To think there is a serious problem with the housing market in this country

[Kitchendisco21]

I was just about to buy my first home having spent 10 years saving a deposit. Thanks to the stupid help to buy intervention, the houses I was able to buy are now 50k more expensive so I am completely priced out. I am so utterly sick of it.

And no, I can’t move elsewhere/ get somewhere smaller/eat fewer avocados! I have been saving for a decade.

Aibu to be so fed up. I read last week that 98% of keyworkers couldn’t buy a home in the uk now. When will people actually wake up & see what a major problem there is? I am so angry.

Yep. I've also been saving for a decade and there's no hope of buying anytime soon. It really gets me down that I'm in my mid 30s and still live in a flat share, and likely will into my 40s. I'm just stunned, this is not how I imagined my life at all. All I've ever wanted was my own living space, that has been my number one goal from from age of 14. I've worked so hard on my career, had side jobs, and done everything you're supposed to do. Financially I've lived a very careful and restrained life for years in order to save - I wonder why I bother.

I'm surrounded by friends whose parents have chipped in to help them buy and they've all progressed with their lives as a result of the security of their own home and having mortgage payments less than half what they'd be paying in rent. I've accepted that it's unlikely I'll have a family, mainly because of the housing situation. That's a pretty sad state of affairs.

The only attainable way of buying a home is through these help to buy schemes. But buying a leasehold flat (basically the only affordable property to buy) at the moment is risky. So many issues with ground rent clauses, maintenance charges, building safety issues, crazy insurance premiums etc. A lot of HTB owners really struggle to sell. People think they can get on and enjoy life after they've scrimped and saved for years for a home, but doesn't get better when you do manage to buy!

I wonder if the people who view BTL landlords as the scum of the earth feel similarly to property developers who buy wrecks, do them up and make a profit when they sell them?

Sorry to be a total disconnect between salaries and house prices now.

Personally I blame artificially low interest rates and all the money printing.

@safeornotsafe

I feel I have to choose between staying with a man who beats and rapes me, killing myself, or slum housing (or possibly none at all). He took my money I was saving as deposit, left me disabled, and now I have no way out. I feel extra despair when government increase house prices. I wish I had the chance of safe home so I could recover and rebuild my life but I know it may not happen. I'd love to own my own home but I'd also be happy to live in social housing. It would be my safe space but it feels out of reach for me. My council won't even let you apply to their housing register unless facing homelessness but then they still try to stop you being on the list, trying to dismiss you to private rent. It's true what people in the thread say. Landlords don't want tenants on benefits so that means many disabled people. The only ones who do including the temporary accommodation ones are the slum ones. Often it's illegally dangerous housing but there's no other option when you're desperate. I could try another area but I'm only just surviving because of being where I know where there's family and where good medical support. I wish there was more social housing including for disabled people. The bedroom tax has taken away a lot of single person housing making it even harder for disabled people.

Am sorry

. I feel extra despair when government increase house prices.

The government does not increase the house prices.

YANBU op. We rent and is it's crap. We have no hope of saving enough to buy. The whole system is backwards; how can it be just that I can't pay off my own mortgage but can pay someone else's? All because I can't save £20,000.
To the poster up thread who said a 2 bed terrace isn't a starter home: what planet are you on?
These threads always go the same way, it's like a shit bingo "don't have kids first" "work 10 jobs" "don't eat out/avocados/have a life/ drink take away coffee" "move to a cheap part of the country"
No one ever takes into account having to leave abusive parents/ family, and someone has to work the crap jobs no one wants to do which are often minimum wage.

I agree with you OP, the housing market in the UK is not geared towards actually housing people more towards making the already well off even more so. The only reason we were able to upsize from our first flat (admittedly in an expensive part of the SE but that's where all our family/friends lived as we'd both grew up in and around our current area) was through a large inheritance and that's not something that everyone will get. It's not unreasonable to want to stay living in an area where you have put down roots, so all the posters suggesting that you just move to a cheaper part of the country OP are really missing the point. Why should someone have to move away from their support network and the lives they have built to be able to buy a modest home?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

. I feel extra despair when government increase house prices.

The government does not increase the house prices.

The announcement of help to buy absolutely caused prices to go up. Prices are primarily a function of credit availability. The stamp duty rise was yet another example of this (because you couldn’t borrow the payment - that had to be paid in cash). That much should be obvious to even the most myopic housing cheerleader. But most are obviously clueless, and think it’s their own genius that got them a house rather than it generally being in large part due to their birthdate or parentage.

@tttigress

Sorry to be a total disconnect between salaries and house prices now.

Personally I blame artificially low interest rates and all the money printing.

Someone gets it

If only there was an asset that truly acts as an antithesis to such policies....one that was created in 2009, with its Genesis block storing a message about banking bailouts, that when created one unit of it wouldn’t have bought a penny chew but today would buy a Tesla Model 3 .....

The uk population has increased by 12 million since 1979, when council houses started to be sold off by Thatcher.
The target of building 300,000 houses a year is optimistic, meanwhile so many people are living in substandard, inadequate housing with no hope of ever buying their own home.
Property developers and builders are making huge profits. The system seems utterly broken.

The unspoken truth is that because of a poorly functioning jobs market (lots of short term work for people who want more permanent), lack of true social mobility, and above all a reasonably high cost of living, the only way for some Brits to feel "wealthy" is through some connection to owning property. Governments know it makes core voters feel good to see the most emotional of investments rise in value. Whether it's through the unearned proceeds made through sale, or it's the ownership of multiple properties, housing in the U.K. has gone from being a resource to an asset class.

The other unspoken truth is that is is an asset class which makes certain people who have no understanding of markets and investment feel very clever indeed. "You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar" can only be true if successive governments prop up this asset bubble for fear of normal market correction.

"My house has made me £XX,000 in 5 years" - how often have we heard this statement? (Cue a slew of people saying "I've never heard anyone say that" ) Despite the fact this is unearned wealth, and only realisable either at point of sale, or equity release etc - but no, the house is actually "making" money for that person.

Let's face it. British voters, the ones who feel like political shareholders with a stake in society, like rising house prices. For many it's their pension plan: for millions of people it's their asset fund to pass onto their DCs.

Which government is going to pop this entire bubble of being, this shared vision of "wealth"? It's so ingrained in society and I think plenty of people on here subscribe to this view also.

(Disclaimer: I own a single property in Surrey. I am not bitter. I am making observations about society, not casting envious glances. I like where I live.)

TL:DR - “Property” is not an investment. It is a basic human need and a basic human right. The attitudes involved in the fact the housing makes more money for the owning classes than working for a living is destroying the economy: both materially, as people and business are priced out of a basic requirement for living / operating space, and in attitudes - as more and more of us start to ask just what is the point of working for the sole benefit of a hereditary class, again?

Some might be interested in the UNs fairly low opinion of the shift in Britain’s policies in respect of housing. Here’s a starting point:

documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/191/93/PDF/G1319193.pdf?OpenElement

@Ginuwine

The unspoken truth is that because of a poorly functioning jobs market (lots of short term work for people who want more permanent), lack of true social mobility, and above all a reasonably high cost of living, the only way for some Brits to feel "wealthy" is through some connection to owning property. Governments know it makes core voters feel good to see the most emotional of investments rise in value. Whether it's through the unearned proceeds made through sale, or it's the ownership of multiple properties, housing in the U.K. has gone from being a resource to an asset class.

The other unspoken truth is that is is an asset class which makes certain people who have no understanding of markets and investment feel very clever indeed. "You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar" can only be true if successive governments prop up this asset bubble for fear of normal market correction.

"My house has made me £XX,000 in 5 years" - how often have we heard this statement? (Cue a slew of people saying "I've never heard anyone say that" ) Despite the fact this is unearned wealth, and only realisable either at point of sale, or equity release etc - but no, the house is actually "making" money for that person.

Let's face it. British voters, the ones who feel like political shareholders with a stake in society, like rising house prices. For many it's their pension plan: for millions of people it's their asset fund to pass onto their DCs.

Which government is going to pop this entire bubble of being, this shared vision of "wealth"? It's so ingrained in society and I think plenty of people on here subscribe to this view also.

(Disclaimer: I own a single property in Surrey. I am not bitter. I am making observations about society, not casting envious glances. I like where I live.)

Absolutely. I particularly liked the bit about people who don’t understand investing thinking they are smart. Reminds me of the astonishing person who genuinely seems to believe house prices rises have made her better off when it comes to upsizing 🤦‍♀️

Downsizing, sure, but upsizing?! It requires a special sort of mental gymnastics to think needing to borrow more is a good thing, just because they have made a paper gain already.

@JeffTheOracle

I wonder if the people who view BTL landlords as the scum of the earth feel similarly to property developers who buy wrecks, do them up and make a profit when they sell them?

It's not the same at all. One is taking a house our of ownership and hoarding a basic life essential, the other is returning it immediately to the market for ownership once it has been renovated.

BTL is terrible for the future of the country the cheap and free credit driving up house prices combined with immigration (which is where I have less sympathy with the younger people as the seem to be so pro immigration) is just making it seriously difficult for an average salary to afford a home.

I wouldn’t worry about immigration - because No one in their right mind is emigrating to the Uk any more. Our currency is trash, our wages are shite and our housing is not fit for purpose. Literally the only good thing going for us is :

• our unofficial status as a tax haven - for which you need to be rich anyway to take advantage of

• the NHS - great but hardly a primary driver in making a decision of emigrate i would imagine

• our language - then go to America where you can actually earn proper money

• a few good comedies from the 1970s-2000s

I think you are being a bit too optimistic about the NHS. Let's be realistic, the NHS as it exists today won't last much longer.

We are rushing towards a privatised system, even if we noticed the change a bit less during the pandemic.

@Ginuwine

The unspoken truth is that because of a poorly functioning jobs market (lots of short term work for people who want more permanent), lack of true social mobility, and above all a reasonably high cost of living, the only way for some Brits to feel "wealthy" is through some connection to owning property. Governments know it makes core voters feel good to see the most emotional of investments rise in value. Whether it's through the unearned proceeds made through sale, or it's the ownership of multiple properties, housing in the U.K. has gone from being a resource to an asset class.

The other unspoken truth is that is is an asset class which makes certain people who have no understanding of markets and investment feel very clever indeed. "You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar" can only be true if successive governments prop up this asset bubble for fear of normal market correction.

"My house has made me £XX,000 in 5 years" - how often have we heard this statement? (Cue a slew of people saying "I've never heard anyone say that" ) Despite the fact this is unearned wealth, and only realisable either at point of sale, or equity release etc - but no, the house is actually "making" money for that person.

Let's face it. British voters, the ones who feel like political shareholders with a stake in society, like rising house prices. For many it's their pension plan: for millions of people it's their asset fund to pass onto their DCs.

Which government is going to pop this entire bubble of being, this shared vision of "wealth"? It's so ingrained in society and I think plenty of people on here subscribe to this view also.

(Disclaimer: I own a single property in Surrey. I am not bitter. I am making observations about society, not casting envious glances. I like where I live.)

Sadly an good summary of the situation- as is often the case if you are looking for someone to blame the you only need to look into a mirror or in the case of young people to look at their parents.

The inherent selfishness of home owning voters is such that the fewer new houses built the better as reduced supply and increased demand will mean that the house goes up in price. The fact that this either deprives young families the security of growing up in their own homes is a best ignored or at worst blamed on young people for having an apple phone (didn't have those in the70s) or eating avocados etc etc.

It genuinely makes me sad.

@thebillyotea

I think you are being a bit too optimistic about the NHS. Let's be realistic, the NHS as it exists today won't last much longer.

We are rushing towards a privatised system, even if we noticed the change a bit less during the pandemic.

😂👍 you’re right indeed. Can’t say I didn’t try my best to look for something going for the place 🤦‍♀️

how can it be just that I can't pay off my own mortgage but can pay someone else's?
I really wish this myth could be dispelled. It used to be the case. It might still be for a few, but it isn't any longer for many. Including myself.

I am a high tax payer, which means that by the time I've paid almost 40% in tax from the rent, the interest, the insurance, the agency fees, the increasing numbers of checks now required, putting money aside for repairs and renovation, redecorating, there is nothing left to pay my mortgage, nothing.

The property is an investment just like any other, yet one veco.i g more and more risky. This why so many landlords, those who are still working, still have a mortgage and usually owning one property are selling up. That's what the government wanted. As it brought prices down. Nope!

I am not consuming at all. I have a choice. However, I'm tired as being deemed as a greedy person using poor renters to pay my mortgage. I pay much more taxes to benefit society as a landlord than if I invested in another way.

Stop blaming all landlords for the situation. They are an easy target.

Saying that, I posted YANBU because I do sympathise with 1st time buyers.

I wouldn’t worry about immigration - because No one in their right mind is emigrating to the Uk any more. Our currency is trash, our wages are shite and our housing is not fit for purpose.
i know lots of people planning to leave (with their businesses) and there is much fewer people asking about coming here and lots of advice to these is to look at Germany and such because UK living standards are not as they are presented to the outside world.

Now people here can have all the jobs and benefits and housing we were stealing🤷🏻

TulisaIsBrill

No real heat wave and no risk of drought here?
I mean, it's a plus when Europe will be melting in the summer

As usual, fuckwit anti landlord lot with no actual answers. I bet if you were eligible for help to buy or right to buy you would take it - who wouldn't? Life essentials are not free.

Too many people for the infrastructure. Higher taxes needed.

Oh and re the NHs being a part of decision...
Many people I know fly back to their respective countries if they need doctors and especially dentists. I used to for preventative obgyn checks which are unheard of here.

how can it be just that I can't pay off my own mortgage but can pay someone else's

It’s not like for like and this argument certainly has flaws.

If both a mortgage and rent is say £700. You have to get buildings insurance on the mortgage property, you have to maintain repairs that can happen at any point. Anything that goes wrong you’ve got to sort out and pay for, such as toilet blocking, pipes bursting, boiler breaks, leaking water etc and insurance doesn’t cover everything that’s for certain.

When you rent you simply phone up your LL and the responsibility is on them not out. So whilst it might seem like for like in price, it’s not because anyone if the above things could go wrong and they’d need fixing urgently.

The inherent selfishness of home owning voters
Many if them rented for many years before. Some of them might also have not been so picky with their first purchase.

Both my OH and I first purchase was the type of flat OP said she didn't want. It's the purchase my eldest son has just made to get a foot in the ladder. He saved £20k working PT from the age of 16 whilst studying for his A levels. Yes he was fortunate to be able to save and not pay bills, but no different to most kids that age. He just chose to work whilst studying and spent nothing. He didn't have much of a social life. He is over the moon to have his own place.

It is possible but it does require a number of sacrifices.