' 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 depends where you are. Housing in the SE is bonkers.

Our previous property was one-bed, because it was all we could afford. We wanted more space and had no equity (post-2008 crash) so saved up a new deposit, got a 95% mortgage and moved to a cheaper county. It took us 8 years of overtime and working a second job at the weekends and we had to relocate to a completely different place to be able to afford a bigger property for the money we had.

I have a lot of sympathy for people down south because the market is so inflated. I do find myself somewhat frustrated with other people I know, who aren't in the SE and complain about not being able to afford to buy, when what they actually mean is that they cannot afford the 4 bed detached house that they want and aren't interested in the 2 bed terrace that they could have.

My old NDN neighbour was in a very similar position to us. However she had a new car every 3 years, long haul foreign holidays every year, massive wedding, nice clothes etc. Her place was beautifully furnished and she always looked really smart and well groomed. We holidayed with family every year, shopped in charity shops, old bangers for cars, tiny registry office do. There were so many times that I wished we could have the nice things that she did, but we had agreed to save every penny we could to try and move one day. She spent her money on different things.

I think more parents should help their children out by allowing to live at home for free while they save for deposits. I'm not going to start charging my child to live with me just because she turned 18. Young adults are still vulnerable. I want her to have an easier life and be able to own her own home. That's what parents do.

Namechangeohnamechange, what was your deposit and how did you get it?

Because in 2013, there is no way that any bank would give you a 95% mortgage on a property costing £150K if you were only earning £17K.

When people give information about how they did things it's helpful to have all the bits of information otherwise it gives a misleading picture of what is possible now, in the present
.

I’m a millennial who bought at 21. But I’m not daft enough to realise that means everyone can do that or that applies everywhere in the country. I made significant sacrifices to be able to do that (including not going to university) and actually, I’m pleased I did as it has worked out for me but it could just have easily not done so, given different economics. Things are different now, harder still. It doesn’t help anyone to sit on a high horse and list all their sacrifices made to get a home of their own - my list is very long - the point is my list shouldn’t be that long, and nor should anyone else’s. It’s a reasonable life goal that should require work and saving, yes, but not poverty and working three jobs etc etc etc.

NameChanger please remember that not everyone has the luxury of being able to support another adult who is not paying at least something towards their upkeep.

I can't stand it when MNers declare grandly "that's what parents do", when what they mean is "that's what parents with my income do".

I don't have any sympathy for people living in the south moaning about how they can't afford to buy a house. Hardly anyone can afford to buy there now. Find a way to move. Then the market will start to correct itself a bit. A house should not cost 30k in one part of the country and 500k in another part. That is ridiculous.

A healthy person motivated to buy will be able to get on the property ladder

Only if they can get a decent job with a full time wage.NameChange

Despite what many people seem to think, there are huge areas of the country where there are NO jobs except zero hours contracts or minimum wage P/T work.

Are you also one of these people who think that homeless people LIKE to live not he streets?

"I can't stand it when MNers declare grandly "that's what parents do", when what they mean is "that's what parents with my income do"."

Exactly! So i'm a crappy parent then coz I had to charge my kids rent?

WeWantJustice - my income is 13k, I'm a single parent, no help from anyone. I bought my house a long time ago, in my 20s. Even if DD gets a minimum wage job and lives with me for free she should be able to buy a house by her mid 20s, without a mortgage. I outlined how this is possible upthread.

I think more parents should help their children out by allowing to live at home for free while they save for deposits.

Not everyone can afford to do this. It's not that people don't care, they often just have not got the money to feed an adult, let alone subsidise associated on costs (electricity, gas etc).

If you can do this for your family, you are very fortunate.

And I wasn't suggesting that every single person in the UK should or could do this. I think it's good for parents to help their children when they are young adults. If you don't want to or can't do that, then just ignore my advice.

The cheapest property to buy within a 5 mile radius from me (south west) is £130k and that's for a one bed flat. We bought our 4 bed largish detached for just £108k in 1999 and if we wanted to buy it now it would cost us £350k and we definitely couldn't afford it. Our salaries have not risen anywhere near that level in the past 20yrs. We were just very lucky that we bought before the prices started rocketing.

I hope we can help our boys when they start out but if we can't I can see them living at home for a very long time yet.

my income is 13k, I'm a single parent, no help from anyone. I bought my house a long time ago, in my 20s. Even if DD gets a minimum wage job and lives with me for free she should be able to buy a house by her mid 20s, without a mortgage. I outlined how this is possible upthread.

Very kind of you to give us all the benefit of your wisdom.

You still presuppose a FULL-TIME minimum wage job, subsidy by parents and house prices staying low in your area. And then, of course, she has to be able to afford to live in her house when she gets it, with council tax etc rising all the time.

We bought our house 5 years ago.
It’s a terraced ex council with a front and back garden, in a suburb of a main city with cafes and bars nearby and regular transport links into the city.
We paid £105 grand for it with a deposit of £12 grand.
My husband earns 30k and I run my own business and at the time wasn’t earning very much at all (about 9 thousand a year). So had a combined income of around £40k.

We live in the north east which I totally understand is not the answer for everyone but that’s where OP says they live. Pretty much all my friends own houses and it’s not an unacheivable goal for people of average wages here.

If you feed a child and pay the bills until your child is 18, what happens when they turn 18 that makes it impossible to continue doing this?

@RedToothBrush Did you read my full post?! This was in 2013. You chose to edit out the part where I said I was a millennial and that it was only 5 years ago...

@Namechanger loss of child benefit, tax credits, child maintenance ...

If you feed a child and pay the bills until your child is 18, what happens when they turn 18 that makes it impossible to continue doing this?

Firstly, your child benefit stops.

Secondly, all the Child Tax Credit payments you used to get, stop.

For many families that can be a significant drop in income.

Dd didn’t live with me rent free when she got her first job because it was 2 hours away by car. To get a decent job (and it is decent, earning around £23k) she had to move from our rural location to a city. I’m much happier with her doing that and starting a career than taking a minimum wage job and saving for a house. She has cheap rent and still finds it hard to save much as she still needs a car for work, professional clothes, etc.

@namechangeohnamechange, I'm still not clear what your deposit was on your £150K house in 2018 when you were on £17K?

I bought a house in 1993 it's cost £45,500 pounds. It's now worth £260,000.

In 1993 my full time wage was £7,000 a year

It's now £19,500 a year.

I was born and raised in the South of England. I moved to where the housing was more affordable.

Family and school friends are between 2 and 5 hours drive away. I made new friends locally.

The sense of entitlement I was talking about is exactly what has been said here; whilst it would be nice to remain in the area one was born and raised in, if its unaffordable - move. No one is entitled to a house in a certain area just because they were born there.

And yes, the bank gave me a mortgage on my admin salary. I had a 20% deposit and the counted by income from my part time jobs too.

It's hard, but doable.
I was even privately renting whilst saving for a deposit, not staying with my parents.

@Despite what many people seem to think, there are huge areas of the country where there are NO jobs except zero hours contracts or minimum wage P/T work.

Then MOVE.

Think how many people a Mumsnet £50 chicken would feed.

She's being ridiculous comparing a chicken to a house, I've never known anybody consider a chicken to be a long term investment before.

Then MOVE.

What do you think will happen if everyone moves from their town where they have a job to another one where they don't but the house prices are lower?

MOVE is far too simplistic a solution. That isn't really a wholesale solution at all.