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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

716 replies

Kitchendisco21 · 06/04/2021 16:06

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
SchrodingersImmigrant · 06/04/2021 21:31

@TulisaIsBrill

Supply problems are another myth. It’s the distribution of existing family homes (everyone knows of a 4 bed with one old person knocking around in it, with no incentive to downsize not least because the IHT bands now include a specific part for the family home), and new builds being shoeboxes not fit for purpose.
It's also nowhere to downsize really. Older people would not benefit from being removed from their community and ties there. It was interesting discussion on another thread.
tanguero · 06/04/2021 21:33

DuesToTheDirt Tue 06-Apr-21 21:21:19
Surely there are two main factors driving up prices.

Inheritance - it used to be that few people owned their own houses and most rented or had council houses. Now more and more pepple are house-owners, and when they die, what happens to the house? It goes as inheritance to the children, who then have more available cash to buy for themselves, so driving up prices. Some people don't inherit much for various reasons of course, leading to great inequality.

Mortgage multiples - when DH and I bought 26 years ago we and everyone else could only borrow a maximum of 3 times one salary or 2.5 times joint. Now it's what, 5x? All this does is push up prices again.

Nothing to do then with the fact that there are 28 more million people living on this island than in 1950. And by 2040 there will be another 5 million ?
Wake up and smell the coffee !

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 06/04/2021 21:34

I don’t know why they are not employed.

thebillyotea · 06/04/2021 21:34

There's also another thread discussing how people seem to want everything immediately nowadays, while in the past it was much more accepted to build things up slowly.

Jennywallpaper · 06/04/2021 21:35

Can I ask who you got your mortgage with? I am trying to get a 95 % mortgage but haven't seen to many available yet.
We've had our offer accepted on a house but feel like we're in limbo until more mortgages become available.

Jennywallpaper · 06/04/2021 21:37

@user64332

OP, have you looked at the new 95% LTV mortgages? A 5% deposit has meant I've been able to buy a house in a cheap area after 16 months of saving. If we needed 10% plus we wouldn't have been able to manage it before we aged out of an affordable mortgage term so the lower deposit needed has really been key.
Can I ask who you got your mortgage with please? We have had an offer accepted but now feel like we are in limbo as we're waiting for more 95% mortgages to become available.
woodhill · 06/04/2021 21:38

There is no point in building and building if the people already here are not receiving the affordable housing

SchrodingersImmigrant · 06/04/2021 21:39

@Jennywallpaper

Can I ask who you got your mortgage with? I am trying to get a 95 % mortgage but haven't seen to many available yet. We've had our offer accepted on a house but feel like we're in limbo until more mortgages become available.
Have you checked Accord mortgages? I am with them. It's ok. No problem, easy switching deal at the end of fix
Jennywallpaper · 06/04/2021 21:42

I'll check them out, thank you!

SchrodingersImmigrant · 06/04/2021 21:51

@Jennywallpaper

I'll check them out, thank you!
I've had massive cashback from them when I was taking mime out so it covered some other fees. Worth a look. Good luck!
Sprockerdilerock · 06/04/2021 21:56

My town has a higher than average amount of over 65s and I know so many who still live in family sized homes despite their children being grown up and gone.

Meanwhile young families are priced out or squished into pokey 2 bed terraces or flats.

I wish there was a fair way to redistribute housing. I know it isn't possible but it seems so wrong to erode the countryside building more when we could possibly make better use of what we already have.

LindyLou2020 · 06/04/2021 21:57

[quote Kitchendisco21]@caringcarer sorry but your attitude is part of the issue. BTL landlords are not adding anything very much to society but stopping people like me from getting on the ladder. I can’t compete with someone who has multiple properties and more financial backing at their disposal.[/quote]
Well said - 'though greedy people owning multiple properties won't agree.
But you are absolutely right.

2kool4skool · 06/04/2021 22:07

Can you not work full time OP to increase income, savings and therefore deposit?

worriedatthemoment · 06/04/2021 22:08

My area had had a 14 % increase in last year , makes no sense as wages have gone down for new jobs and most people I know in a job have beeb told no pay rises this year

worriedatthemoment · 06/04/2021 22:10

*there simply aren't enough houses to meet demand. the tories sold off all the council houses & didn't build any more.

unless house building goes up dramatically, with more council houses & genuinely affordable homes, then nothing will change.

write to your MP. complain to politicians. This is their issue to fix.*
You do realise labour were in power for over 10 years after this and also didn't build this is an issue with all parties
Well actually council houses / ha have been built but not as many as we need as higher demand
I live in a 12 year old ha home

SofiaMichelle · 06/04/2021 22:16

YABU with your sweeping '...in this country'.

In many areas house prices haven't risen anywhere near as much as is being talked about by many in this thread.

worriedatthemoment · 06/04/2021 22:21

Also I agree with the pilot for right to buy for ha as it means if a property is sold then they have to replace with 2 others, totally different to schemes before but looks like this won't go ahead now and this was the only hope for us to get on property market
Then people think in a few years when mu kids leave home me and dh should be then forced to move to a one bed flat somewhere and never have gc to stay , all money we have invested in home wasted as ha don't do a lot these days .
But because we are only ha the day we don't need the second bedroom we should be placed in a 1 bed cramped flat in a block and in our old age have to manage stairs , have no outside space becAuse that seems fair but then we are only ha / council tenants so easier to target than those that own multiple houses and the companies that make all money out if houses/ mortgages etc
How about councils/ ha build more 2 beds suitable for older people who then may give up their larger house

LindyLou2020 · 06/04/2021 22:22

Somebody earlier mentioned that the population of the UK is only going to increase exponentially - that's a statistical forecast, not an opinion.
Now here's the elephant in the room, which, again, someone has mentioned - continuous immigration.
Wherever you stand politically, or whether or not you voted for Brexit, (and this thread is not about this), where are all these people going to live?

LemonSherbetFancies · 06/04/2021 22:22

Without a doubt there is a serious problem.
My DD is in her twenties and buying her own property is all but a pipe dream at the moment. It's so much harder now.

TableFlowerss · 06/04/2021 22:28

Can’t you take advantage of that help to buy scheme? Isn’t that what it’s for, someone who on paper can afford it but hasn’t got enough deposit?

MumofSpud · 06/04/2021 22:29

My key worker DS (and his GF) were both 21 when they bought their 2 bed flat (in the SE) 2 years ago.
They didn't go without holidays etc either (and NO bank of mum and dad)

Am not saying this to boast but it is possible - I think if you need to have found the right job (and O/T possibilities).

sodoffmenopause · 06/04/2021 22:45

It's so frustrating we have a patch of land on the edge of a village would take about 8/9 homes, we've even spoken to the council about building affordable homes but it's an outright no. We offered them some of the land for local allotments which was a no.

We genuinely want to provide smaller affordable homes for the locals who have grown up here.

The planning laws have been tightened to such an extend it's impossible to build small helpful developments locally, they are only interested in giving planning to massive schemes now.

Had they had slightly more relaxed rules going back 10 years and let villages grow we wouldn't be in this mess.

And now we are faced with huge ongoing battles around us for building of thousands of homes on farmland where no doubt water run off won't be considered and the build quality will be useless.

TulisaIsBrill · 06/04/2021 22:55

@TableFlowerss

Can’t you take advantage of that help to buy scheme? Isn’t that what it’s for, someone who on paper can afford it but hasn’t got enough deposit?
The help to buy scheme is there to line the pockets of shareholders of the house builders (Check out the value of persimmon and Taylor wimpey in the months prior to the announcement - and tell me there wasn’t mass insider trading going on), and to maintain the existing illusory values of current houses. It had zero to do with helping I’m people onto the ladder. That is a side effect of the ponzi principles behind the scheme.
TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum · 06/04/2021 22:56

It's not sustainable. Something has to be done. It's a ticking time bomb. Imagine a whole generation unable to retire because they are still renting and have no savings. That's what will happen in 30 odd years if not sooner unless something major is done. Help to buy schemes aren't going to cut it.

TulisaIsBrill · 06/04/2021 23:02

@TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum

It's not sustainable. Something has to be done. It's a ticking time bomb. Imagine a whole generation unable to retire because they are still renting and have no savings. That's what will happen in 30 odd years if not sooner unless something major is done. Help to buy schemes aren't going to cut it.
You can totally have savings and retire.

But if the three things previous generations took for granted..

  • you own (owned outright eventually) house
  • retirement
  • kids

....Most people can do one of the above reasonably comfortably. Some can do two. Some very lucky few can have all three today, but they are the exceptions.