To think that renters have put up with big monthly rises for years

[Upthebracket22]

We rent because we have been priced out of the housing market for years & years. We have raised our kids in a rented house & put up with large rises in monthly payments. We’ve been ‘lucky’ in that we’ve been on our current house for 10 years.

Noone has given a flying fuck about renters & the amount we pay & have had to find extra each year but now it’s mortgages going up, it’s all ‘poor mortgage holders’ - it’s really grating on me.

As it goes, the coming housing downturn will mean we actually might be able to buy a house. Safe secure affordable housing is a good thing.

the current housing boom has been created by cheap money and that era is ending. An entire generation of people have been priced out of a safe home & while I don’t want to people in difficulty, renters have had to put up with it for years ‘move to a cheaper area’ being the main nonsense.

We are a normal family with good jobs but saving for a deposit has been impossible because of insanely high rents.

i am tired of the ‘poor mortgage holder’ rhetoric when those of us trapped in rented homes have put up with large monthly hikes for years.

i know this won’t be a popular view on here but for us renters, the last decade had been difficult and no one has given a shit.

Because you seem to have a lot of advice for renters about how we fucked up by not buying in the sequence we apparently should have done
In my case? Studied at Uni whilst working as many hours as possible. Rented a room and worked FT. Saved and paid for a Master's. Worked FT. Rented a 2 bed appt with my OH as we met. Worked FT. Saved. Baby came alone. Went back to work FT when 6 months, apply to new job when 12 months. Promotion. Baby in FT childcare. When 18 months, had saved enough for deposit and with 2 FT income, had enough for a 3 bed house in a much cheaper area. Commuted. Me 3h a day, OH 4 hours. Had child 2, return to FT work at 5 months. Promotion. Moved closer to jobs, bought new house, let the older one. New house paid off

Latest tenants been there 5 years. No rental increase requested despite now 25% below market rate. All repairs done in time. Tenants happy. Not making any profit from rental income after tax and the everything else. Paying mortgage out of my pay income. Only benefit right now is capital worth.

So does this make me a horrible landlord person? I'm certainly not moaning at all. I appreciate my privileges, but I'm certainly where I am due to the choices I've made.

genuinely, well done.

I got made redundant (was in finance in the 2007/08 crash) when I made my “slip up”. Returned to work on a lower wage as the market was different then started to save and was in a position to buy, but at that point the government bailed out the mortgages, and I missed the boat. The house I was renting went from 250k - 400k within the year I was getting sorted to buy.

There's an unpleasant tone to a lot of the posts on this thread. Some people sound almost gleeful at the prospect of mortgage-holders struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Whatever the issues with the rental market are, it's not the fault of individual mortgage-holders, or of them as a group.

Nope, because we didn't over-extend. We could have bought a more expensive house, but I looked at the increased amounts were the interest rates were to rise.

And when I realised the medium-term financial situation earlier in the year, I made sure we fixed as soon as we were able to, at a reasonable rate for 10 years. (Though I appreciate that this was partly good timing as our previous mortgage was up at the end of the year).

And if they’ve got kids?
You rent as cheap as you can, continue to work FT and save, buy with the equity you got alone or with someone new.

average people on an average wage should be able to buy an average home

It’s not gleeful. Far from it. It’s shit for all. It’s just an acknowledgement that renters put up with this shit all the time.

If only.

Why is it seen as a bad thing to want an average 2 bed terraced house as your first home? It's easy enough for LLs to buy so many of them, your average couple or family should be able to as well.

Making homes a source of income or retirement plan is immoral.

Oh fuck off with the whole 'don't have kids until you own a house' bullshit
So if you fall pregnant unexpectedly you should have an abortion because you're renting? If you can't afford to buy a house until you're 40 you should just never have kids?

Not everyone is lucky enough to have this cookie-cutter life where they can live with their parents through their 20s, in an area where they can get a good job and save, and then meet their spouse young enough to buy together early on and still have plenty of time to have kids, etc etc.

Some things are choices, but no it was not my choice to not meet my husband until my late 30s, it was not my choice that our wonderful low-cost neighbourhood became trendy and gentrified and rents doubled within a few years, house prices went through the roof.

We had only one child, we only need a tiny flat, we have a big deposit but can't meet affordability because house prices have skyrocketed, so we pay exorbitant rents. So yeah I'm with the OP.

@Damnautocorrect, they are and always will be people who despite making the right choices will fall out if the wagon due to redundancies or ill health and that is very unfair. I definitely agree.

But this scenario doesn't represent the majority of people who are not able to buy.

As already said, the most common cause is having children first. This always lead to one of the couple stopping work or going very PT. The more children, the longer the time before being able to go back FT and save enough.

It's then too late to catch up.

Your comparing apples and oranges
borrowing money and paying to have use of accommodation

I rented for about 12 years before purchasing a flat a few years ago. I don’t know why you think everyone who owns a home bought in the 80s/90s.
Im not that long out of renting, I know exactly what it is like.
Guess what, I moved from the area I was renting and bought what I could afford.
Home ownership is harder these days than in the years of lower prices, I totally acknowledge that, but you are being quite hyperbolic. Actually many people can afford to buy, a majority of people still purchase homes.
Not everyone overextended themselves to buy a home.
Not everyone who did overextend themselves did it for anything other than necessity.

Some people can’t afford to buy and want to, some people don’t want to, some people over extend themselves to rent something nicer, some people overextend themselves to buy for stability etc. This is all more nuanced than you are acknowledging, it’s not just scummy landlords and greedy mortgage holders.

Those people who have seen their mortgage go up by £3/4/500 in interest overnight due to catastrophic government policy are just normal people trying to provide for your family.
Your language about how they will all probably be “begging for help” and you don’t think they should get it just comes across quite nasty.

Is anyone really saying there shouldn’t be protections for renter? I don’t think so.

I think it is the majority though and it is the minority manage to be lucky enough for everything to fall in to place.

it is luck and hard work. Yes you can improve your luck with hard work, but life can still be a shit.

@vivainsomnia - he may leave uni and get a graduate job on 25k quickly and easily. He may not. He may find a girlfriend that is in the same boat. He may not. He may find a house share with a rent that allows him to save a significant amount monthly. He may not.

Regardless he will need to have a roof over his head. I would prefer that it be stable, in good condition, and not at the whim of someone who can't afford basic upkeep on what they see as their investment.

The problem is partly this idealistic view that home ownership is the normal and right way and should be aspired to and protected over and above other ways of living. The reality is that may become an outdated view soon and we will need to do more to normalise renting and protect renters.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I like this tone; we lost our house as a child during recessions. Homeowners aren't awful here; they're the most in the firing line in an economic downturn. Social housing is the least impacted because they rent for the council.

Housing is a complex issue; it isn't just easy as targeting a group of people based on their housing tenure. There are a lot of problems here - one, there are not enough affordable houses being built, only 20% are, but this can differ depending on the area. But even when they make affordable or social housing, there are issues with segregating residents.

However, people are not happy with new homes being built near them. Then when they can be made, they might not be the best quality homes because there is a skills shortage, and times have changed where men would go into trades.

How mortgage lending is funded, I.e. people can stop at home to save for a house, and people's parents can give them a deposit for a house.

Maybe, and I will probably get flamed, but we need to look at tightening how people can purchase property, either. People need to show that they've supported themselves financially for years and learnt how to budget. But then, with energy prices and inflation, we can see this pushing people into debt and default, which means that we'll still be only seeing fewer people purchasing houses.

If you'd read the various stories on this thread, you'll realise that not everyone had a 'cookie-cutter life' to enable them to buy.

Why is it seen as a bad thing to want an average 2 bed terraced house as your first home?
It's not a bad thing at all if you can afford it. But if all you can afford is a cheap flat but that does t work for you because you need a bigger property, then it's noone else fault.

Some things are choices, but no it was not my choice to not meet my husband until my late 30s, it was not my choice that our wonderful low-cost neighbourhood became trendy and gentrified and rents doubled within a few years, house prices went through the roof
Surely if you didn't meet until late and have children late, you had at least 15 years each to save?

As a landlord I can definitely say I DO care about my tenant
To that end, I rent below market rate and have not increased rents in 5 years.My mother has not increased the rent on her property for 9 years.
My mortgage payments have increased multiple times.
Please do not make such sweeping generalisations
Thank you 💐

This.

Regardless he will need to have a roof over his head. I would prefer that it be stable, in good condition, and not at the whim of someone who can't afford basic upkeep on what they see as their investment
Then he will have to find a decent paying graduate job. Why wouldn't he? What's the point of going to Uni unless that's what you aspire too. It takes longer for some to get there, but ultimately, what would stop a graduate from getting a £25k job at least a year later unless health issues?

I bought in the last decade & agree with you OP. It's ridiculous that rents are often the same or higher than a mortgage. I only bought because I had help like everyone else I know.

I do think as well that now the homeowners are getting impacted the gov are doing a u-turn.

It's not a bad thing at all if you can afford it. But if all you can afford is a cheap flat but that does t work for you because you need a bigger property, then it's noone else fault.

But lots of people need more space because they are older & may have dc or planning them. Stamp duty makes moving frequently very expensive. There is huge inter generational inequality, why ignore it?

"Why is it seen as a bad thing to want an average 2 bed terraced house as your first home?
It's not a bad thing at all if you can afford it. But if all you can afford is a cheap flat but that does t work for you because you need a bigger property, then it's noone else fault."

It's very easy for BTL LLs buy many of these properties, the issue is that your average couple or family can't. And saying renters should settle for a one bed flat is showing how you haven't experienced being unable to save due to high rents and moving constantly due to no fault evictions.

Your average renter will have been forced to move multiple times, if you've never experienced being at the whim of LLs and needing deposit/moving costs urgently (using up any savings) you'll never understand why maybe, we don't want to move multiple times for the 'property ladder'.

Making homes a source of income or retirement plan is immoral.

agree

@vivainsomnia so only people on well paying graduate wages can have decent, stable, affordable housing? And for all the rest??

That's nonsense and I don't subscribe to that view at all. Some of us are lawyers and some of us are cleaners. All of need and deserve decent housing.