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!

Most boomers are past retirement age and not occupying any seat of power. The youngest are 60 or so but the ones born in the big bulge are 70+. Putin is a boomer I guess, biden is silent generation, sunak is a millennial, macron is Gen X.

those born during the boom years had situations nicely set up for them by the silent generation and many of the wrongs attributed to them were really not conscious decisions to cause present day strife.
so calling a wide swath of people names just shows how little a person knows about global history.

Corbyn is also squarely a boomer, not sure I'd peg him as selfish and entitled but he is bull headed I'd say. Johnson is a boomer but only just, he's kind of cusp-y age -wise. Out of the lot of them sunak is the worst in terms of entitlement but he's supposedly one of the touchy feely nicey nicey snowflake millennials.

Maybe generalisations don't really tell us all that much. Who'd have thought?

the most selfish and entitled generation the planet has ever see (sic)

Bit of a generalisation there . 😊. Or not . But walk a mile etc ..........

Fixer uppers is probably the only way if you don’t have inheritance.
I never expected my first house to be perfect- it needed a lot of work and I learned to do much of it myself following the Readers Digest guide to DIY.
Even the chances of doing this are looking more remote in Scotland with a ban coming on selling houses less than energy D certificate. 😕

I take issue with the boomer thing to a certain extent. My mum was a boomer born the year after the war. We had it bloody hard in the 70s as she was a single parent. Every Penny was watched and accounted for. She’s worked hard her whole life and has earned the right to enjoy her retirement.

Not sure the sweeping generalisations about our parents and grandparents are particularly helpful 🙄
I think it will be hard for dc but not impossible. As pp have said the first property isn’t the dream home. We bought two bed flat (shared ownership) then moved to 3 bed semi ending up in 4 bed detached within 5 years. However this was in a rising market at a time when our salaries were also rising with promotions. We haven’t inherited any money yet so this won’t help us but should help our dc. I don’t blame my boomer parents for the price of property.

Also if one parent leaves everything to the other, when the second parent dies the inheritance tax allowance is retained, leaving an allowance of 650k on the estate of the second parent. You just have to ensure you keep a copy of the first parent’s will.

We relayed on inheritance, our kid will have to use hers before buying, when her grandparents pass if there's anything left. So sad really

Oh of course it's a massive generalisation, there will be millions of boomers who had it tough, no doubting that. But the fact remains, they're the generation (along with the Xers I'd we're honest) who have overseen the decimation of the natural world and the return to antiquity levels of inequality.

I've always found it weird how insulted boomers get when you make a generalisation like I have, especially when you consider how quick they are to blame the "youth of today" for all manner or societal ills. Guess it's just par for the course when dealing with entitled people.

I agree with the boomer thing. My parents are boomers. Both had to leave school when they were 13/14 to support their families. Worked hard in minimum wage jobs to put me and my sister through university. At one point my mother had 3 jobs. We didn't have the latest things, but didn't want for anything. They worked really hard, and had nothing handed to them.

Well you have 2 options- moan about or get on and do something- either through getting involved locally/nationally etc to help drive change, or doing whatever it takes to improve your own situation.

Cross post that was to @Thebestwaytoscareatory

I’m not a ‘boomer’. I find comments like yours so incredibly insulting to older people. My parents own their home, they are boomers. They both grew up in absolutely grinding poverty, in decaying Victorian slums, houses packed to the rafters. No inside bathroom, my mother bathed in a tin bath in front of a fire before her wedding in the early seventies. There was no central heating for most of the population and most people worked in repetitive jobs regardless of their intelligence because only
something like 5% of the population had access to university. For many women here in Ireland once you married most had only an expectation of endless childbirth with a limited income. Every penny was watched by every single parent when I was growing up. There were no tax credits all you had to supplement your income was family allowance. Elderly people who couldn’t live alone anymore weren’t dumped in homes, they lived with their children, due to the fact there was nowhere for them to go or indeed anyone to pay for it. You are completely deluded or utterly naive to think ‘boomers’ lived in a halcyon time of milk and honey, unless your only means of measuring it is a narrow view of middle class southern English people. I’m not even going to comment on the political or social situation bar to say that I don’t imagine it was fun to be a woman pregnant out of wedlock in the 60s/70s/80s and in this part of the world those privileged ‘boomers’ lived through terror and bloodshed on a daily basis for decades. Try getting a bit of perspective. House prices are not the be all and end all of society.

On the otherhand, the following generations after X, are likely to take an uber everywhere, put everything on a credit card because they'd rather have it now than save for it, and have the highest rate of consumerism of goods like clothes, shoes, electronics etc (non essentials) ... and will then complain about the destruction of the environment and evil capitalism 😒 I see alot of fingerpointing at evil boomers, but not much actual change in behaviour to better things for themselves or others IMHO.

Well said.
Boomers are accused of trashing the environment but it’s perfectly acceptable to have your cheap fast disposable fashion shipped halfway round the world for one or two wears.

DH and I are boomers. We both grew up in poor, working class households.

We worked our way up - didn't expect everything new, state of the art, foreign holidays etc. We saved what we could, when we could.

Nothing handed to us on a plate - our parents couldn't afford handouts to us.

Honestly, I know it's not easy, as we have middle aged ACs and adult GCs - but this generation aren't the first to have things hard🙄

We've done recessions, prices rocketing, unemployment, etc etc.

No good resenting us - we've been where young people are now.

We are comfortable now - but we help our ACs and GCs out as well. We don't just sit on our healthy bank balances counting our dosh.😗

I’m saving up for my daughter’s deposit. I would advise any other parent to do the same.

@Thebestwaytoscareatory and @Eyerollcentral and@Mamaneedsadrink

So my parents are boomers . They own their own house. ( not expensive house but it is theirs ) I do not expect to see a penny from them . They are fit and healthy at the moment & when they are not I expect every single penny of their house ( well apart from the £24k or whatever it is ) to be taken up in care fees. My paternal grandfather owned a bungalow and pretty much every penny went to care home fees. Boomers will probably live longer and so ( I am guessing here ) inheritances will become less as (quite rightly I think ) they have to pay for care if they can afford it as they age .

I do also agree that the next generation ( X ? ) - it wasn't all that great. I was turned down for a promotion " Oh no point promoting you to this because you'll probably just have a baby and then we've wasted our money " - Merit based pay rise - " well her results are better but her husband has a job so she doesn't need it "

My DS and his cohort are more into recycling / thinking about the environment than I ever was & I genuinely think those of them who earn will buy stuff but I don't see rampant consumerism. Maybe just DS & his friends and I am wrong

Enough of that derailment

So - to get back to the point - I think all generations have their own difficulties . I lived through the negative equity of the early 90s and that was not pretty at all. I agree with others that a lot of us bought when we could what we could afford and I suspect the £315k houses we would not even have considered . 1 bed flat maybe moving up to a 2 bed house. But most of my peers - no - one even thought about I need to buy a family house until they needed one - or they did up bed 2 or they bought a doer upper ( This last ie buying a doer upper I do think was easier back in the day - that I do think is true ) but people didn't think they needed the perfect house so early - is my impression. A great friend of mine had her son in a drawer in their bedroom ( he was comfortable and lovely blankets - Oh and the drawer was on the floor - he was not shoved into the chest of drawers at night ) & then in a cot and then on a little truckle bed until they could afford to move.

I think in certain areas of the country deposits are now onerous. But even in my day most people had to team up with someone else to afford it. So a couple or a friend. & very often had to compromise on area.

Right - got my tin hat on - aim your coconuts.

My parents are boomers, grew up in poverty and did their very best for me and my sibling, in fact they were determined to have a house so they could pass it onto us, which they might or it might get used up with care if I am unable to look after them. If we don't get it, I'm not bothered. We have both done well thanks to their hard work. Tbh I don't really know any rich boomers, they are probably the people who were rich regardless of their generation. I don't think of the whole lucky boomer thing because I don't know people like that
I do think houses are too much now and I know I will have to help my own DC, I don't blame a generation for that though I blame all of the circumstances that got us here, which is a little bit more complicated. I agree every generation has its problems, but I also don't think the next generations have done much themselves to make things better for themselves or the ones after them either. It's all very depressing tbh!

Why does it need to be a new build? They are always 10% over market price. And why a two bed, most people I knew starting out (in the 80s) bought a tatty one bed flat to get started.

It was normal to build up a bit of equity, learn to decorate and maybe have first child, before moving up.

One bed flats near me are £180k. Deposit of £18k, and mortgage based on one earner on £54 or two on £27k (average wage).

Soooo all your friends have houses and you have a house. What’s the point you are trying to make? Amazing your son is in to recycling. Previous generations grew up with a system where for instance there was an incentive to return glass bottles to shops and most disposable things were reused I.e. using newspaper to clean windows, set the coal fire that heated your home. Things were generally used until they broke, repaired where they could be, things were built to last. Your son’s generation recycle more because they have more things to recycle and there is so much more waste. You are determined to see things only through the prism of your own righteousness so not sure what a discussion with you adds tbh. Inheritance talk is crass and the vast majority of people throughout history have never had any real inheritance so again not sure why you are banging on about that either

And I agree with the comments from boomers. It was tough then too.

I'm from a free school meals family, no help from anyone. I bought a tatty 1950s flat, having scraped together the deposit (and forgot the stamp duty which caused a bit of a crisis )

No central heating. I slept on the floor for the first month, no washing machine or fridge, second hand sofa.

Each month I bought a piece of furniture, fridge first, then bed. Taught myself how to make curtains. Redecorated the flat throughout, fitted my own kitchen a year later.

Maybe people could lower their expectations a little.

I don't think 100year mortgage like they have in Japan will be a thing in the UK, because multigenerational living won't be a thing (unless it does become a thing like in other cultures)

@Eyerollcentral - I do remember collecting bottles to get pennies back. I am sorry if my post offended & I certainly wasn't meaning to be righteous. Just a perspective. I am not determined to see things only though my own prism , but hey ho. I won't offer opinions again. I am not sure I was banging on or whatever . But there's all sorts aren't there. I think you were a wee bit abrupt to me there but I did say tin hat so fair does .

Other than that to say to all I wish all DCs ( including mine ) all the best in finding somewhere to buy if they choose to - I know it's hard.

Ok. You’ve only offended me with your ill judged and naive comments about now elderly people who had for the vast majority of their lifetimes a much, much lower standard of living than most people in the developed world now will ever experience. Maybe try and exhibit a scintilla of the empathy you have for your children’s generation to those older than you and be grateful you didn’t have to live through the experiences they did.