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.

I've never had a job which wasn't low paid. I still managed to afford to live alone for many years before and after I was married. However I am happy to live a simple life, some people want everything.

There we go. That’s contemporaneous evidence of why rents are what they are: demand is high.

Have to admit in an accidental landlord (cladding) and an a little out of sync with recent rental market as I had similar experience to you when I let my apartment c. 2021 but have kept the same tenants in it paying the same rent as what they were since then as they’re good tenants.

Well, if you never get off the lowest rungs of earning, you shouldn't really expect to be able to afford anything other than the lowest rungs of housing. Especially if you're expecting it to be funded by people at least or even more successful than yourself who can't themselves afford to get off the lowest rungs of housing. The idea that you should be living in better conditions than the person whose taxes are funding you can afford simply because you're older than them is hideously entitled.

Obviously, pay your own way and then you can choose whatever accomodation you like.

I used to be on minimum wage and could afford to live on my own in a garden flat in a city centre that is now one of those most expensive places to rent in (Bristol).
Rents have gone up, but wages have not kept pace with that.
That is not the fault of the people in low paid wages. It is just the numbers now.

BTW, I was not topped up by any benefits. I was not claiming a penny.

I'm lucky to have good tenants too. But my point was any of the 10 tenants who applied to rent the house seemed fine.

Just to add my to previous comment. I just had a look on Rightmove. The rent for a one bed garden flat in the road I used to live in now goes for over 4 times what my rent was 16 years ago.
Has min wage gone up 4 times since then? No. So why put the blame on the people on the low wages.

I agree that things have got worse and accomodation more expensive. Even more reason why older people shouldn't expect younger people who haven't had the advantages they had to fund for them through their taxes better accomodation than they themselves can afford to live in simply because they feel entitled because they are older.

But you're expecting today's earners who have far worse economic conditions to subsidise those who had the advantage of better conditions. If those who had the advantage of quarter price (by your reckoning) rent couldn't manage to save for their retirement how do you think that todays equivalents can afford to subsidise them through their taxes now. That's the problem.

I honestly do not know where you are getting that from.

I am seeing rents go up and up, then people still renting privately as pensioners being worried about it. Forced to live in HMOs with people a third of their age that they have fuck all in common with. That is no way to spend your twilight years.

But if that's all they can afford, it's all they can have. We can't ask working 30 year olds in house shares because that's all they can afford, who already have it harder than the pensioners did at a similar age, to pay more and more taxes so that pensioners can have lovely houses with gardens all to themselves.

Why should people be entitled to more just because they are older?

I feel like you would be happy for pensioner to live in something like the coffin apartments they have in China. It is a bed, right? That is all you need to live. A bed.

A woman who was 30 in 1970 is a pensioner now. She would not have been allowed a mortgage without a man.

Can you give me the equivilant of that for a 30 year old woman today.

Is the 30 year old woman in 2026 also at risk of multiple pregnancies due to no contraception

Before 1991 it was perfectly legal for a man to rape his wife Does todays 30 year old have to go for a backstreet abortion if pregnant with a child she doesnt want

You know who fought for all this shit to stop
Women who are now pensioners

I think 2 or 3 pensioners living together in a 3 bed house is just as reasonable as 2 or 3 early 30s living together in a 3 bedroom house. The idea that the 30 somethings should be economically forced into house sharing for longer by paying higher taxes so the pensioners can have house all to themselves simply because they are older (and failed to take advantage of the better economic conditions they lived through) is ludicrous.

You are also missing the point that people on low income/pension could afford to live in a flat alone.
You seem to be blaming them for no longer being able to anymore.

Had I stayed in my Bristol flat, I would have been priced out in no time. Rent increased 4 times in 16 years, but my wage twice. On what planet would I have been considered entitled if I needed a UC top up etc?

I do not agree.
Younger people are finding their feet. They maybe have yet to meet a life partner, or find a good career.

I still don't know why you think 30 year olds in HMOs are funding older people living alone. Can you explain?

And what happens when one of them needs care at home. And before you start with your usual there are SEVERAL STAGES BEFORE A CARE HOME Care AT home is usually tried first, So you could have pensioners living together needing carers and personal care With a shared bathroom??

A woman who was 30 in 1970 would be 86. Not really the 'ticking time bomb' of the future we're discussing here...

Those coming up to retirement in the next 10-20 years will have been born in the 60's and 70's and will have benefitted from lower rents and house prices to earnings ratios, free university education and a whole ton of other advantages not available to the 30 year olds of today.

It is like the workhouse comments all over again.
They can all chip in and take in turns bathing each other etc.

If they need care at home, they get care at home just like they would in an owner occupied house or a rented house. And when the care needs are too great to reasonably be met at home, then they go into residential care.

It's not like care at home is only available to people living alone.

Have you ever worked in care? i have You do realise its not all Vera Lynn singalongs. A shared bathroom in a small family home would be a disaster for pensioners with toileting issues.

And why have you only mentioned pensioners Why havent you mentioned divorcing couples who need two homes because of splitting up Why arent you criticizing them for not trying harder to stay together.

Yes id quite like an explanation and full breakdown of this as well

What are you on about?

As it happens, I know far too much about care needs. As it happens, my late mum would have massively benefitted from from housemates. Living alone she deteriorated rapidly and became very isolated.

Shared housing is likely the future for anyone of any age who can't afford to rent a place to themselves. I suspect the market will change and houseshares for all ages will be more usual.

But house shares for some people can be detrimental. I don't know why you are ignoring that point.

I still stand by my previous posts about house sharing being transient. House sharing is what is considered normal when young. Be it when at uni, or moving out and living with mates when you get your first job.
I find it really sad that it is something you should have to regress to as an older person.

Through the increased taxation that will be required to give pensioners houses to themselves that they can't afford to pay the rent on because they failed to make provision despite living through the best economic conditions with lower rent to wage ratios, better pensions and free uni education (and living grants). Who is paying for that? The working population, including a number of working age folk who can only afford to live in houseshares themselves.

The majority of people will make provision for themselves so they don't have to.

What they can't do is fail to make provision and then expect tax payers to provide them with better living conditions than those tax payers can afford for themselves.

The people we should be worrying about are todays 20 and 30 year old who are the real 'ticking time bombs' because they won't have all the advantages that todays 50 & 60 year olds had.