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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

... To ask what actually is an affordable housing?

106 replies

OftenHangry · 18/10/2018 07:18

It looks like everyone has a completely different price bracket in mind when it comes to properties for sale. Obviously it's affected by where people live. I know you really can't buy 3 bed semi for 60k in London. Maybe a picture of it... Sad

What is your idea of affordable housing?
Me:
Nort West - under 100k

because with 5% deposit it would cost about 8k to get into the property.
But I keep seeing these new builds labeled as affordable yet they cost double that!

Plenty of 3 bed with garden houses around me for much, much less (60k-70k), but staying on the market, because they need bit of work, I guess?

I am busy today, so if I don't answer, I haven't run. I will come backGrin

OP posts:
Bugsymalonemumof2 · 18/10/2018 07:20

Here affordable seems to be around the 350k mark :| im in dorset

Original poster
OftenHangry · 18/10/2018 07:21

Bloody hell

OP posts:
Gwenhwyfar · 18/10/2018 07:25

"Me:
Nort West - under 100k "

Well, that would not be affordable to me. For me, affordable is 3 times your annual wage. No private houses are sold for that much where I live.

LanceStatersGold · 18/10/2018 07:25

They’re about to build 800 houses near me with an emphasis on the community and local young adults being able to afford them. However, it’s going to be £300000 for a 2 bed terrace. Wages here rarely go above £18000. I think truly affordable for first time buyers would be around the £130000 mark.

HolidayHelpPlease · 18/10/2018 07:25

Affordable here (outer London) is anything £350k-£500k. What can I actually afford on my public sector wages? About 180k Confused

Thelastredwinegum · 18/10/2018 07:25

Less than £100k for me (Lincolnshire)

StillMedusa · 18/10/2018 07:28

I wondered this too...I'm in Oxfordshire where they are going on about building affordable housing. I'm a TA on 13k. Houses start at about 250k for a 2 bed!

PookieDo · 18/10/2018 07:28

Nothing I have ever seen in the south east is affordable for anyone who isn’t in a couple earning at least £75k+
Allegedly shared ownership is but even some of them say you must be earning over £60k to be eligible

MissBartlettsconscience · 18/10/2018 07:35

The official definition is not more than 80% of open market value so where there's a market house for sale for £200k, the affordable homes shouldn't be more than £160k.

It makes the price reduced, but very rarely actually affordable.

Bluelady · 18/10/2018 07:35

You can't put a figure on it as will obviously be a lot higher.in London than in the north of Scotland. To me it's a mortgage that can be paid comfortably from two average salaries.

missyB1 · 18/10/2018 07:35

Affordable in my area would be a 3 bed house for under 250k - not going to happen though! You would be extremely lucky to get a 2 bed for that.

Original poster
OftenHangry · 18/10/2018 07:45

I see these "affordable" new builds are popping up everywhere. I don't get how something classed affordable costs twice as much as other houses in the area.

OP posts:
BitchQueen90 · 18/10/2018 07:47

Less than £100k too here in the east Midlands. You can get 2 bedroom terraces where I live for about £80k but not new builds.

Original poster
OftenHangry · 18/10/2018 07:47

@Bluelady that's a good one. I took it one firther and made sure it's affordable from 1 salary in case something happens. But then again I am in a cheap part of country, went for an old house in a postcode with bad rep, yet nothing remotely interesting happens in this part of it. Still looking enviously at parts of Wales though. Nature, cheap... Hmmm.

OP posts:
silkpyjamasallday · 18/10/2018 07:51

An 'affordable' housing estate was recently built on the outskirts of DPs home village. These new builds start at £300k, the old council houses in the village which make up most of the stock sell for around £200k, I don't know how they get away with using the term affordable. Where we live in London you can sometimes find a two bed flat for around £300k but they are really really run down, probably need near another £100k to make them homely.

Original poster
OftenHangry · 18/10/2018 07:52

@silkpyjamasallday exactly! How is it allowed that something more expensive is marketed as affordable.

OP posts:
KanielOutis · 18/10/2018 07:57

I live in the South East, about an hour out of London. There isn't much below £180k. My 2 bed flat on the main road would fetch £200k on a good day. Houses start from about £300k. We have a household income of about £35k, which doesn't go far.

Laiste · 18/10/2018 08:04

It's all an absolute bloody farce. Rant alert.

These ''Help to buy schemes'' seem to be designed with the main aim of keep the prices inflated. You can only get help to buy on these bloody over priced shoe boxes new builds and then IIRC after 5 years you have to start finding more money per month to begin to pay the government their share back. Struggling to do that? ''Simply move'', as one sales person cheerfully advised us. Yes, of course! 'Just simply move!'. Into what exactly, if you had to have help to buy in the first place? And you have to hope to god you make enough profit from the sale of your already over priced 'help to buy' house to fund the move AND pay back the government loan ...

So now - who are all these people rushing to buy up these 5 year old second hand little houses at the even higher price? Not many first time buyers, because remember it's not a new build now and they only get help to buy on 'new builds' ... Ah yes - landlords! Great.

Rant over.

PersonaNonGarter · 18/10/2018 08:07

Housing value is a supply and demand issue so the more supply there is, the more price will drop.

Housing is a supply side issue. The people that stop first time buyers or young families being able to find somewhere affordable to live are the fuckers that endlessly object to any new building because of views/water voles/ village character. These are the ‘nice’ people who are forcing families to move between six mo th leases, or crowding thirtysometgibgs into flat shares.

If you want to campaign for cheaper housing, speak to baby boomers you know and tell them to stop objecting to every housing proposal.

ClashCityRocker · 18/10/2018 08:07

The affordable housing on the housing estate that's just gone up by us is 200k.

The average wage for the area is 24k.

Going on 3 x annual salary, even as a couple you'd still need a 25% deposit plus costs. It's just about doable if you're in a couple and can stay with someone rent free for a few years to save, or have parental help or an inheritance.

A (younger) friend and her partner have just bought them - I don't know the ins and outs of their finances but I know part of the deposit came from inheritance. The mortgage term is seventy years.

ClashCityRocker · 18/10/2018 08:10

Typo, 40 not 70!

ClashCityRocker · 18/10/2018 08:11

Not even a typo... I was thinking about someone's seventieth whilst typing....

Mibd you I can imagine whole of life mortgages becoming a thing....

RollyCow · 18/10/2018 08:16

I'm in the north west too, our first house was £90000 6 years ago, it was a 3 bed semi detached with a drive and garden. I don't understand how the higher prices of new builds can be classed as affordable either. They really aren't unless you lived at home with your parents and saved until you're 30+ etc.

SputnikBear · 18/10/2018 08:17

There are a number of ex-council houses for sale in my area priced about £80-100k. Young people aren’t buying them because they aren’t eligible for help to buy. You can only get help to buy on a new build which costs double that. It’s ridiculous when young people are having to buy more expensive houses because government schemes don’t permit them to buy cheaper houses.

Namechanger55555 · 18/10/2018 08:18

Affordable here would be from between £250,000-£350,000
(South East an hour from London)
We only have average wages (NHS). It's crazy, we could go live somewhere cheaper in the country and earn the same wage but afford so much more. Unfortunately moving isn't an option for us (grandparents are our childcare)