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.

If a flat is 'perfectly adequate' for young people then is perfectly adequate for older people too.

In fact probably better than a house, fewer maintenance costs, on one level, lower heating bills and insulation from flats either side.

You're all talking emotively about what individuals want, what makes them happy - we need to talk about need.

As to communism didn't work because they ran out of money - democracy isn't working for the same reason, people are voting to enrich themselves, totally not caring about the huge debt that is being transferred onto other younger people.

It's incredibly selfish and entitled.

Unheard of because young people could afford to live alone!
Admittedly you didnt say massive. I was exaggerating. But see above example of a MIL who has tended the same garden since she was 23. Was she entitled?
Young people are living at home longer, more likely to live in shared homes and are buying smaller homes, later in life for relatively more money. And you deem that entitlement? How do you reach that conclusion.

I'm not sure that "willing" comes into it for most people, tbh, especially here in an expensive area in the SE. People need somewhere to live and it's only a lucky few that are likely to find somewhere at a rent they're "willing" to pay.

Unheard of because young people could afford to live alone!
They can afford to do so nowadays too, but not when you prioritise luxuries over living independently.

My DS earns £1,600 net (he also pays towards his pension). His rental for a studio flat is just under £800. He has a car as his office is not accessible via public transport. He manages, but with many compromises that many of his friends as not prepared to make. They prefer to stay living with mum and dad and have disposable income for fun.

It is definitely a choice. Unaffordable has a very different meaning nowadays than a few decades ago.

Care to address anything else I said? Or you just wanted to point out that your child has to spend half his income renting a bedsit?

Young people are living at home longer, more likely to live in shared homes and are buying smaller homes, later in life for relatively more money. And you deem that entitlement? How do you reach that conclusion
Young people are more likely to drive new cars, to go on fancy holidays, spend 100s on weekends away, to furnish their home with new sofas, TVs, appliances, to spend on tat, make up, clothes, treatments, convenience food, going out to eat, etc, etc...

All these individually don't seem a lot. All together, each month, are many £100s, £100s that if saved, would allow young people to build savings towards a deposit.

People will now be house sharing their entire lives. I don’t think it’ll be uncommon for us to start seeing younger folk advertising for elderly housemates for their grandparents.

How are young people spending a fortune furnishing homes they dont have? Make your mind up.
How much is your DS saving?

I’m in my late 40s and between me and my husband we earn over 80k we have never been able to get a mortgage because once you get on the rental ladder/kids/debt it’s really hard to save for a deposit. All the schemes are aimed at young people.

We did look at the new build schemes a few years ago but my husband works in architecture and the amount of snagging issues he spotted on each estate was frightening!

My bedsit was £650 per month when I was in uni. At the time, I was also a part time English teacher. I was making about £1000. My flat had no radiators, so a lot of “spare money” went to heat. I ended up with a job abroad, so heating was no longer an issue. But what luxuries should I have given up here?

How are young people spending a fortune furnishing homes they dont have? Make your mind up. How much is your DS saving?
Obviously once they do have one! But happy to add to the list of luxuries not accessible to previous generations. Subscriptions, that alone can be a few hundreds a month. Memberships to clubs. Our local David Lloyd is full of young people. Gadgets...

My DS saves about £150 a month at best from his main job, but he also does some work on some weekends and that all goes into savings. He is also doing some studying to get a promotion in a year or two.

But what luxuries should I have given up here?
You were a student, not working FT!

Is he entitled for wanting to live alone and spend most of his money? Or is that just other young people?

Youre not wrong op, and there were loads of posts on exactly this topic sharing this concern 10 - 15 years ago, when the media used to pick mumsnet up. At one point the media ran their own stories about housing too, but media now seems to be bot-run.

Obviously enabling the landlord crowd created a two - tier society of haves and have nota, landlords and tenants, and at some point the have nots are going to start retiring.

I struggle to understand the level of stupidity that has been going on in British government. I can grasp the selfishness of the boomer generation and landlords, but actually driving the bottom of the social pyramid into a situation where they have nothing and no hope of change is so imbecilic (not sure if thats a word even!). But we are here now, stats show this is happening, it is what it is to coin a phrase. God knows how we get out of this one. Disaster capitalism indeed.

It would interesting to see a breakdown of people who live alone by age groups and type of tenure.

I suspect that a fair few of them are, like me, older people, and that they are mainly owner-occupiers or in social housing.

It's easier for older people to get social housing in many areas because there are properties that are specifically for older people, and they become available more often than general needs housing because tenants are more likely to die or go into care homes.

And still there are those who waffle about the snowflake young and their ‘choices’. They refuse to see the reality of cultural change and what that means. The impact of the loss of the social contract, the impacts of the loss of the principle of working for a living. True, the growth of social media and fucking influencers too, but when you strip culture of every real and meaningful activity where else are youngsters going to go? If they cant build assets and have no hope in the future of course temporary experiences become more important.

Read Tony Judt if you have no experience of modern life in the precariat yourself.

I should change my username to whistling on the wind or some such. All this was obviously going to happen and was complained about at the time. I dont know what form of mass hypnosis was playing out, but the (Americanised) dream is ending and the nightmare beginning.

There is an ONS publication on this from the last census.Here
It is an interesting read in my opinion.

On 80K a year though, presumably you are putting money into your pensions for a comfortable retirement? I understand the childcare years might be tight on that income, but that's not forever. You're likely to have 20+ years of earning after the kids are self sufficient (or a good chunk of time before kids) to put yourself in a good position for your retirement.

I think a bigger problem is the refusal of the developers to build 1 bed retirement homes. I don't mean apartments with ludicrous fees and no resale value. No-one is fooled by that rubbish anymore.

I mean proper retirement homes. As a parish, we have land and outline planning permission for a small close of 20 one & two bed single storey retirement homes. Each with two parking spaces and a small garden. We cannot find a developer who will take it on. They all want to change the planning to 3 & 4 bed houses which we as a community do not need. It's getting ridiculous

Nowhere near enough social housing built.
Having a life time tenancy for social housing shouldn’t be automatic. If you rent a 3 bed council house and your children grow up you should move.
More affordable housing should be built.
Landlords should stop being greedy. (I know it’s not all of them.)
I know of quite a few people paying private rent who are close to retirement age. There is no way they will be able to pay the rent with a state pension.

We're already there OP.

My Aunt and Uncle (mid 60s) are trying to sell their house in a NE coastal town for 580,000 pounds. It's a large house, but needs fully updating. They bought their first house for 28,000 in the mid nineties and have ridden the ever rising property ladder ever since. My Uncle has worked for the local councillor in maintenance, and my Aunt has done some bartending. The town they live in has an average full time wage of less than 30,000.

They have been on the market 6 months and, but are having no viewers and 'just don't understand why.' The numbers don't make sense anymore, but trying to tell them that is a waste of time.

Prices need to adjust in a big way. It needs to crash if the next generation are to have any hope.

To be fair, there was a post on here over the weekend, someone saying they couldn't possibly move into their new flat because they couldn't find the right sized curtains 😂

My first flat, I moved in without a bed, a fridge or a washing machine.

I had a lilo, a duvet & pillows and my student plates, mugs, kettle etc. I bought my fridge secondhand in month 2, my bed in month 4, my washing machine in month 7. Curtains were in the second year.

But I was warm, safe and it was mine. Now everyone expects perfect kitchens and instagram sitting rooms. So I have some sympathy with the view that expectations have risen too high. Starting out was always a struggle.

Once I started working full time, I only had about £200 more disposable income?

And mortgages can go up, just like rents can.

Us old farts can remember 15% interest rates, the price crash in the early 90s, negative equity and waves of repossessions. I'd like to think that will never happen again, but I wouldn't bank on it.