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.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/efe1f74c-3c1d-11e9-9988-28303f70fcff

It's better than whatever you call this ridiculous dance. It will bring much need sanity and stability to the housing market not the current casino market we have. Rent far exceeds income and UC. People are working to pay rent and can't even afford food or clothing because of high rents.

I'm afraid some insurances and mortgages do still ban benefits tenants

In which case they’re illegal.

It’s not Help to Buy, it is Help to Sell. Persimmons was struggling now their boss earns £170m a year in bonuses. Nice.

The best way to make houses affordable is to stop all the dozens of daft schemes and also nudge interest rate up a bit. Then what happens is prices will hit a market value ie they will fall.

The problem is that politically any government would be slated by the press and public. When price falls or even no more rises would in fact help the younger generation and allow money to go into the economy instead of just housing.

It’s a real scam...biggest potential recession for hundreds of years, high street worries, many living from gov support that can’t last forever....and houses are booming.

Agree....it’s ridiculous and the press and public should call it out for what is it.

This is exactly why I’ve set up savings accounts for my two DS & bank money in there for them each month. By the time they’re old enough to look at buying houses they’ll have enough in each of their accounts for their deposits.

It’s the main financial hurdle to get over in young adulthood which sets you up on the property ladder. IMHO it’s something all parents need to budget for as otherwise kids will struggle without a helping hand to buy a house.

IMHO it’s something all parents need to budget for [giving their children house deposits] as otherwise kids will struggle without a helping hand to buy a house

Do you see that this is one of the drivers pushing up prices?

(No ‘my kids are my life and everyone should want to give their own kids a leg up’ responses please)

I had savings. Then I got ill. Instead of spending on a deposit, I had to give it all to slum landlords. There's nowhere safe to go now the money's gone. If I'd had social housing, I'd have somewhere to recover but too much of it has been sold off. The bedroom tax made it worse because all the 1 bedroom places were taken by downsizers leaving nothing for disabled or ill people.

Andromeda Thats if you earn enough to do that. We were on low wages (pre NMW) and then NMW. Saving for DC was hard enough when a new pair of shoes wiped out any left over income!

@Iamthewombat

IMHO it’s something all parents need to budget for [giving their children house deposits] as otherwise kids will struggle without a helping hand to buy a house

Do you see that this is one of the drivers pushing up prices?

(No ‘my kids are my life and everyone should want to give their own kids a leg up’ responses please)

Of course it is. And it’s creating more divisions in society. I could never have afforded to save a house deposit for my son as a single parent. It took me all my time to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table sometimes. How are people struggling to pay their rents and mortgage supposed to do it?

@Alsohuman you're delightful!!

In my post you fail to see that it's party time for landlords and sellers due to lack of housing and prices being inflated. I can afford rent in zone 1 if I wanted to but I can't afford to buy a house in 3,4 let alone 2 despite the monthly payments being lower than my rent. If a council house can go on the market for 900k, what hope do people have if they ever want to buy? Yeah but let's all just move further and further away and price out people in those areas too until the people who live on the very edge of our island get pushed off the edge and can only afford to set camp on the sea floating away.

There's loads of threads on this forum where people are looking to buy houses and saying it's close to good schools, it's close to work and great area but my comment here seems to be a first world problem because you either have to be a millionaire, inherit or sell your ex council house to be able to afford it even though I can afford to rent in zone 1 but priced out to buy from zone 4. But sure I'll just move further away because I haven't worked hard enough to afford a house, my child doesn't deserve to be in that good school and we don't deserve to live in a safe area.

Bashing 2nd home owners is not justified either.
Haha, it’s absolutely fine, actually! I’d play you a tiny violin but I haven’t got the storage room for petite musical instruments in this shonkily converted, overpriced BTL flat. No one needs more than one property. No one.

@burritofan

Bashing 2nd home owners is not justified either. Haha, it’s absolutely fine, actually! I’d play you a tiny violin but I haven’t got the storage room for petite musical instruments in this shonkily converted, overpriced BTL flat. No one needs more than one property. No one.

No one needs more than one child or in fact any child, no one needs more than one car, no one needs more than one pair of shoes - yet here we are.

Alsohuman you're delightful!!

Thank you. Surely even you can appreciate that your post was a bit “my diamond shoes pinch”? There’s life beyond Zone 2 and even the M25. Good schools too.

The only way we can finally afford to buy is due to an inheritance...both professionals in 40s. It's sad that the younger generations are relying on the deaths of older generations so they can buy properties but that is how the system is now

I haven’t read the whole thread OP but I know how you feel. Me and my partner are trying to save but house prices and increasing everyday. We are in a one bed flat and I am slowly coming to the realisation that I may not be able to have children if we cannot move from here. We just can’t afford it and the deposits are insane. People (and I’m including my mother for example) have absolutely no idea what people face now, especially when they’re on the ladder already. It may have been hard for them at one point but now they are rolling in it, their house having increased by %%%%

@Iamthewombat

My kids are my life though. What’s wrong with that as a justification for binning money to ensure they get on the property ladder? Why else would I do it? I will do what’s necessary to set them up. And that includes handing over deposits for their houses when they “come of age,” whenever that to one is.

Whenever that time is sorry

My kids are my life though. What’s wrong with that as a justification for binning money to ensure they get on the property ladder?

Predictably.

I didn’t ask whether your kids were your life. I don’t care. I asked whether you could see that parents handing cash for deposits to kids was one of the drivers of price increases. Anybody doing it can’t complain about high property prices and young people being priced out, because they are part of the problem.

No one needs more than one child or in fact any child, no one needs more than one car, no one needs more than one pair of shoes - yet here we are.
Children, cars and shoes are aren’t artificially inflated, near-finite resources the multiple ownership of which prevents anyone else from owning them. Stupid bloody argument. If I have two kids I’m not stopping some FTP getting on the baby ladder. Cop on.

@Iamthewombat Parents have always passed money down to their children to buy houses and other big things though, it's not new. Yes it keeps prices up but it isn't going to change. I started saving for my DD the week she was born. Her grandparents save for her too. I'm not going to stop doing that, it's the responsible thing to do for my child given that I have enough spare income to do so. Why wouldn't I want to give my DD a leg up when I can?

Korawick No one needs more than one child or in fact any child, no one needs more than one car, no one needs more than one pair of shoes - yet here we are.

Goodness, life would be fun under your regime. Pay your tax, have low expectations in life, maybe have one child if you behave yourselves. Probably no foreign holidays either I'm guessing?

In the real world, people respond to the expectation of being able to improve their situation in life, in whatever way that is for them, whether it be working towards buying a bigger house to having a home filled with children.

Many western European countries now have a problem with declining populations, due to people not wanting to have more than one child at replacement population levels, or even one child. The solution to that has not been to accept the decline in population but to encourage immigration into already heavily urbanised areas.

@LindyLou2020

"UK population 1961 - 52.6 million
UK population 2021 - 67.61 million
In 60 years, an increase of 15 million.
Surely the elephant in the room is that that there are TOO MANY PEOPLE......

+++++

A 15 million increase over 60 years would require a house build of 250k house per year, whereas in the last 20 years it's been around 150k per year. There are two elephants here increase demand (more people) and insufficient supply ( not enough houses being built). Basic economics means that if demand is greater than supply then prices will go up.

Interestingly the only time when supply outstripped demand was in the late 60s and 1970s (house build of around 300k) which resulted in housing being more affordable- I guess it's a coincidence that this is the same period when the current boomers were buying their first homes...

@burritofan

No one needs more than one child or in fact any child, no one needs more than one car, no one needs more than one pair of shoes - yet here we are. Children, cars and shoes are aren’t artificially inflated, near-finite resources the multiple ownership of which prevents anyone else from owning them. Stupid bloody argument. If I have two kids I’m not stopping some FTP getting on the baby ladder. Cop on.

Apologies - I hadn't realised the point you were making in your previous post as it seemed to be a generalised rant at people owning more than one property incl BTL which of course doesn't stop the resource being used, you yourself being evidence of that.

@GreenlandTheMovie

Korawick No one needs more than one child or in fact any child, no one needs more than one car, no one needs more than one pair of shoes - yet here we are.

Goodness, life would be fun under your regime. Pay your tax, have low expectations in life, maybe have one child if you behave yourselves. Probably no foreign holidays either I'm guessing?

In the real world, people respond to the expectation of being able to improve their situation in life, in whatever way that is for them, whether it be working towards buying a bigger house to having a home filled with children.

Many western European countries now have a problem with declining populations, due to people not wanting to have more than one child at replacement population levels, or even one child. The solution to that has not been to accept the decline in population but to encourage immigration into already heavily urbanised areas.

Greenland - I am not disagreeing with you. I think you misunderstood my post.

Parents have always passed money down to their children to buy houses and other big things though, it's not new. Yes it keeps prices up but it isn't going to change. I started saving for my DD the week she was born. Her grandparents save for her too. I'm not going to stop doing that, it's the responsible thing to do for my child given that I have enough spare income to do so. Why wouldn't I want to give my DD a leg up when I can?

Who said that you couldn’t do it? Do keep up. If you do it, though, don’t complain about high house prices.

@Iamthewombat

Anybody doing it can’t complain about high property prices and young people being priced out, because they are part of the problem.

I’m not complaining about high property prices. I know they’re high already. That’s why I’m saving for my DS house deposits.