' A chicken would cost £50'

[stopitandtidyupp]

Leisurely watching ' The big questions'
discussing is London only for the rich?

One woman said if house prices were a chicken then a chicken would now cost £50. Now she meant in London but I wonder about the rest of the country.

I live in the NE and I am struggling to get on the ladder.

I guess my AIBU to be annoyed at house prices and is there an answer?

It's the gap between wages and house prices that are the issue.

I had a conversation with my boss. He left school at 16, did an apprenticeship and did really well for himself in terms of his career.

He bought a house when he was 21 and had the attitude that young people could do the same if they worked as hard as he did We worked out that to buy a similar house today, he would have to be earning 33k aged 21 which we both agreed was completely unrealistic.

And that's not even London, that's a small town in Wales.

South west is pretty crap too. Completely agree with leggairdontcare wages compared to house prices just don’t match up. And if you don’t get a nice deposit from family and you’re already renting it’s oretty hard to save up.

I think a bit problem is the deposit ,it doesn't matter if a house is worth£50,000 or £500,000 if you can't raise the deposit? I got a mortgage nearly 20 years ago and at the time I got a 97% mortgage ,obviously this was before the big crash....

And if you don’t get a nice deposit from family and you’re already renting it’s oretty hard to save up.

Can I add to this if you're not in a relationship you're also screwed. It takes forever to save up a deposit even as part of a couple but it's almost impossible if you're single, unless you have a significantly high paying job.

The only answer for London is to build up. Not very appealing. And actually just adds to the supply and demand issue because not everybody will want to live in flats and houses will need to be taken away to make room for more flats.

As for outside London, it's a different issue of people who are already living in the area do not want more people moving in because it threatens their lifestyle so they object to new estates being built near them. No new houses being built but more people wanting to move in equals to their own supply and demand problems.

It's the gap between wages and house prices that are the issue.

Agree. It’d be much easier for people to get together a decent deposit (as a % of the house price) and afford a mortgage if the difference between wages and house prices was smaller.

"One woman said if house prices were a chicken then a chicken would now cost £50. "

She sounds like a nutter.

If super yachts were marshmallows then ham would be a better investment.

*And if you don’t get a nice deposit from family and you’re already renting it’s oretty hard to save up.

Can I add to this if you're not in a relationship you're also screwed. It takes forever to save up a deposit even as part of a couple but it's almost impossible if you're single, unless you have a significantly high paying job.*

This. With bells on.

Moneybox said that in 85 it took 3 years to save for a deposit for a first time buyer. Now it's 19 years.

Made me realise that our kids are never leaving home.

Depends where you live I know a number of young people who have managed to get on the housing ladder. This is the north though.

If she is equating chickens to houses she is an idiot.

Back in the day you could get a 100% mortgage.

Mind you, even if they were available now, nobody on an average salary would be able to afford the repayments.

I’ve got a lot of sympathy for people in the south east and London, but I can’t understand how you’re struggling to get on the ladder in the north east. You can get a really nice two bed house with dining area for 80 grand here.

It’s not nothing like chicken. Chicken is consumable and gone, house is an investment and long term necessity,

Yep as has been said it's the ever increasing gap between wages and house prices. The deposit is the biggest problem. I was a young adult in the 80s ,and in my home town if you had a full time job with average wages it was relatively easy to save a deposit and buy a small property. Now you would need two partners with very good wages saving hard for quite a few years to get that deposit.

Some of the older generation fail to appreciate this, they don't understand what has changed.

In London, and probably most other large cities, housing stock needs to not be sold as investment properties to people who live overseas and who have no intention of actually taking up residence there. Whole blocks of flats stand empty 99% of the time, only visited for maintainance or occasional business trips. That’s a disgrace to my way of thinking.

If she is equating chickens to houses she is an idiot.

I think the point is that house prices have risen far higher than prices for other things (like a chicken), inflation generally and wages.

I'm a "millennial".

I bought my first house when I was 22. I had zero financial help.

My DP bought his first house when he was 24. He was/is earning £17k in an admin role.

Both of us were single at the time.

Whilst houses are more expensive there are other factors at play, not least the building sense of entitlement in the UK.

A healthy person motivated to buy will be able to get on the property ladder. But a lot of people aren't willing to make the sacrifices that requires.

There are huge developments standing empty, yet evebody calls for more new building which benefits no one.

A chicken isn’t a good thing to compare with, because the relative cost of chicken has dropped a lot since the 60s. When I was a child, chicken was an occasional treat. If the cost of chicken had risen with the cost of RPI inflation, as opposed to house price inflation, it would be a lot dearer today than it actually is.

"I think the point is that house prices have risen far higher than prices for other things (like a chicken), inflation generally and wages."

I can't believe anyone didn't understand the analogy, tbh!

My mortgage with 1.87 interest is 986.00 month for small 2 bed house.

NameChange how much were you earning and how much did your house cost?

The problem is we view houses as an investment, not as a home and somewhere to live.

Our consumer economy is based on folk feeling wealthy - that their house is worth 5x more than they paid for it and is increasing in value.

The moment prices fall, then we all stop spending and the economy crashes, meaning money isn't lent, people don't sell, no one builds.

Wages going up, would just increase prices, regardless of supply, as above, prices cannot fall unless we have a totally different economic model and that'll be painful.

The solution is government social housing, cheap rents, meaning those who can can save a deposit and with secure tenancies, its what they had to do after the war, it worked then and it would work now, pouring money down the drain in the form of housing benefit and into the pockets of private landlords is unsustainable.
Prob is most MPs are also landlords, so will never vote for this to happen.

Yes pippity I think you are right there should be a limit on investment in the same way that certain tourist areas have occupancy rules.