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.

@korawick12345 As I said, life doesn’t always work out that way for everyone thanks to dealing with difficult stuff. I have worked my arse off to get a professional career at a uni and save for a deposit on my own with my kids. I don’t need snidey patronising comments thanks.

Worked it out

In the ten years I lived in my last property it went up in value 55000 in total or £458 a month

Think I would struggle to save that each month just to keep up with the price rise

🤔

Looking around my area, there are absolutely loads of houses being built. Yet prices keep going up.

Is it possibly because absolutely no one wants to address the elephant in the room that is demand?

Immigration. It's additional demand.
Larger families (however funded). Additional demand.
Higher separation rates. Additional demand.

Unless you address the demand side of the equation, then you won't begin to solve the problem.

I watched the documentary that aired recently on Cornish fishermen. Quite often they mention that hardly any of them actually live on the coast as all the houses are bought by second home owners and on a fisherman's wage they've got no chance

They also mention how for most of the year apart from the summer said houses sit empty in darkness

and if you really think about it ..There's no other option. go and you will be faced with a mountain. don't go and the valley calls. I remember when we went to snowdon. ,take the train I say..But hey they insisted on walking.,we all know where that led her don't we. In the end people say it's choice and freedom but only because that concurs their own beliefs...we are all constrained by money, norms "values " to a lesser or greater degree. let's hope for a crash of epic proportions

The answer is passive resistance. If you can, Don’t participate, or if you do - hardball.

• Don’t pay the asking prices, offer 33% of the price. First time buyer strike until they remove the props.

• stuff housing, instead, stuff you pension full using the tax relief available on that. Remember that pension contribs come off your income for the purposes of qualification for benefits. Great - get housing benefit, UC and let the government and central banks pay for the mess they’ve created.

• turn some of your cash into bitcoin as soon as possible. Crypto can’t be debased like crappy pounds.

buy other assets - good quality stocks etc. Housing is not by any stretch the best investment* - it shouldn’t be an investment in the first place, but it’s only ‘the best’ to some because they can use leverage (mortgage debt) to purchase it. Great when irs keep dropping _ but qE money has inflated (some) stocks and crypto far faster than bricks.

Help to buy is the only reason we are on the property ladder. We paid a £12.5k deposit (5%) the help to buy equity loan was 20% and then we got a mortgage for the 75% remaining. We got a really good rate mortgage because it was 75% LTV so we are now overpaying the mortgage to build up equity and then we will remortgage in 5 years to pay off help to buy and it will of served it's purpose. If you get it with no plan to repay it then sure, it isn't great, but it has its uses. It has pushed prices up, so it's admittedly not perfect, but it is still a means to get on the ladder and more people should take advantage of it if they want to get out of the rent trap.

Also to add to my comment by using help to buy we didn't have to go into a dump and Reno it, but used the scheme and moved into a brand new detached four bedroom

Nobody has mentioned our rising POPULATION ! The Office for National Statistics predicts that the population of the UK will rise by five million by 2040s - equivalent to two cities the size of Manchester. Housing this number will require building over an area the size of Bedfordshire.

@tanguero

Nobody has mentioned our rising POPULATION ! The Office for National Statistics predicts that the population of the UK will rise by five million by 2040s - equivalent to two cities the size of Manchester. Housing this number will require building over an area the size of Bedfordshire.

That's ok then because that's actually what they are doing

YADNBU we saved up for 7 years and bought 3 years ago. We could only buy a 2 bed flat in the area we wanted and it's lovely but too small really for 4 of us.

A house would have been way out of our league although we did see a couple that were smaller than our flat. So pokey!

It's crazy. I have older friends at work who earn similar joint salaries but who bought 15-20 years ago and they live in huge houses with gardens.

POPULATION.....the elephant in the room that no-one wants to talk about !

The help to buy scheme is now only for brand new build homes. Doesn’t really benefit anyone except builders.

BLToutanowhere Tue 06-Apr-21 20:05:40
Looking around my area, there are absolutely loads of houses being built. Yet prices keep going up.

Is it possibly because absolutely no one wants to address the elephant in the room that is demand?

Immigration. It's additional demand.
Larger families (however funded). Additional demand.
Higher separation rates. Additional demand.

Unless you address the demand side of the equation, then you won't begin to solve the problem.

This !

@korawick12345 we have one child and been saving for ten plus years with no holidays or luxuries.

A 2/3 bed terraced house is hardly an unreasonable first time house, we aren't trying to get a 4/5 bed semi detached.

People saying you shouldn't have children before buying....when it's taking ten years to save and let's say you are out of uni at 21 (because yes, a lot of jobs want a degree these days despite them not really being necessary) and probably not saving for a few years on a graduate salary paying market rent. You can have your house at 33/34 which is starting to cut it a bit fine for then starting a family at 34/35. Of course in many cases that's fine but I hardly think women can be blamed for wanting to try for children earlier than that. Personally I have no idea how we will ever be able to afford children despite being in two career jobs and never eating out/only camping on holidays, driving tiny 2nd hand cars etc. I own one bra and all our furniture is 2nd hand. Hardly a life of luxury. We pay 800 a month for a very scruffy house (see my other recent posts for details....the windows don't even close!)

@Paddingtonthebear

The help to buy scheme is now only for brand new build homes. Doesn’t really benefit anyone except builders.

As mentioned in my previous comments the scheme helped us and we managed to purchase a 4 bed detached new build that we'd never of been able to without the scheme. I get that a lot of people dislike new builds, I guess you have to choose what you dislike more, new builds or renting. If you hate new builds and would rather rent then ok, but if you want to get out the ladder than have an open mind and use the schemes that are available whilst they are. We've been really pleasantly surprised with ours. Look for small local developers rather than big companies if you're worried, this is what we've done and we're happy. I do know many young couples who have bought with the big name companies and have also had good experiences though.

Our friends bought a new build via help to buy about 8yrs ago and cannot sell it now even at a reduced price , despite everything else around them selling like hot cakes

Here is how I see it

• we need a coordinate buyers strike. Everyone offers 33% of the currently hyper inflated valuations, relative to earnings, until the props are removed.

• People play the system. Prospective put the maximum they can afford into their pensions instead. Pension contribs come off your income for benefit calculation purposes. So you may now qualify for housing support via UC. Let the government and central banks pay the rent instead. They have created the situation - it’s their fault.

• any other spare capital you have is placed in high quality stocks, or crypto. Bitcoin cannot be debased, unlike sterling. It’s hard money, not toilet paper like £$¥€. Houses as an investment - pah. It’s only liked because people can use leverage (mortgage debt) to do it - which only adds to the problem.

• live in a camper van, live in your car, whatever you can to opt out of the system.

It is disgusting how shelter had become financial used, but there are ways out that are so satisfying.

I earn silly money and have silly amounts of assets (knocking a mil) - but no house because i refuse to participate. It’s awesome.

@tanguero

Nobody has mentioned our rising POPULATION ! The Office for National Statistics predicts that the population of the UK will rise by five million by 2040s - equivalent to two cities the size of Manchester. Housing this number will require building over an area the size of Bedfordshire.

Sorry bjt this caught my eye. Manchester has population of 500k😁 10 Manchesters then. Incredible number. About 8% rise from now

Greedy people who just buy up loads of houses to let out make my blood boil. It just pushes prices up for ordinary folk trying to buy. Makes me sick. I now await lots of BTL landlords bleating that they are doing renters a favour by providing a secure long term tenancy.

@tanguero. its impossible to gave a reasonable discussion on immigration. If you try one is immediately branded a racist. This is why brexit happened. not because of immigration but because reasonable debate was shut down.

Help to buy. Right to buy. Incentives to build rather than renovate. Too many people for the infrastructure.

Solutions please?

@Chicchicchicchiclana

The only answer is to stop people from owning 2nd/3rd/4th/5th homes. I include holiday homes in that. And foreign billionaire investors who buy whole blocks of property because of some weird loophole in our property tax law.

Yep. We have enough housing really, but it's distributed very badly. Building more is pointless, especially when the building companies don't bother building extra schools too even when they promise to do so. Or maybe that's just a Scottish problem.

@Paddingtonthebear new builds around here sell second hand for £30,000-£50,000 more 2-3 years later, and sell well even though they're still building. Up and coming area and development has made the area much more sought after and thus houses sell well, HTB has been a great way for people to get on the ladder around here. Don't get me wrong it's far from perfect and developers are laughing, but it's not true to say they're the only winners, it's worked for a lot of buyers too, you can't generalise as it's so unique to the individual market conditions.