cripple the country?

I'd only be worried if they aren't making proper provisions to continue to rent in retirement. The idea that housing benefit can continue in the current format is laughable.

With employer pensions having been downgraded in recent year

Really? Auto pension enrolment has just risen to 5% statutory minimum unless you opt out and will rise to 8% next April (was 2% last year). This is split between employer and employee contributions. Employer has risen from 1% to 2%.

As an aside I think employee should be voluntary but employer compulsory. I say that as an employer.

My parents bought their council house when they were in their late 50s/60s. My Dad died and years later, my DM needed to move into a care home and the house needed to be sold. I approached the council to see if they wanted to buy it back since they would be getting the money one way or another anyway. They were interested but the rule wa sthat buying back the property would need to result in all flats in a block being council owned. 3 are bought properties and one still council. Both other owners were interested in selling but no individual will ever meet the criteria . So essentially they have lost the chance to get a block of flats into council ownership and available for rent at a knock down price. It makes no sense. Presumably as most blocks of flats will be bigger, it must be hard to ever have any that meet the criteria.

bettiedraper the problem isn’t space it’s the usage of that space. For example, all those empty investment properties in London, or second homes in Cornwall. Companies hoard land that could be used eg brown fill land/derelict properties.

Holland and Germany are two places where it is still more common to rent.
Japan...
Even in the US, property ownership is aspired to - but renting isn’t looked down upon either.

Fair enough monkey I am basing it on public sector which is where all my family work and we have all had our pensions downgraded. We are still much better off than those percentages you quote though!

I see the usual guff about commitment and sacrifices to own is rearing its head again. I am 31 and literally everyone I know who has bought (and this will hopefully include me soon) has done so with a lot of help from family - either money for a deposit or letting them live at home rent free for a few years. Everyone else is having to spend so much on private rent that we've got very little left either to save towards a deposit or pay into a private pension.

FWIW my parents were only able to buy with the help of one of my grandparents, who himself started married life with a good nest egg as a result of years living in barracks.

As with everything else, money generates more money and if you don't have access to any to start off with you've got next to no chance.

The problem for a lot of renters isn't that they prefer renting over owning - it's the getting the initial deposit on a house!

I've never owned a home and doubt I ever will. As soon as I started earning I had to move out and have had to fend for myself/my child - at nearly 30 I am no where near a point to save for a deposit and I will have no inheritance off anyone. It's pretty disheartening, I'd rather be in my own home, or at least see it in the future. -it's also a pisstake when people boast about owning a home when they're families massively help them out and don't have to struggle.-

I'm at a point where a lot of people I know, especially younger, are buying their own homes and talking about how much they have squirreled away for a deposit..a few tears have been shed because I feel like a failure in comparison.

Stupid question, but what do lifetime renters do when they retire? Rent with savings? Downsize and live off pensions?

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with renting, as long as people aren't being taken advantage of (which obviously happens right now). No one should have to worry about having a roof over their heads.

jfn Perhaps you should be talking to your MP.

NMW is inadequate. HB subsidises employers paying low wages.

The basic state pension is inadequate, HB subsidises this.

Basically, the goverment (so taxpayers) is subsidising itself and generating huge costs to do so whilst creaming off a nice profit from outsourcing contracts.

I'm surprised it's only 1/3 tbh but then I live in the south east where rents and house prices are ridiculous.

Two sides to this coin. A work colleague and friend recently bought a small terraced house but the roof now needs repairing and the boiler decided to pack up a month ago. She and partner don't have the money to repair either. Roof is a wear and tear jobby so insurers aren't liable. Both wish they'd carried on renting. Their rent was £250 cheaper than their mortgage and the landlord would have had to pay for repairs to roof and boiler. They have next to no disposable income and are stuck with 30 yrs of mortgage repayments. We had a long discussion about why people feel the urge to buy as it wasn't the norm a few decades ago. her mother chipped in with "and you'll be nearly 70 when you've paid for it and then you'll have to sell it to pay for your care in old age." We got the wine out at that point.

So 2/3 will own . I think that’s a good fraction tbh . I do think we need to start educating the youth that they have to start saving when they’re young and they will have to make sacrifices if they want to own their own home . Not everywhere is expensive . Some of them may even have to “move “ .

Whether it's better to rent or buy will be down to individual circumstances. For us our mortgage is less than our rent was and our landlords were awful at repairs so it is nice to be able to sort stuff out ourselves although we are in a new build so a lot of stuff is covered for several years anyway. Our mortgage will be paid off by our 50s so we will hopefully be able to afford retirement and live in a house we own for another couple of decades before the need for supported living etc.

Also they may have to suck it up and stay at home for longer than they would like .

I'm a bit worried about how the future will turn out too. We have saved 25k in the last 5 years. We have children & our rent is high. If we had this 5 years ago it would have been the perfect deposit. In 2017 we looked again & decided we need to up it to at least 50k so we're still renting... I checked online yesterday at property prices & it looks like we will need 100k deposit now. It's so disheartening. Then I wonder by that time is there much point. Maybe I'll just keep renting & keep saving to help my own two boys get on the ladder. But like someone else said how do you keep paying rent into your retirement. It's really scary & is on my mind everyday.

What fucks me off most is we get a load of quotes from the government about all the schemes they're introducing such as building more houses and introducing rent to buy, but they're ignoring the glaringly obvious reason why my generation can't buy a house and it's the requirement for massive deposits. I fail to see why I can't get a mortgage just by demonstrating that I earn enough to pay the mortgage back, and that I've paid my rent on time for 5 years. The mortgage payments on properties in my reach would be less per month than my rent is now. I'm not saying we shouldn't need a deposit at all, but 10% is ridiculous if you would otherwise be approved for a mortgage.

I bought my first flat in 1984 when I was 18 with my sister when we were both on low wages. Unemployment and interest rates at their highest ever. No money from family at all but we had a 95% plus mortgage. Over half our outgoings went on mortgage payments. I think the difference in some ways is that some people still expect to have the latest gadgets and sky tv and run a car etc at the same time whereas we lived on plain pasta and had 2nd hand furniture and wore jumpers and extra blankets to keep warm.

renting isnt great especially if you have a family. I doubt I will ever be in a position to buy a house for many circumstantial reasons. Its hard with young children because of the issues with making the space work for you (not allowed any alterations) and the security (LL could say they want the property back at any point and youd have to leave within a month) and I do worry about the future.

Personally im hoping they make euthanasia legal at some point. Not the answer for everyone but I certainly dont want to be hanging about as a vegetable in a nursing home for twenty years when I could just die peacefully on my own terms at 75/80. I dont know what people are playing at with this really as the population gets older and older. The bill is going to be very steep if we dont let the people who just want to die die in peace. (Of course im aware not everyone would want that for themselves but quite a few certainly would)

And I agree with beeeeees. Affordability is the key factor and it thst means a higher level of borrowing that means outgoings are less then that needs to be taken seriously in terms of the lending criteria. I once challenged the 6 month in a job rule on the basis that the lender was my former employer who had made me redundant. I got a new job but needed to relocate. My argument was they weren't concerned about how I was going to pay my mortgage when they made me redundant, so why all the concern now I had a new job?

I don't think assisted suicide is the answer to my home ownership issues tbh

and yes the majority of people I know who have bought did it with financial help from family. Granted they did save a bit of money themselves but no where near the amount theyd need for a deposit these days.
In my area we are looking at 50 grand at the very least, deposit. Bearing in mind my husband is nearly 50 and is the sole earner we are highly unlikely to be able to save this alone. Life has just ended up this way. He had previously lived in London for many years as a single man so had no intention of ever being able to buy (central london not a chance when working for the NHS) But we ended up getting married and having children (unplanned) Now we have moved to a cheaper area but still looking at 50 grand deposit unless we moved somewhere absolutely miles away from anyone we knew to a house that was far too small and basically run down. We have no real building skills so cant get a dooer upper! (and this is all assuming hed even get a mortgage with that deposit at his age)

No its just not likely to happen at all.
Yes perhaps we both should have thought of this when we were twenty and saved up manically from leaving home. But neither of us ever considered we would want to buy a house... or have kids or get married even... but you dont know whats round the corner with life do you!

You have to have had life pan out in a certain way to be able to afford to buy I seem to find. So all these people claiming that renters are just selfish unmotivated people can fuck off! Not everyones life is a textbook example.

This is kind of relevant as to why we have got into the situation we are in, its specifically about Australia but a lot of the same theories have already been expressed in this thread.

apple.news/AXLS4X9UyT-yv_ymfPhmnGw

coveredinbeees hahaha well i did say 'its not the answer for everyone'...

Hopefully they'll have good jobs or dare I say it inherit parents property if they have any.

When a relative died, other relatives bought the house so it was kept in the family. It'd be nice to think that it's a tradition that will be upheld, that one of my siblings or I will live in the house we grew up in.

It's a shame to think that life is that bad that so many will never have the opportunity to own their own place, as it's a totally different feel to renting. Ok added stress of having to worry about repairs yourself, but what put me off getting a second place to rent was the fact that there's likely a struggling young person or couple who needed the opportunity more than me.

Some may call that daft, I call it not being greedy.