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?

And I posted a 2 bedroom apartment for 300k, the first one I came across on RM in north London, so not a studio! it just proves your hyperbole that a studio is all that is available at 300k in North London when it demonstrably isn’t.

I didn’t say that. I said a studio is £300k near me.

Youre being very odd. Are you the sort of person who had to be right?

There shouldn’t be a cap on the length of time you can live in one, but there should be a cap on the household salary of people living in them. I have some very wealthy neighbours living in council flats earning significantly more than me. It blows my mind that they get to keep their council flat regardless of how much they earn.

If all you can get is a studio in your very expensive part of London then maybe move out a bit and get more for your money? it’s not as if you struggle for transport links unlike other parts of the country.

No but I do like accuracy.

IM NOT LOOKING TO MOVE!?

I have a perfectly nice terraced house. If you’re going to have a go at least look at the context of my initial statement! I’m talking about how hard it is for youngsters!

Kind of funny for someone who likes accuracy.

Youngsters don’t need their first house to be in a very expensive area of London.

Right so. Doubling down.

so where are young Londoners supposed to live out of interest?

Because the rest of the country sure as hell hate Londoners moving out and buying up their cheaper properties.

A cheaper area of London perhaps? Maybe give Primrose Hill a miss?

Oh for gods sake. I’ll say it slowly. I. Don’t. Live. In. Primrose. Hill

I just shared a range of studios in across North London.

None of London is cheap.

Young Londoners can’t afford to stay in London.

im very bored of this as I’m sure everyone else is so I’m bowing out of this ridiculous conversation as nothing of value is being added.

It is a huge worry! I’m older (53) and bought my house in 1994 for 32k. DS1 is renting and DS2 is 17. We’ve already decided that when we inherit when my DM passes (hopefully many, many years from now) we’ll sell our house (it’ll be too big for just the 2 of us). We’ll buy a mobile home on a park and split any money to give our boys deposits for houses.

Because you can’t back up your hyperbole, there are 42 pages of property for North London 300k and under, not all studios.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152485661#/?channel=RES_BUY

Yes it is a concern. I worry for my child. I too am saving what I can to help him.
Yes the UK is a ideally home ownership country but it is getting harder and harder to achieve this. Ownership is the ideal because landlords are so shoddy with substandard housing for extortionate rents. I also couldnt struggled to buy a house with a mortgage the naughties. I could only afford to do it with a partner. We later split up and one bought the other out (also a struggle). My brother was in the same boat but he bought with a friend then later on one bought the other out. So we found a way. Our kids will also find a way. Maybe I will convert the garafe for my son to live in as a flat annex. Just try and save what you can is all you can do. I have also opened a SIPP pension for my child because it gets tax relief money topped up by gov. Although it wont help him in the near future it may help him make mortgage and work decisions during his life knowing one was already started, compound interest etc. I also have an junior ISA for him. We can only do what we can do x

@Wooky073 you made a good point. Being a single person/single parent will make buying a home so much harder for many. The younger people I know who have bought recently are couples, both in work, no children.

At somepoint the wealth that those people in their 50's/60's have accumulated, will be passed down to future generations, although inheritance tax will take a big slice.

The UK birth rate is going down but the UK population is still strongly increasing due to immigration. There will continue to be very high demand for houses.

DH and I only have our home, and it’s not valuable enough (like lots of properties in many parts of the UK) to attract inheritance tax. However, it would be a nice sum for our DC, who are pretty comfortable, to pass on to the DGC. I think most parents like us, who have had a financial struggle, want their DC, DGC etc to have an easier time. Fortunately our DC have done fine with little financial help, no inheritances in our families. It would be nice to think we can help the youngest generation.

Definitely much harder for single people. I admit I do feel jealous of those who are in average to low paid jobs but live in lovely houses with their partners.

Sorry, but where in SE did your parents buy a four bed detached for around £100k 25 years ago? We were looking at houses in a reasonable area around that time and a 3 bed semi was more than that! We ended up buying a 2 bed ex-council hovel fixer-upper and moving up from there.

Most people can’t afford to buy a house in their mid-twenties… most people are 22 when they graduate and it takes years to save up a 10% deposit. It also doesn’t make a lot of financial sense as flats don’t go up in value at anywhere near the same rate as houses but it reduces your flexibility in terms of being able to relocate.

My parents were always telling us to get on the property ladder asap so we bought a flat 7 years ago in our late twenties and recently sold it to buy a house.

We were very lucky that we didn’t buy one with any cladding (which for thousands of people are now unsellable) and we found a buyer quickly, but despite the fact we’d spent on renovations (new bathroom, flooring etc.) it had only increased in value by about £12k in that time. Given the legal and estate agent fees and the fact that we’d lost our “FTB” status (which would have saved us £35k in stamp duty on the house we bought) I’m not sure it was worth it!

The legal process to sell took so long (which the EA said is normal for flats now because of all the regulations) we had to leave it empty for 9 months while waiting for the sale to go through because we were relocating, still paying the mortgage, council tax and 3.5k in service fees while paying rent somewhere else at the same time.

People say to just get on the property ladder based on their experience 20+ years ago and have no idea what the housing market is really like now. Renovation costs are astronomical which also mean it’s rarely worth buying a doer-upper.

We bought our current home for £520k last year (5 bed semi on v nice street). Our first home was a 3 bed flat bought for £92,250 in 2006. It's a mile from where we live now. Those flats are selling now for £100k. So very affordable. They are a good size, loads of room for a couple, by the time we had 2 dc I was keen to move however.
We lived there 12 years made no money (sold for £92,500) and improved it a lot. So lost money really but our mortgage was lower than rent would have been.
Anyway I think home ownership is still possible but it might mean living somewhere less desirable for longer than is ideal.
We didn't have any help to buy we saved up (didn't live at home either) and bought at 22 & 23. Our combined wage was £30,500 I doubt many uni graduates now are earning that little!

I think that’s right. Our landlord put our three bed semi near Ealing that we were renting on the market for £90k in the mid nineties. I remember as the three of us that were renting it briefly discussed buying it between us at a third each.

Moving to zone 4 or 5 of London or beyond would probably have got you detached for £100k. At no point in their post did the OP say it was a desirable area that their parents moved to by the way.

Plenty of two bedroom flats on right move for 200k which is cheap for the location

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153591167

That is cash buyer only, by auction, so could/will go for more as was the terraced house. Most first time buyers don't have over 200k cash, they need a mortgage.

I havent got time to search fully but all the 200k ones that came up for me were auction/cash buyer preferred, but I did only bother with the first page or so, so the others might have been actually that price.

We lived just outside Reigate (quite near the school which Sir Keir went to), so probably pretty much on par with London prices at that time. Even cheaper areas weren't that much cheaper (we looked quite far and wide), and I cannot imagine an area with a 4-bed detached for around £100k. We paid £180k for a three bed semi in a "cheaper" area over 20 years ago.