To think housing in this country is fundamentally broken?

[BrokenHousingLogic]

Whether you rent privately, rent socially or own, it feels like the system isn’t really working for anyone.

• Rents are high and insecure
• Buying is out of reach for many
• Social housing is under strain
• Landlords and tenants feel pitted against each other
• Local authorities seem overwhelmed

It often feels like people are arguing with each other instead of addressing the fact that the whole structure is failing.

AIBU to think this goes beyond individual choices and points to a system-wide problem?

This is untrue. Some councils are building social housing. I am in Southwark and they built 3895 social housing units (at social rent) in the past ten years. Birmingham Council built 1825 units and Haringey Council built 1353 units in the same period. There were additional units built at affordable rent, which is also lower than private rent. Certain councils aren't building any social housing but that is not the case across the country.

www.gov.uk/csv-preview/6911dfcdcf24e9250d893e9a/AHS_199192_to_202425_open_data.csv

Are they built by the council though, or are they through the allocation of affordable homes built by developers? I don't think the council own them or manage them.

It’s a multi faceted problem
my council bucks currently have a 7 week delay on validating any submitted planning application even for a simple extension

kids are discouraged from being a builder and sold the dream of uni etc

very few council houses being built

an ever expanding population

it’s a mess !

Britain is pretty much the only country in Europe that has an unregulated housing market. We need laws that:
Bring empty properties into social housing (including second homes if empty for more than 6 months a year).
Introduce rent controls (so if your little nest egg is no longer bringing in the bacon, sell)
Regulate AirBnBs
Convert or replace unused office space in to housing
Build new homes where there is demand.

I blame globalisation which is rendering a country's government more powerless by the day while a world wide game of Monopoly is being played with homes and businesses.

@Grilledcheddar
That list is of "affordable" homes which are NOT the same as Social Housing.

Anything that a council provides and rents out could be subject to "Right to Buy"
which has demolished the social housing stock since 1980

The vast, vast majority of "affordable" homes are nothing of the sort and end up in the hands of speculators.

We need to undo the damage caused by "right to buy"

Nobody has mentioned the huge growth in UK property prices - 74% over twenty years - and the gap between wages, meaning that unless you have a huge deposit or have two healthy incomes coming in, generally speaking you’re screwed when it comes to buying, especially a house. A single person on an average wage could afford to buy a two bedroom house two decades ago here in my northern city, but it’s very unlikely now those houses sell for £240k.

@curiositykilledthiscat
We have.
Its called the lack of a property floor
directly atrributable to right to buy and the destruction of social housing.

If people can move from affordable rented home
to affordable rented home
there is no house price inflation

the private selling market is a ponzi scheme driven by
percentage commissions on all valuation services

but the lack of a floor allows it to happen

@curiositykilledthiscat Two nurses could or two teachers. It’s a case of getting a deposit together but that’s not an out of reach price. We need to realise it was mostly couples who bought years ago and singles nearly always had parental help even 47 years ago when we bought. Many have always had to big in less desirable areas. As you progress through your career, and the average salary of teachers is nearly £50,000 you get something better but partners are needed.

Why don't you put your own fence back up?

Maybe we should move to a more continental model and let council properties on secure tenant repairing leases (excluding major structural issues).In rental properties in Europe, tenants replace their own kitchens and bathrooms etc and fully decorate knowing they have security of tenure. If you don't look after your property to a reasonable standard, you are evicted (and not offered an alternative). It would save the council millions of pounds and make tenants more responsible for their own housing.

But single people aren't an underclass of society,we have as much right as a couple to want to own our own home. In my 20s I could buy a house on my own, with a 100% mortgage and 5 times my salary, and not even shared ownership. Salaries haven't gone up at the same rate as house prices.

I got on the property ladder in 2009 and my original flat went on the market recently for 90k more than we paid. You can guarantee salaries haven't gone up at the same rate.

Also decades ago divorce was frowned upon too, people stayed in unhappy marriages, people stayed in abusive marriages. If we carry on restricting owning and even renting to those on high salaries or couples through the ridiculous prices we just make people stay together when they really shouldn't.

People ignore the fact salaries have stagnated for years, the high cost of the first rung & the age of FTB. This all makes the idea of climbing the property ladder now redundant for many.

@xSideshowAuntSallyXx I’m afraid you don’t have a right to buy anything. I never said single people were a underclass but they are economically disadvantaged when it comes to buying somewhere. It’s blindingly obvious a couple is better! Many singles have struggled for decades and most we know have had help from families. You don’t have a right to the same salary as two people or to buy anything.

@OhDear111 You are missing the point that it is almost impossible for a single person to buy a house these days but years ago it was easier. The house I mentioned last night sold for £60k twenty years ago, a price someone on an average salary back then (£24k roughly) could comfortably buy.

Fundamental change first, before more building. Brownfield site development first and changing/adapting building use instead of urban sprawl.
Change in laws about property bought for investment that stands empty. Ditto second homes.

You're missing the point entirely and keep going on about single people not having the same rights. Everyone should have the same rights to a home. A single person shouldn't have to spend their life in a bedsit or hmo just because for whatever reason they're single.

When my parents house, bought in 1994, was affordable on one salary but is now out of reach to anyone who isn't a couple both on a 6 figure salary it's gone up that much, the housing market is completely fucked.

Single occupiers should receive 50% council tax reduction.

@xSideshowAuntSallyXx No one has a right to buy a home. No one. I take the pragmatic view that buying as a couple (or two single people!) makes financial sense. There’s affordable housing in some areas and not in others and for many reasons being a single person in the housing market is expensive.

House prices have gone up due to shortages of houses. It’s fairly basic economics. People want to own homes and it pushes up prices due to lack of places to buy.

back in the eighties and early nineties it was 3x income to buy a house plus deposit
it is now 9 x income
people’s wages have been eroded away with inflation
Angela Rayners ambition and statement to build 1.5 million homes in this parliament was never achievable without a huge change
affordable housing is at 80% of market value so not necessarily affordable to most that live in high value areas to start , it is not the same as traditional council housing

@billysboy Where is it 9 x one income? Maybe for a teacher in London but in my local town it’s not. We are SE. Go further north and it’s definitely not 9x for a 2 bed.

We bought 47 years ago. Small 3 bed semi - 3 x DH and 1 x my salary. He could have afforded a 2 bed on his own but not a 3 bed. He was a qualified engineer. We were a couple so got more because of my income. Interest rate - 15%. It was way easier than now but we would still be able to get a 2 bed. So it’s not that people cannot buy, they just don’t get what they might like. Many in London have that issue.

I don’t think we need to build at all- we need to renovate and repurpose all the empty buildings - so may large buildings in disrepair

i loved the £1 house initiative in Liverpool.

Next door on both sides we have new neighbours. Solid 3 bedroomed, 1930s semis, in a Northern city, popular area. Young couples with no children, both working, have bought them. £250-280k. Second purchase for both, they previously owned smaller properties.

@onpills4godsake Do you realise how much this costs? Often the buildings are in less desirable areas and cost exceeds sale prices that are likely to be realised. If there was money in it, of course repurposing would happen. They aren’t because the costs are very high and cleaning up possible pollution is difficult and expensive. Its not an easy solution,

You're not wrong. We don't build the housing typologies that people want to live in. But think about what would happen to cities and our countryside if we built enough bungalows to house all the baby boomers. They're incredibly inefficient for space.

Oh come on. 14 years of Tories got us here.