To think this is a ticking time bomb (people priced out of housing)

[Batmanisreal]

It’s becoming clear that there is a problem with people not being able to afford housing like they used to be able to. This has been made worse by the introduction of right to buy by Thatcher in the 80s which reduced the numbers of council houses. The price of housing is going up and up, so more people are having to rent on the private market.

So what happens to these people who are privately renting homes, when they get to retirement age? If they can’t afford their rent?

I was lucky enough to be able to buy my house. I have young children who, by the time they get to the age I was when I bought my house, will probably not be able to afford to buy like I was. There’s a very big chance they will have to rent, possibly for the rest of their lives.

People who rent on the private market are at the mercy of whatever rents the landlords want to charge for those properties. And with more properties being rent out as short-term lets this is only going to make the situation worse.

I worry that we are heading for a situation where elderly people will end up on the streets, because there won’t be enough affordable or social housing to supply them with housing if they become homeless in the event of them not being able to afford their private rent anymore.

As a parent, I just find the whole situation so depressing.

That would be my fear too.

What is the alternative? How much more tax do you want to pay so more people can live by themselves? Which bits of the countryside should we build on? Where will the energy to heat these homes come from and who will mop up the environmental mess that makes?

So given shareholder profits are increasing and thanks to the beauty of the stock market we can all be investors… there’s an obvious solution there, if that’s your gripe?

If I tell you what I think, I will get told off by Mumsnet HQ again.

They can chose different more affordable properties and / or more affordable living arrangements (eg with family, communal) or areas. There is choice. Issue is many exclude moving or living with others.

This. It all comes down to practical realities.

Communism has been tried the world over and proven to not work. It always fails when there isn’t anymore of someone else’s money to spend

And yet loads on here were all for it during Covid

I try to survive off the state pension. I have stopped driving to afford the bills on my house. I walk or cycle as much as I can. Most days I do 10k steps or 10k on the bike. After 2 years I feel much better than I did 5 years ago. I think I may have reversed the ageing process a little. These are my choices. My number one priority is keeping the little house that I have spent 30 years paying for.

We're outright home owners in our early 60's. We live in a bog standard 3 bedroom 1970's detached house. In theory we could rent out 2 bedrooms but keep them free for visiting family.
Having lived in a semi detached house for the first 10 years of marriage, putting up with loud music/tv & constantly barking dog from the next door neighbour, nothing could incentivise us to move to home with neighbours attached to us.

Yip and look what that did to the accounts.

Nasty comment. Sometimes older people go to the pub for the company. Witherspoons are full of older people making a pint last hours, or the cup of tea or coffee with free refills.

Exactly that.

Depends where you live, both dd and dsd have bought houses in their 20’s without help by saving up for their deposits. My neighbour’s son is similarly buying. It’s easier if in a couple but dd is buyer on her own

Totally agree with this. There are so many flats built in London that working Londoners have no chance of being able to afford. Yet many of them are in darkness every night - huge numbers of AirBnB and corporate flats. It’s way past time that we stopped non resident overseas buyers from owning property here.

No, it's because very many landlords sold up before the Renters Right Bill,l came into force, many more have their houses up for sale. The fewer houses to rent the higher the rents go. The more legislation on landlords the more safeguards they have to take like insisting on a guarantor and won't rent to anyone without one or without a guarantor the rent is higher to offset higher risk. Shelter, the housing charity that houses no one, pushed for this to happen.

Exactly. Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham claim they want to do something about the housing crisis. Well if you do, then why don’t you do something about this then?

Instead they're going to make it harder for LA tenants to buy. Meaning those tenants will be more likely to be renting forever, including into retirement.

@Pickledonion1999 yes, the universal credit savings thresholds are incredibly low. They appear to be based on figures from over twenty years ago and have never been increased with inflation. Hitting the 6k limit means monthly checking of bank statements and hitting the 16k is a cliff edge where all benefits stop. If they were raised in line with inflation they should be something like 9k and 21k limits but no government will increase them. I don't believe it was as punitive back in the 80's (when a lot of people took up right to buy and needed deposits) and tax credits only cared about interest on savings. Universal credit is probably not helping people who work put them selves in a more secure position. The only thing you can do is put as much as you can in a workplace pension as they don't treat it as savings.

I think you’re describing typical supply-demand behaviour and the recent law changes impacting on supply side. But again, the rents will only be what people are willing to pay for them.

The biggest difference between generation is not col but entitlement. This thread is a perfect of this phenomenon.

I shared a flat with other people from the age of 18 up until I moved in with my partner at 27. This was whilst working FT and earning more than minimum wage. I couldn't afford to rent a flat on my own. I didn't feel sorry for myself for a second. It seemed a perfectly normal situation. Being able to afford your own place was a luxury for older people.

My now husband moved in with his best mate and his wife in a very small two bedroom flat. He was working FT. He did it for 5 years until he had saved enough to buy a flat with another friend. Again, it was a basic two bed flat, one bathroom.

Both of us were raised by professional parents, and enjoy a comfortable childhood. Still the above seemed a completely normal step on the ladder before being able to buy a family house.

Young people have such an entitled mindset. Many genuinely believe that because one works FT and the other work PT, that should mean they systematically should be able to buy a three bed house, with a garden, in a nice neighborhood, close to good schools. They should be able to afford quite a number of luxuries, take away, meal deals, coffees, nice cars, holidays, weekend away, new furniture, garden furniture, etc....and if they can't, they really feel hard done by, convincing themselves that boomers and generation X had it so much easier!

Fewer young people live alone than in the past. Just FYI.
Your perception may be that young people want their own massive houses, but that isnt what they have.

My MIL is the same. To leave her garden, which she has lovingly tended since 1961 and which is amazing, would break her heart.

She's 88, and is out in that garden for a few hours every day when it's not pouring with rain or sub-zero temperatures. She has over 100 different roses, and can tell you when she planted every one of them, and who gave her the ones that were gifts.

It keeps her active and mobile, and gives her great joy. I truly believe that if she was forced to give it up, it would be the end of her.

I'm 71, worked until I was 70, and feel exactly the same.

I don't want someone else trying to use the kitchen while I'm cooking, or have to limit my time in the bathroom because someone else needs to get in there, negotiate what I watch on tv or get dressed when I fancy spending all day in my dressing gown. They might even try and talk to me when I'm reading, for heaven's sake!

I haven't shared a home with anyone other than a partner since the 1980s, I'm too old and set in my ways to start now. And I'm bloody sure no-one would want to share with me, either!

Fewer young people live alone than in the past. Just FYI
Because they continue to live with mum and dad years in their 20s, which almost unheard of in the 80s/00s.

Your perception may be that young people want their own massive houses, but that isnt what they have
I didn't say anything about massive houses. A house alone is a luxury. A flat is perfectly adequate.