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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder how the next generation will buy a house

428 replies

macaronitoni · 04/02/2023 13:43

Surely there needs to be a massive overhaul of the system. A new build home with two bedrooms on a new development nearby is £315k. Not London. Midlands. Who’s going to be buying that? Too small for a family with more than one DC but way out of budget for most first time buyers.

Without significant family help, how will today’s children and young people manage to buy a house? Something has to change!

OP posts:
Blossomtoes · 22/06/2023 12:59

We won’t die any faster but there are more of us. Lots of deaths concentrated in a relatively short period of time - common sense and logic tells you that - when simultaneously the birth rate is falling.

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 22/06/2023 13:12

@Blossomtoes of course 500k is not in London. It's the housing market that's gone wrong rather than anyone's parenting!

Blossomtoes · 22/06/2023 13:15

What isn’t £500k in London?

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:24

If the PP with the £1m London house and three DC to share any inheritance, the sums would look like this, presuming the parents were married. They can pass on two sets of IHT relief, so £650k, plus 60% of the £350k balance, which is £210k. £860k, divided by three, gives each child nearly £267k for a deposit on their own property -- which is a decent chunk of change, even in London.

Blossomtoes · 22/06/2023 13:29

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:24

If the PP with the £1m London house and three DC to share any inheritance, the sums would look like this, presuming the parents were married. They can pass on two sets of IHT relief, so £650k, plus 60% of the £350k balance, which is £210k. £860k, divided by three, gives each child nearly £267k for a deposit on their own property -- which is a decent chunk of change, even in London.

It’s actually better than that because it’s £500k each if you own a property. So £333k each from the house, plus 60% of any assets over and above that.

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:35

However, it's hard on people whose parents didn't own a London property, which is most of us!

Blossomtoes · 22/06/2023 13:49

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:35

However, it's hard on people whose parents didn't own a London property, which is most of us!

I didn’t find it remotely hard, I was very grateful for my inheritance. But then I wasn’t brought up with a sense of entitlement.

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:58

At nearly 67, I am glad that my DM is still with us, and that DMIL made it to 93. But we've done okay all by ourselves, so we're not reliant on an inheritance to put a roof over our heads or pay off a huge mortgage. DC will benefit, which will help them on on the properety treadmill. As you say Blossomtoes, not brought up to feel entitled!

EffortlessDesmond · 22/06/2023 13:59

I am nearly 67; DM is 88!

Delectable · 25/06/2023 00:10

Working Class have the benefit of cheap social housing and Right To Buy with discounts of 70% on an already low Council desktop valuation.

ItsBritneyBitchhhh · 25/06/2023 00:14

I’m 24. No inheritance or family help ever coming my way so the only way I could afford a property is if I won the lottery😁

Luckily, I’m not too fussed about owning my own home as it’s not the be all and end all to me

Honeychickpea · 25/06/2023 05:08

Delectable · 25/06/2023 00:10

Working Class have the benefit of cheap social housing and Right To Buy with discounts of 70% on an already low Council desktop valuation.

Well then just take a minimum wage job or go on benefits and Bob is your uncle according to yourself.

Muddle2000 · 19/10/2023 10:09

How many own 2 or more and are letting at least one Not enough to rent or buy We need to build more and affordable

Georgeandzippyzoo · 19/10/2023 10:16

I think for several generations each new generation has been better off than the previous. I really think those around 35ish are probably the last of those generations for a while.

Thisisnotlikehim · 19/10/2023 10:16

Yarrawonga · 04/02/2023 13:48

If it gets to the stage where the homes are unaffordable, the prices will stop increasing.

Family help just perpetuates the the problem.

The issue is that there are some people that can afford a portfolio of houses, that then generates more and more income for them and drives house prices up and up so they become unaffordable for average people. Meanwhile those with the properties can hoover up even more assets and make even more money and accrue more and mire.

Until we change the way wealth is taxed this won’t change.

Family help is just a small part of the problem.

user1497207191 · 19/10/2023 10:22

YANBU. The current and future younger generations will mostly only be able to buy with the help of "bank of Mum and Dad" or inheritances. Most of those without parents/grandparents owning their own home will probably never have a chance of buying a house.

All those saying "do without a smart phone upgrade" or "do without netflix" are so far away from reality, it's laughable.

Part of my solution would be for govt to introduce policies to reverse the centralisation of businesses and organisations moving into a few large cities and closing down their branches. Get employment spread out more evenly across the country, make more use of the internet to re-open a new version of branch offices, where staff can work in more local hubs instead, so they get the benefit of working alongside others but don't have stupidly long commutes or have to relocate to expensive cities. There are so many areas of the country where houses are actually a lot more affordable, but there are no decent local employment opportunities anymore. Maybe give employers a tax/nic break/incentive for opening hubs/branches in the regions?

We can't continue to have students leaving the home town to go to Uni and then never returning because there aren't any graduate jobs in their home town. The continued, and accelerating, "brain drain" towards a handful of major cities is causing all kinds of problems.

user1497207191 · 19/10/2023 10:27

If it gets to the stage where the homes are unaffordable, the prices will stop increasing

No, the "rich" people will just continue to buy and either sit on them or rent them out to others who can't afford to buy. By rights, house price inflation should have stopped or at least slowed down years ago when they continued to rise faster than wages, but even the 2008 recession was only a blip in house prices and they roared back pretty quickly.

It's supply and demand, not prices. The demand in some areas is far outstripping supply, so prices rise. There'll always be some people who can find the money to buy more homes, either from inheritances, from borrowing, plus ultra rich foreign criminal investors wanting somewhere to launder their dirty money (hence all the empty city centre apartments that have never been lived in!).

Overthebow · 19/10/2023 10:32

At the moment there’s still enough people, even in the younger generations who can afford to buy. I’m a millennial and my generation are ok, and we are accumulating wealth from our boomer parents which we’ll pass down to our children so they can buy too. Prices will fall when there’s not enough people who can afford it, but that won’t be any time soon apart from the odd blip.

Honeychickpea · 19/10/2023 13:27

This thread illustrates a collective amnesia about what happened in the early 90s.

Namechangedatheist · 19/10/2023 13:29

Honeychickpea · 19/10/2023 13:27

This thread illustrates a collective amnesia about what happened in the early 90s.

👍

macaronitoni · 19/10/2023 13:53

Honeychickpea · 19/10/2023 13:27

This thread illustrates a collective amnesia about what happened in the early 90s.

In fairness before Gen Z were born. And they’re now the ones facing the problem

OP posts:
EffortlessDesmond · 19/10/2023 21:22

We are boomers. And we shall buy our one DC a small property to live in outright. And when our child earns enough, we shall suggest that a mortgage to repay the debt in our dotage would be lovely. And fair.

Fifteenth · 20/10/2023 00:09

Something will change- but we won’t like it.

Saoirse82 · 20/10/2023 00:19

Only the very rich who have inherited wealth and the non working poor who live off state benefits, will be a
able to afford to have children

Oh yes, the state benefits are so generous that those who receive them are on par with the exceptionally wealthy. 🙄

Fifteenth · 20/10/2023 23:18

Global population is falling