To worry how my children will buy a house

[Biggiebiggiecantuc]

I’ve been working in the head office of a large retail bank for the past 10 years.

I’ve worked with a bunch of slightly older colleagues who will blush when we discuss house prices. They mostly started working in the mid/ late 80s, after leaving school at 16/18, and were able to buy a property within 2-3 years of starting work.

Many have multiple BTLs and will head off into retirement in their late 50s with large final salary pensions.

I look at them with envy. I will need to find away to earn till I am in my 60s

However, I am terrified of what future my children will have. I jut don’t see how the will get into the property ladder. They, like me, are average. They won’t get into top city firms and earn £100k 2 years out of uni. Hopefully they will prove me wrong but I just see a future of misery, running just to stand still.

I have managed to save around £10k for them. A housing deposit. Is there anything else I should be doing to help them?

You misunderstand me. I meant that sales are likely to slow more & prices fall more. I agree that this would be a positive thing in time, although difficult to some.

With respect, I find it really naive to say that no one forced people to borrow more or extend terms. Exactly what other choices did they have as house prices grew higher and higher relative to incomes? Rent long term, with rising rents and the risk of being asked to leave within 2 months at any time? Move away from family and friends to an area with less well paid jobs? There have been no good choices at all unless you were smart enough to have access to a large bank of mum and dad.
To an extent, we should all feel guilty, particularly older people who continually voted for policies which systematically disadvantaged their children and grandchildren.
Assuming that you are around 60 (with children of 30), you have a lot of equity in your home because of asset price inflation over your lifetime in the main, rather than hard work. The fact that your two children, who have been fortunate enough to have access to a good education, have been well guided in their choices of career and presumably have a reasonable level of IQ and good health, have been able to afford London level mortgages, isn't relevant. Overall, in the country, house prices have massively outstripped incomes, causing all sorts of financial, economic and social problems.

Me neither. Not a chance I'll move to a town/city when I'm older. I might move to the outskirts of a rural town but that's about as close as I'd want to go. Certainly wouldn't want to move to a flat even if it was ground floor.

Good for your colleagues but a vast majority of soon to be pensioners would not have that either. Do not push for that narrative that all pensioners are rolling it. I only got a house in my late thirties and only one I am still struggling to pay due to the high cost of living. The house shortage is what make it impossible so supply and demand situation.

I agree.
Those who want to have children should think long and hard about moving away from family help and support network.
I appreciate all families are different and some families wouldn't help the next generation, but all my friends who have stayed in the area they grew up in have in my eyes lots of family support, even if that's Sunday lunch all together once in a while as a minimum all the way up to frequent babysitting/childcare.

Even if you have a lovely relationship chances are you may split up while still raising children, if you've moved away from family you are really stuffed in that situation, and totally unmortgagable.

My friends flat has a lift & a huge balcony on the top floor. They are mostly retirees & no noise whatsoever. The younger couples are professionals & you'd never know they were there.

As a bonus they have a beautiful view & the sea in the background. It's like being in a holiday apartment abroad. I love it & would move there in an instant 😀

@rainingsnoring I probably agree with you more than you think. I don't think it's a good thing that people have to borrow more money to buy a house, but think that there is an inevitability about rising house prices. As I said hours ago, the minute that some people borrowed based on two salaries then effectively everyone had to do that because what people could afford to pay for a house effectively doubled. It would be a selfless seller who would accept an offer of half of what someone else would pay.

Where we differ is over blame for the situation. I think that house buyers are effectively the architects of their own downfall, you seem to think that governments have caused it. I think that only the most authoritarian government could have controlled what people spent their own money on.

Quantitative easing fuelled asset prices and austerity contributed to suppressed wages although wage stagnation started under Thatcher.

Making ever growing house prices our economy has completely fucked the economy.

Sadly I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that our children and their children are going to have shitter and harder lives than us and our parents

For most of history the rich have got richer and the poor poorer and there was a two tier society. We will look back at the latter part of the 20th century as an anomaly.

With this government the rich will get poorer.

One of the reasons for the higher house prices is dual income mortgages.

We bought a cheap property that's held in bare trust to DS. We took the mortgage on our main home to fund it and use the rent to pay off that mortgage. It will be paid off before he is 18.

When he turns 18 or after uni etc he can either move in or sell it as a house deposit on something else.

I've been trying to build something on my land that my DC can share or live in as they become working adults. Sadly neighbours and council seem to think I just want to do it to sell it off rather than give what will be adult children affordable space to live in a place they love. I think I read the average child leaves home at around 30, so they will have many years of usage. I think it's very short sighted of the council and more people should be encouraged to do the same if they can.

I think we will see many more multigenerational homes, kids leaving home later and elderly living with their children to be looked after by them.

While I don't think that either quantitative easing or austerity were good things, they did affect everyone equally and don't alter the fact that houses cost what people are prepared to pay for them. When we get to the point where enough people can't afford to pay for them prices will fall.

The housing crisis is massive but mumsnetters hate discussing it...,

it impacts so much of our economy, health issues and educational outcomes plus low fertility rates. There was a thread about how people didn't want a council estate in their area, we need to build more social homes.

There was a times article about how developers aren't building, Labour are saying they'll build more but an article said today their set to build less than the tories. You can't pay developers build, we need mass council houses built! Councils are going broke spending on temporary accommodation.

That said it can be done OP I'm gen-z and I'm buying in London with a deposit less than £20k not shared ownership a flat and I earn just over £50k, your first home at a younger age doesn't have to be your forever home, average house price stats are useless you can always find something less.

While I don't think that either quantitative easing or austerity were good things, they did affect everyone equally

@oddandelsewhere why do you think that?

There sre so many people on youtube living in alternative homes like shipping containers, log cabins and so on yrt you can only build these in your garden. If you could build them on a small plot it would be so much better.

@MotherOfRatios we don't need more council houses that the state funds we need to cut state spending which means people funding themselves. I think this is one of our biggest problems, it's not hey I can't afford to live in London anymore lets look where we can live, it's get evicted so the council finds us cheap accommodation.

@Preppingdonkey not keen on inflation, falling savings rates and worse public services.

We absolutely do need more council homes. Homes should not be a 'business' and that's what private landlords see renting as, meaning house prices have shot up due to BTLS/low interest and rents have shot up.

private renting is unaffordable and it shouldn't be down to landlords to house low income households, because it's pushing a lot into temporary accommodation when they can't afford it.

Some of us won't ever own our home even in our 50s now, but at least we were lucky enough to get a council house when DC were little. We downsized a few years ago as DC had left to a small bungalow.
2 of my DC have bought, have mortgages. 1 floats between live-in jobs, sofa surfing, camping on our floor, and homelessness. (ASD/ADHD and MH issues in the mix)
I worry about him and his future.
The government needs to get their shit together and get the housing sorted. In a 'rich' nation, nobody should be homeless or in poor accommodation unless by active choice particularly when they want more immigrants
We need a mass council housing build with criteria for eligibility that encourages personal responsibility.

Multi-generational living will become the norm. We as a family are open to the idea of pooling resources and living arrangements. The concept of independence is evolving or retracing its steps. The housing supply is a finite resource.