I live in London and am 31 but yet I know very few people who would be trapped renting all their lives.

[lavender2023]

I am wondering if this is atypical? I am talking about people I know personally. Of course we know people who rent or live with parents. Those who live with parents (long term) tend to be in 2 categories:
(a) long term sick or serious mental health issues; often not working, probably would struggle to buy or even rent their own place with or without a housing crisis as their problems are bigger than that (its a shortage of sheltered housing rather than housing per se)
(b) from cultures where this is normal and even expected.

The people I know who rent tend to be recent immigrants (last 2-3 years; the immigrants I know who have been here long enough to obtain ILR all own, including me) or they are renting for lifestyle reasons (could easily afford to buy but choose not to; or like someone I know whose parents own an apartment that he can live in rent free (but he wants to live in central London). I know two people in social housing but I would argue they are reasonably secure. Many of my neighbours are renters but then again many of them appear to be immigrants from places like HK (and are probably pretty recent).

Almost everyone I know who bought in London has received help from parents including me and DH (who live in his mum's house rent free for 3 years). Most people we know have gotten actual cash though. I used to know far more colleagues in my age group who rented but now that I am 31, most seem to have bought and the younger ones are increasingly staying at home while working in London. Given that the latter is what Dh and I did as young graduates in London, I highly doubt they would be forced into private rental as DH and I managed to save £90k in 3 years when living at home which still counts for something even in London with the current mortgage rates.

Logically, my experience is not the reality. the home ownership rate for those under 40 is something like 50%. So there are a lot of people out there in private rental. Yet I feel like it is something I read about in the papers. Is this why there has been no political consensus on the housing crisis because middle income people are insulated from it (even in London where the housing crisis is most acute). I must imagine people in cheaper areas must be truly insulated from it because a friend of mine on (less than £30k) can afford to buy a modest flat in the midlands on his own.

DH does have family who are in long term rental (don't think its choice) but they live in a different country so probably not fair to compare.

@lavender2023 I don't understand why it's harmful if others do it but not you?

I have the same experience as you OP. Even my cleaner bought a house with her husband who is a general labourer, neither of them speaks English, ever attended a college or had an inheritance windfall. Yes, it is in Orpington and not Central London, and not in the best part of Orpington either area, but it is safe, green, and they have really spruced it up (and it is still 30-40 mins to Central London by rail).

The median household income in greater London is around £32,000. That's what an actual middle-income household has to save up their deposit from. Half of households have less than that. So if your circle of friends in London mostly have a household income of under £30k and all own their own homes regardless of parental help, then you have a point. But I suspect that's not the case.

Well i think I kinda fell into it because the reason why I stayed with family wasn't initially cos of wanting to save a deposit but because I was waiting for my visa to be approved. And then we saved up enough so we thought we might as well buy. I don't think my specific circumstances are typical. The stuff people do to get on the housing ladder that I know of are much more drastic , let's put it this way...

I’ve never heard of anyone choosing a partner based on whether they’re inherit wealth or not (though willing to believe it!), but what I see more and more of is people choosing a partner in the same socioeconomic group as them and who has similar earning power.

‘Marrying up’ used to be a form of social mobility for women from poor backgrounds, but that’s becoming rarer and rarer. Investment bankers and hotshot lawyers are marrying… investment bankers and hotshot lawyers. Wealth is getting more and more concentrated.

You are insulated. Try volunteering to work a few shifts at a food bank love

London is extremely unequal and people tend to gravitate to their own. All my friends are homeowners. That doesn’t mean this is normal across the board.

The stuff people do to get on the housing ladder that I know of are much more drastic , let's put it this way..

Such as what?

I’ve never heard of anyone choosing a partner based on whether they’re inherit wealth or not (though willing to believe it!), but what I see more and more of is people choosing a partner in the same socioeconomic group as them and who has similar earning power.

‘Marrying up’ used to be a form of social mobility for women from poor backgrounds, but that’s becoming rarer and rarer. Investment bankers and hotshot lawyers are marrying… investment bankers and hotshot lawyers. Wealth is getting more and more concentrated.

Yes, I see on MNs women say they earn 10k but partner earns 100k but I don't see that in real life at all. The banker marries the lawyer, the surgeon marries the GP etc

Friend's parents selling their large house and downsizing to give their kids huge deposits think £300k, for the younger son, he basically bought his small 1 bed house in cash. Complicated trust arrangements for single guys to own their 2 bed house but without it being an outright parental gift (presumably parents can't afford to give all that money away)- two guys I know. Loans from family members for the deposit.Stuff like that.

I think that's quite common as opposed to drastic. I sold my flat to a parent buying it for their dc to live in. The 3 flats that sold in that yr on my road were parents buying for dc or jointly with dc.

and there's also the family mortgages that are available. Aren't nearly half of all house purchases under 50 helped in some way by bank of mum & dad

I am not talking about poverty which is very acute in London. Poverty is also due to a myriad of factors.

I am expressing my surprise that while it is said to be inaccessible to buy property for an average younger person (I don't disagree with the maths), many of my peers are somehow managing it. I am looking primarily at people who were born here.. immigrants naturally find it harder to buy property in any country unless they have existing wealth and it may not also suit many of them to buy.
.

And I know of people using equity release to reduce their inherited tax burden & get dc on the ladder.

Yes..and that doesn't include people like me and DH who had rent free living. It only includes people who are given actual cash.

But from what you saying, your peers don't fall into the "average younger person" category, but are high earners with, in many cases, well-off parents. So it's irrelevant that they are all homeowners. Almost every adult I know has a degree, but that doesn't mean that degrees are a universal qualification here.

@Icannoteven

People are going to reach old age and be unable to pay their rent. What happens then?

May I introduce you to this. Not exactly a new thing, but you have clearly never heard of it.

Housing benefit eligibility and how to claim | Age UK

I don't think the deciding factor is whether the people you know are high earners or not, OP. It's whether they have parents that can help.

Monthly mortgage payments can be similar to rent. Getting the deposit can be the main, issue if you're already paying close to the cost of a mortgage each month in rent.

I know quite a few people that moved away after uni for jobs and hence couldn't stay at home. Those without rich parents are the ones struggling to buy.

Why on earth are you making up such bizarre lies? You do realise that people can read, right?

I never claimed to have "purchased a big house for less than £400k", you've just completely made that up. What I said was that I'd done a search on RightMove and PrimeLocation which had found homes for sale in the north of England for £400k. Which is true. (Go on RightMove for yourself if you don't believe me.)

How do you expect anyone to believe you when you're literally just making up lies about things other posters have said, when anyone can actually go at look at those posts for themselves?

I never said I "bought a house", much less that I "bought a house for £400k." You're conflating me with the OP, who came to the UK as an immigrant, lived rent-free with her boyfriend's mum, and purchased a flat for £400k. Not a "big house", a flat. She's the one who purchased property for £400k, not me. Two different posters, see?

Literally all my posts have been about how I've been trapped in renting for a long time. I've never claimed to own a house; I've said repeatedly that I rent and that I've always rented!

and thinks that you can buy a property for less than £100,00 in the UK.

Of course you can buy homes for less than £100k in the UK! One look at RightMove or PrimeLocation proves that. Idiotic thing to say.

Why on earth would you assume someone is a "scammer" and "fraud" who's obviously pretending to be in the UK, just for posting "well I went on RightMove and found..."? I mean what actually is the "scam" here, viral marketing for RightMove?

I am literally sat in my rented flat in Plumstead right now.

You're definitely insulated in your social circle. I have lots of grad friends mid 40s in London who have never bought. Most don't earn more than £30k now. Note they are also single. The classic "trajectory" doesn't happen to everyone

@TheGhostofLoganRoy my apologies. Obviously I was referring to the other poster.

I am sorry, I am not sure which part of my story is unbelievable. I was an international student and I met my DH while at a London university. I married at 22 shortly after graduating while DH was doing his masters. If you are familiar with UK immigration law at that time, you would know that may had axed the post graduate student visa which allowed international students to work in the UK for two years after marriage.we wanted to be together so decided to marry and I moved to Europe where DH was doing his masters. After he finished his masters, we moved back to the UK under a route called surinder Singh which existed in EU law at the time. You could exercise free movement rights (moving back with your spouse) if you were British and had worked/studied in Europe which was quite handy as DH was already registered to the masters course that included a year in Europe. However we moved back in 2016 just after the brexit referendum and how it worked for spouses with visas under the EU route was that they could only apply for their visas in country. Everyone applied after the EU referendum to secure their rights which meant waiting for the visa dragged in 2017 though I was allowed to work in the interim. But at that time there were a lot of visa decisions issued in error so many people in such a situation would live with family until things settled. And then after visa stuff got settled, our cumulative jobs took around a year for us to get settled. By 2018, we had enough of a deposit in the tens of thousands to contemplate buying. Took another year to flat hunt and buy.

So that's the thing, as my DH is a born and bred Londoner, most people we know grew up in London and had similar options. He is also from a minority religious background (though he is an atheist) where it is not unusual for people to live with their family into their 20s and people tend to marry earlier anyway. And many people in our respective work places (we work in financial services) were internationals or hailed from London/ home counties backgrounds.

In my Op I acknowledge my experience isn't reflected in the stats or the newspapers..most people in this country don't have my experiences.

That was the whole point of my thread - I know of few people 'in the rental trap' but yet I read about it and I was wondering if this is true of many social circles in London, that their experiences don't reflect the reality. I mean while it's true that university educated people would have more middle class friends, it has been well documented that the property crisis hits the children of the middle class as well. Not everyone can live with family and save for a deposit obviously or have a dead grandparent with inheritance. For example, I am from a richer family than my DH (you could probably surmise that from the fact that my parents paid international fees for my uni education and I would not have qualified for any student loans). But I didn't receive any financial support from them while saving despite being from a richer family (though to be fair to them, my parents did offer to buy a house for me to live in as an investment for them and I could live in it for free but it would be in their name) . I think that would probably have caused too much conflict down the line so I didn't agree. I know from my personal experience that just growing up in a rich family doesn't equate automatic family support nor do I expect it. And from my impression most people have houses in their names not their parents and can pick the location. It was pure luck I married someone who could live rent free at the family home (certainly when I married I didn't know this!)

So being from a middle class background doesn't necessarily mean that you automatically get cash to buy a property for all sorts of reasons or the ability to save so I am somewhat surprised that despite the housing crisis many people are still managing to buy (in their names) even though the London housing market is somewhat of an inheritocracy.

And as I explained above the reason I wound up with family was cos of my specific circumstances connected with my visa at that time! I think MIL agreed cos I had been harassed by UK border guards multiple times who kept claiming I was a wannabe illegal immigrant trying to overstay take advantage of the benefits system and put me in a cordoned area in Stansted for ages every time I tried to visit the UK (while living in Europe). I am a visa free national so actually can stay for 6 months at a time..thank Theresa may and hostile environment. She is also from a foreign background and had a lot of sympathy and the environment at that time was honestly quite poisonous towards immigrants so we all felt that just being married to a British national didn't make the whole visa thing a done deal. So she let me stay.

*2 years after graduation!