To think we simply can’t compete?

[Molehillminnie]

Mid 50s colleague selling house. On the market for close to £1M. Bought for 1/5 of that 30 years ago. Always going on about how the younger generation should save and be like her.

We’re 15 years younger, have pretty decent jobs etc but there is no way we’ll be able to benefit from property price increases in the same way. The huge jumps between 2000-2008 will never be replicated. Nothing more to say really, just having a rant!

@Cracklecrack
We had 16% interest rates.
Mortgage £600, take home £800!
We ate a lot of pasta, walked everywhere and made do. However I think our electricity was £30 (before privatisation). No mobile phones, fuel was cheap (although my husband cycled). We didn't have DC for 11 years.
I still think buying is the right thing to do but you have to be savvy. A doer upper will still be a better buy than a new build. Unfortunately the banks don't agree and want a bigger deposit. I

I do think the younger generation has been well and truly shat on.

Many can't own a home.
Can't even go to Europe and try your luck there as easily anymore.
Struggling with your mental health? Good luck with the waiting times unless you have money to pull out of that house deposit for private care.

I do wonder where all this will end up.

I also think it partly explains the rampant use of antidepressants across all ages. The options are grim for many.

@JamSandle
A lot of it is greed.

If you read the property threads it is all about want not need.
The one thing that stands out from my MBA (paid for by me) was Maslows' theory of needs. Get shelter and food sorted and everything else follows. Children grow up without a permenant home, they move schools. Families don't have support networks as they have to move away. In Sciandinavian countries they rent but tenancies are 10 years. We punish the poor.
If the super wealthy want to do some real good start building not for profit. The land is there in land banks (I worked with shelter and core). No one needs millions. Spread the love.

@Molehillminnie but surely most people are moving to another home, so the profit they've made is worthless as their new home will be just as, if not more, expensive,

These massive unearned profits from property typically only make a difference with inheritance, as then it's a lump some for the recipient to do what they like with.

This is a well discussed issue in the media currently with people saying society will be split into two stratas very soon, with those benefiting from inheritance leading vastly different lives than those who haven't.

As we're having less children as a society, over time there will be a tipping point with housing where the boomers are gone and very slowly there will be more stock for the population. It's going to be very very slow though.

You're missing that current middle aged and younger people will move into the bigger houses and then retire themselves, living in houses too big for them.

Likewise, unless we stop immigration, there'll be housing demand from the constant inflow of immigrants.

Today's 40 somethings will be 60+ in 20 years' time, rattling around in houses too big for their needs.

Just because the current generation of pensioners will eventually die, doesn't mean that subsequent generations won't end up in exactly the same position, hogging the housing!

Badbadbunny I know it won't be quick but even with immigration our population is shrinking. The boomers are such a big demographic that over time it will change. The population is tapering off, we're just not having as many children.
It doesn't help people now but I think it'll be quite different for my grandchildren (assuming I have some).

I wouldn't be on this salary if I didn't live in London, that's kind of the point.

Couldn't agree more.

My post was slightly off point though. Now it's rubbish for those trying to buy.

And where exactly are they meant to live!?

Most people just want a secure roof over their head, and they can't get that because your generation commodified housing.

I didn't buy my flat to make money. I bought it because I was sick to death of having to move area every year when I got turfed out by my landlord because I couldn't afford the rent increases. I just wanted to know where I'd be living six months from now.

Today's 40 somethings will be 60+ in 20 years' time, rattling around in houses too big for their needs

unlikely

People can't get on the ladder let alone move up it!

Those with inheritances will!

As said by posters above, it just widens the gap between those who have inheritances and those who don't.

I think that is very unlikely. Global warming which is, I'm afraid, unstoppable now, will cause mass migration to more temperate climates as areas of the planet become increasingly inhospitable and uninhabitable. I doubt demand for housing in the UK will ever decrease.

Good point I had not accounted for global warming motivated immigration.

Yeah, as long as I stop thinking of life as a competition, my landlord giving me an S.21 will cause me no stress...

We're talking about a basic necessity of living here, which actually, yes, it shouldn't be a competition, and everyone should get to have a secure home, and not be able to own multiple properties until everyone is securely and appropriately housed.

And it is a competition as long as people need to COMPETE for housing.

FIL bought his first house as a new graduate with a deposit he saved from his university grant(!) Then told us we were having trouble getting on the property ladder because we drank takeaway coffees. We only borrowed £200k and a single monthly mortage payment is the same amount he put down for his deposit back in the 70s.

We need to tax these property assets and put that tax revenue DIRECTLY towards subsidising new house building. Reform planning law so that Nibys can't veto everything.
I wish we could have political leaders prepared to actually lead, not bend to every public opinion whim.
Say this as a someone who owns their own home, as do my parents...but the housing situation in this country is a disgrace.

@emmylousings Would you tax the property assets at point of sale? How would they work if the seller needed to pay for assisted living/a care home? They could end up costing the state more if a large portion of their cash is taken away.

Council tax already assigns bands depending on the property’s value so that’s being done.

Except for the amount of hate those people had for us as they stood and watched this happen and continually tell us how shit we are for not liking it, and not smiling and rolling over like good dogs as they kick us a bit more. Except for the amount of hate this country has always shown me for being born female and poor and daring to try to work up.

But yes, of course, the worst hate of all is that of the people who have been screwed over, who have worked harder than they haven’t nothing. Of course. Because the one thing this country cannot stand any more is a working class person who tells the middle class that life is shit, caused by their greed.

Get used to it because there is more to come, as more and more discover they have worked all their Iives for nothing.

You sound such an incredibly bitter person. No random stranger "hates" you; certainly not an entire generation of them.