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.

@sst1234 where have I said London? I’m not in London or the SE. Houses cost a lot everywhere at the moment.

There should be rent capping - unfortunately, the Tory free marketers don’t like this.

Only people with a really good salary or family money are able to buy these days.

BTL is propped up by UC, and rents keep getting higher.

We all pay the mortgages of BTL landlords because out economy is based on low wages and government top ups.

@caringcarer

The thing is though people should be allowed to spend their own money on what they want to. Some people buy several cars. Others buy loads of shoes. Others buy too much food and much of it goes to waste. I prefer to spend my money on houses. There are so many houses on Rightmove but many people don't have a deposit saved. By buying a house I am not preventing a person without s deposit getting it because without a deposit they won't get a mortgage. I don't see how I am doing anything wrong. I have 6 btl houses. They are all rented out and housing many people. They are kept in good repair and I charge below market value and only increase tent by inflation every 2nd or 3rd year. If I were to sell them all tomorrow the houses would have appreciated and no one without a deposit would be able to buy any of them. I have bought 6 as an investment for me and DH and 1 house each for my 3 DC and 1 foster child who has lived with us since he was 5. Without private rental properties many, many more would be homeless. I also pay taxes on rental income which contributes to society also.

I'm really sorry but it's people like you that have contributed to the housing crisis. Grab as many properties as you can , which , in turns , increases demand, which in turn, increases prices and you just rent out to maximise your return . You're alright Jack.

@IsThePopeCatholic the ultimate irony is that while the tories claim to be free marketeers, the are using public money to prop the market up with help to buy and keep the Ponzi scheme going. Makes me so mad!

This is nkt standing up for rnet prices, but obviously people will pay more than mortgage, I don't get that argument.
The rent also includes insurance, repairs, tax etc. If you look at how much that adds up to on top of mortgage, the difference isn't as big as comparing simply rent vs only mortgage.

BTL is propped up by UC, and rents keep getting higher.

Really? One of the most common complaints I read about on here are about landlords who actively avoid renting to people in receipt of benefits.

OP, where in the country are you? Budget? LTV? Incomings, outgoings? If you are looking for advice on how to solve the situation, feel free to share some background. If you are looking to let off steam, also fine, but there are some ways to make your deposit work harder for you and get on the property ladder.
Ultimately, owning a house has never been cheap. When property prices were low, interest rates were high and now it’s the opposite. People who were in negative equity on 15% interest rate mortgages in the 90s will tell you that.

It’s a SUPPLY SIDE PROBLEM.

Stop objecting to every planning application and there will be more houses.

Really? One of the most common complaints I read about on here are about landlords who actively avoid renting to people in receipt of benefits.

Some do, of course. But who do you think people on benefits rent from? Landlords, surely.

It’s a SUPPLY SIDE PROBLEM.

You cannot separate supply from demand. You cannot build your way out of this, just the way you cannot outrun a bad diet.

We need the government and councils to start making it REALLY REALLY unattractive to own an empty property.

All those empty properties need to be sold or rented out at a reasonable rate. That goes for commercial property as well as residential property.

In my own small town we have a listed building standing almost empty and falling into disrepair that has planning permission granted for conversion into over 100 homes. The developers aren't progressing, and the council have a massive headache trying to get something done.

In the meantime, due to the housing shortage, half a mile away, greenbelt in a preservation area is being built on endangering a world heritage site.

It is bloody sick that buildings are being allowed to crumble when people need homes.

@Lexilooo it’s also the ‘holiday homes destroy communities’ argument- half empty villages, schools & shops closing as populations decline etc. In some Cornish towns they have started to take action but other places need to aswell- wales, Devon, Dorset etc

@user1487194234

Help 2 buy is terrible for everyone except builders

This is simply not true. My partner and I used help to buy on a teeny tiny house 5 years ago. Just sold up with lots of equity on it and have bought a big house suitable for our growing family. We could not have done it without H2B and I do wonder when I see these threads why more people don't take advantage of it.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Really? One of the most common complaints I read about on here are about landlords who actively avoid renting to people in receipt of benefits.

Some do, of course. But who do you think people on benefits rent from? Landlords, surely.

Well the assertion was that UC is propping up BTLs when actually I don’t think that’s the case. Up until very recently, BTL mortgages & BTL insurance policies clearly stipulated that landlords couldn’t rent to people in receipt of benefits. In fact, landlords refusing to rent to people on benefits was so much of a problem that Shelter mounted legal action (& won) to stop ‘benefit discrimination’ although it still persists as landlords always favour those not in receipt of benefits.

So who do people on benefits rent from?

Fairies?

We need the government and councils to start making it REALLY REALLY unattractive to own an empty property.

Starting with councils as well. Many of them own lots of empty properties they don't care for so are inhabitable. Agree. Long term empty properties are a big issue

[quote caringcarer]@Kitchendisco21, if all btl LL sold their houses tomorrow there would be a massive crisis as councils would not have enough hotel accommodation to put them all in, do many more homeless and rough sleepers. How would that in any way help you buy a home?[/quote]
If all BTL landlords sold tomorrow a lot of FTBs would be able to buy houses.

@dividedwefall

My first home was a wreck which I slowly renovated over 5 years. It was a skanky place to live and in a less than appealing area but I made a big profit on it to buy my first family home in a nice area. It's not what people want to hear but that's the only way some people can buy a house.

I do feel for people struggling to save up a deposit to buy a house though. It's not easy to get on the ladder, even in a cheaper area with less fervour in the market. You just have to do what you can because complaining about it won't change things. When people complain you get initiatives like the help to buy and shared ownership scenarios which make things even worse.

It's hard to get a mortgage on a wreck, though. Sometimes impossible. Wrecks are only really good for cash buyers - we've been looking and even with some that are fairly liveable, mortgage providers won't consider it.

Yeah house prices have gone crazy in my area the South West, 3 years ago 2 bed starter homes were selling for £160-70k now going for £220-230k, I thought prices were unsustainable back then, now they are beyond that. If your a single first time buyer you have got no chance.

It is completely 100% the fault of the government for introducing prop up scheme after prop up scheme to keep them selves rich as they all own houses, stamp duty holiday, shared ownership, help to buy, zero interest rates, 5% government back mortgages, it's just inflating house prices stupidly and getting first time buyers into stupid amounts of debt, no other generation had all these prop up schemes. Builders profits have gone through the roof off the back of it.

Unless you are a wealthy parent who can gift £100ks to your kids then I'm afraid children of today will be paying off someone else's mortgage via rent for the rest of their lives

You probably need to look in a more affordable area. Frustrating but it's how people afford to buy their own place: balancing desire with budget.

My boyfriend is looking to buy in our town so I've become very knowledgeable I'm local house prices. In the last few months, they have increased by 30-50k, compared to similar houses sold last year. It's utter madness.

I'm so lucky that I bought my house 1.5 years ago...Im not sure I would have been able to buy now, if I'd waited!

I also found out today that my town is building a huuuuuuge housing development on the greenbelt south of the city. I was shocked. I loved that my town was surrounded my countryside....well not anymore.

To the woman who said earlier rhat she's bought several houses ... I hate you! You are part of the problem!!!

Having more than one house should be illegal. Renting should be from the council.

There are lots of simple fixes that together would over time ease the situation. Like incentives for selling/maintaining derelict properties as a PP has suggested, also incentivising larger developers to prioritise GENUINELY affordable quality 2-3 bed housing rather than token shared ownership gestures which are often nothing more than a lending trap or tagging on LA ghettos which can end up attracting antisocial residents as another PP put more eloquently than me. (Not suggesting AT ALL that all LA tenants are anti social).

There are myriad small changes that could be made too that together could add up to real change - but no quick fixes. It takes more than a term in government to set this stuff up and see it through and none of it would appeal to those in charge who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and none of it spells vote winning policy for the majority of voters in this country who it seems have nothing to gain from this situation ever changing.

It’s miserable and I recognise I’m a ‘homeowner’ largely due to the good fortune of having a two-income household, having had a VERY SMALL amount of help from not-wealthy parents and from
having ties to an area which, while expensive relatively to the county, is middling price-wise on a national level. And the fortunate timing of these things coming together when at a point when we could manage to catch the shirt tails of the property market before it sailed out of our reach for good 5 years ago.

@Chihuahuacat

I’m in a NW city and house prices are madness. We bought in 2016 and made £50k on a 2 bed terrace in 3 years. We did nothing other than paint.

Am I happy about that? No, because the houses we want to buy are now £80k or so more expensive.

Interest rates being so low have pushed house prices up - because the monthly payments on massive mortgages are affordable. This has now been exacerbated by the stamp duty holiday.

Lots of people I know can afford the monthly repayments on a £400k house, but they still owe the bank £350k plus interest. It’s terrifying and a lot of people are in a precarious position should they lose their jobs. The same if interests rates rise - that £800 a month on a £200k mortgage jumps to over a thousand, and I dread to think what will happen.

We need house prices to stagnate and wages to rise - and for that we need interest rates to increase.

I agree, Interest rate rises only thing that will re set the market, however for this to happen interest rates would have to rise significantly which will mean many many people will have their homes repossessed or to be in a huge amount of negative equity as happened in the big property crash of the late eighties. It is interest rates that have caused the massive property price increases but increasing them to re set the market would be political suicide. These tables show average interest rates from 1979, it’s clear why property is so expensive it’s the best place to invest, I don’t know what the answer is.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

So who do people on benefits rent from?

Fairies?

There’s no need to be facetious.

Benefit discrimination is a widely acknowledged problem when it comes to private renting; a quick Google search or even a search on here will bring up loads of information about it.

Also I never said that benefit claimants do not rent from private landlords, of course they do. My point was that the BTL is not being propped up by UC which was your assertion. The majority of landlords avoid renting to benefit claimants, so much so, that Shelter has had to take legal action against it.

Here’s a link to recent article about the problem which has been exacerbated by coronavirus.

blog.shelter.org.uk/2020/06/dss-discrimination-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/

From the article:

A 2020 YouGov survey found that 63% of private landlords either operate an outright ban on letting to tenants receiving housing benefit or say they prefer not to let to this group.