To wonder how the next generation will buy a house

[macaronitoni]

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!

Oh do give over

@MidnightMeltdown I think it’s crazy money personally, even for two salaries. 315k? If your deposit is 31.5k it still means finding a bank to lend you 280k+. /4 is 70k between you, so 35k each. Above average salary, for a below average sized home. Who is a 2 bed going to be suitable for? How long will it take most people, graduates or otherwise, to climb the career ladder and earn 35k? And by the time they do, if they want a family, they need more than 2 beds in new builds with rubbish storage at the best of times.

Oh ok then . OP it will be fine and there won't be a shortage of houses for your kid.

The government will build hundreds of thousands of new ones so we won't have demand.

Better?

Not really. Boomers nearly all lived as a couple. Very few divorces amongst older boomers. Many more people live singly now. So boomers houses used to support two people, but in the future more often one person. More single (adult) person households is a big pressure on housing.

Totally agree. 2 bedroom houses are starter homes for childless couples, and unless you're in London 315k is a lot for a starter home

What happens when all the asylum seekers need moving from the hotels? The home office are looking for houses now so I assume they will replace the boomer generation

Don’t worry yourself, they’re going to Pontins, cruise ships & Rwanda.

They won't, unless their parents help them. I'm planning for this now to make sure our next house has two living spaces so DC can live here comfortably when he's older, and assuming that he will also need our help with a deposit. It makes me sad, even if he studies hard and gets a good job and works hard, when he's ready in about 20 years I will assume it will be impossible.

op you do realise children can share bedrooms. Of course an average sized family can live in a two bed.

My daughter bought her own house by saving hard for the deposit and buying in a cheap area of Manchester rather than one of the “trendy” areas.She rented a cheap 1 bed flat in Wigan, very cheap housing, while she saved hard, had no holidays, no new furniture and use buses to get to work. She then bought a two bed terraced, also close to Wigan, on a busy main road, and lived in it for about three years before buying a much nicer family home with her partner using her equity and his savings. It is in a low priced area N of the city but ideal for starting a family.

It was hard work for her while in her late twenties and early thirties but she was fed up with flat sharing with random people so she persevered in order to get on the property ladder - starting very low with few possessions and moving into a better house when she had saved a bit more.

I think it can be done but not if people expect to buy a family sized house in a nice neighbourhood for their first home and fit it with all new furniture and appliances,

Good lord..think I would rather Rwanda than Pontins!!

The OP has quoted a house price for a 2 bed property that is above the average house price. A quick google shows there are plenty of affordable properties. All that will happen is increased gentrification of areas that are currently considered undesirable.

In my NE town there are currently about 250 properties for sale on Rightmove for under £150K, including 3 bed houses. There are even a handful of 2 bed terraced houses for £50K. Obviously I live in a cheap area but...

In Manchester there 572 properties under £150K.
In Birmingham there are 663 properties under £150K.
In Leeds there are 501 properties under £150K
Even in overpriced London there are 39 properties under £150K (not including part ownership).

Inheritance from boomers will be huge. We’re millennials and we have a decent house, pensions are on track, savings fine, we won’t need the inheritance from our parents so most of it will go to our DC for a house. This will be the same for everyone we know. There’s a lot of wealth around in the boomer and millennials which will be passed down to the next generation.

But why does it need to be a new build? It is well known that new builds are much more expensive. For the price of a £315k two bed new build, you could get a 3 bed family home instead.

Also, I expect most couples would put down more than 30k deposit. I bought my first home alone and put down more than that (north of England).

Hard to imagine which is worse.

I agree with the poster who said that it's not just next generation, it's this current generation too.
I have a nearly 20 year old.
There's no way you could buy a house in the foreseeable future at that age now without significant help, but when I was around that age we bought our house as it was so much cheaper
It's insane nowadays price wise.

Pretty sure I read something recently about them wanting to do mortgages that pass on to the children so you can pay them off over far, far more years.

That sounds horrendous to me though. Pretty sure there will be a catch somewhere.

£35k each isn’t too difficult for graduates. About 5-6 years for good nurses and teachers for example, and the same or quicker in lots of other grad jobs. So around age 26/27 to be able to buy a house of that value with a partner.

People have to lower their aspirations and live in cheaper areas to start with. Two bed terraced houses in NE Manchester ( Bolton, Wigan, Atherton, Oldham) with a reasonable commute into the city cosy around £110,000, buy one and live there for three or four years and then move to a three bed semi in similar areas for £220,000 to start your family.

Hopefully your career is progressing as well so that at some point you could get a bigger mortgage to live in one of the “ trendy” areas S of the city, if that is what you aspire to!

My daughter has achieved this in the Manchester area and my son in Birmingham. It’s even easier now with wfh being more accepted, a longer commute to the office for two days a week is not a huge hardship.

Not all starter houses start at £315k unless you work in London or want to live in expensive suburbs. I’m thankful that my children have no desire to work in London despite both being headhunted recently by companies based in London. I don’t know what they earn now, both left university about 12 years ago but I know they are both higher tax payers and get a car allowance so appear to be doing well. I doubt they would be so secure living elsewhere though.

I’m 36 and will never buy a house.

Can’t earn enough to not be reliant on UC despite having two STEM degrees, can’t save more than 16K whilst claiming UC. Have a disabled child so can’t work my way up as fast as I would like due to that. By the time she’s 18, I’ll be 43 - don’t want to think what prices will be then, I’ll never get a long enough mortgage.

My Grandparents will give their money to my Dad, who will do what he’s spent the last 40 years of his adult life doing - blowing it. He’s had one house repossessed (gambler) and the second house, that he owned outright after buying it with money from my Great Grandmother, he sold when he met Wife 4 and now they live in a fucking caravan with zero hope of even getting a private rent, let alone buying again. He’s had an insane amount of money from his parents and has none of his own.

Sorry to hear that @Simulacra 💐 the system makes it impossible for some. Hope my post wasn’t tone deaf - of course people will struggle now, as well as in the future.

@Overthebow fair enough. I suppose saving the deposit is the challenge, if you can’t live with parents till then! They would have a better chance if they could live with relatives for a time prior to buying a house even on those salaries

I can't see relying on inheritance being a failsafe approach, many will probably have to be sold to pay for care.

The world’s population is crashing. UK’s will crash too. There will be a surplus of houses. Prices will bottom out.
In the meantime they will rent until their 40s/50s then buy.

I think this too. People will just go back to renting.

If they want to amass wealth to pass on to their kids there are other options to property such as investments, pensions, stocks and shares.

If you've got some time to spare take a look at youtube - there are loads of videos on there about how you can make as much money renting and investing as you can in home ownership.

i don't think it will be harder than previous generations.
many boomer are still waiting on the quiet generation to pass on their wealth.
many boomer have gifted partial inheritances to their gen x children who are sitting on equally valuable homes. with more to come.
so grandchildren gen alpha will do fine.
but like always the first home might not be the best location or the best size or country.