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.

@Passaggressfeduplots of people earn 28k in areas where flats don’t cost 110k. Often people have found that in the 18 months it took to save up that deposit prices have increased. This isn’t necessarily the case now but if mortgage rates go up they may still be priced out.

Also if he takes on extra shifts he’s earning more, is his wage typical of the area because it seems odd house prices are so low?

Also lenders won’t always allow 95% LTV if the property looks like it could end up in negative equity eg a new build flat

I think it's hard to predict how things will go. I've worked in benefits advice for many years and for the last five years in benefits advice for older people. The vast majority own their own homes and unless these have to be sold to pay for care will be passed to their kids or the proceeds of the sale will. This may allow many who are currently renting to get on the property ladder. I think we are also seeing a lot of single people living with their parents post divorce etc so a lot of middle aged people moving back in with parents.
I expect at least some of my kids to still be living with me until they are much older. My eldest ds rents and pays extortionate amounts of rent per month. My ds2 has amazingly managed to buy his own property on his own at aged 25. My ds3 is in a low paid part time job and struggling to find anything better. It is likely to be a long time before he is able to move out.
We may see the housing benefit bill soar in future years but many people will have much better private pensions than those retiring now do and may not qualify. There will always be those that have barely worked and relied on benefits most of their lives.

I think another problem is that for anyone claiming Universal credit ( which is huge numbers and increasing ) it becomes impossible to save for a house deposit because you are penalised for any savings above 6k. The government need to look at this.

The market for flats in general is poor - people are preferring to go straight to houses. Leasehold issues, flats not appreciating in price as much as houses (always been the case but especially these days, leasehold problems, potential issues with neighbours above and/or below. Location is another factor e.g one bed flats priced at £250k - £300k in some parts of the south east - unaffordable for many. Has he researched thoroughly the pitfalls of buying a flat? Also a high LTV means he's unlikely to get a good deal.

In theory the markets would self correct, so people can’t afford to rent, don’t rent, LL’s sell, if enough at one time then prices tumble and people can then afford to buy rather than rent.

Friend works for a housing association. She sees older renters being evicted because they were landlords who held onto mums house and decided to rent. They're being swamped by legislation so panicking decide to sell. The big boys in the cities, overseas investors buying them up, raising the rents.

My friend handles the little flats for over 60s with security, pull cords. There just aren't enough. They're building if the government makes the money available. It's still not enough. She says good tenants are going into hotel type emergency accommodation.

They're building 95 properties two thirds of them the government has decided must be three, four, five bedroom. Absolutely no chance of a couple or single person being placed there.

It's an unholy mess.

I guess because many don’t want to start on the first rung of the ladder, but want to jump straight onto the middle or top rungs - the three bed with large garden in a lovely area.

Where is this? Do you live in Downtown LA?!

Granted I no longer live in the UK, but I never saw this anywhere when I lived there. Have things really got that bad? 😕

Some of this is circumstances because people are older. expecting dc etc.

My cousin just bought a small terrace as a FTB, it saves her stamp duty & she is planning a dc soon.

Some of it is, but a lot of it is because we live in a ‘want it all right now’ society. They don’t want to work their way up to their forever house.

And it will get even worse if that wet wipe Burham gets freedom Of Movement

What are you basing that on @Livelovebehappy?

I live in a trendy popular expensive very leftie city
rent is astronomical
so yes lots of people living in vans and tents

I can understand why you don’t understand.
£110k is much lower then prices for flats elsewhere in the country.

It's very expensive to move house these days. Stamp duty often means it makes more sense to stretch and buy once. The ladder only works if the next rung is within reach.

There was a guy living in a tent in the middle of a roundabout in the part of the UK I live in. The police moved him on, not sure what happened to him then

Yes there has been one living in woods local to us. He's been there for some time.

Particularly when many flats have lost value, the idea of a property ladder is very outdated.

Housing benefit / UC needs to be slashed. People shouldn't automatically have their bills
covered, especially if not working FT.

Reading!

Our local volunteer group who help the homeless don't normally go out at night this last week the police have been contacting them can they go to X place to check on a person in a doorway, tent.

The volunteers are now asking for hats, gloves, etc
. We're not in a city but an affluent area in Wales.

I owned a rental flat. Not out of choice out of circumstance. I tried to sell it for many years. Very difficult as it had knotweed and various other issues. I finally managed to sell it this year. I had to take out a loan to sell it. The flat was worth less than what I had on the mortgage.

Being a landlord was hell on earth. Because I couldn’t sell it I had to rent it out. The rent didn’t cover the mortgage. People trashed the flat several times. There were endless issues and endless stress.

There is lots more to the saga but long story short I would never, ever rent anywhere out again.

You are taxed on the rent as if you are not paying a mortgage. The stress of it all was worse than my full time job.

So I think as being a landlord is so awful there will be very few landlords going forward, which means rent will be sky high because there will be hardly any rental properties. If I couldn’t live in my current house for whatever reason such as I travelled once I retired then there would be no way on earth I could cope with the stress and expense of renting it out so it would be empty.

So the government have put the stress and expense into landlords who are selling up and investing in other things. This hasn’t caused prices to fall it’s just meant there isn’t much availability so it’s more expensive to rent.

My son will need to move around for work in the first few years of his career. Rents are so high I think he will end up with a room in a shared house.

I think it was better when the government had a lot more social housing but they don’t want that as it’s a lot of work/ hassle and no return for them so it’s private landlords or companies now. Only profitable when people are mortgage free so I assume it will be mainly companies going forward who rent out houses so the rent will continue to go up and up. Shared houses will be the way forward either with family or by renting a spare room not a whole house.

Government needs to reduce housing benefit to a set national amount. This could be done by increments over a few years as there is no good reason for taxpayers to subsidise a landlord in Barnet 5 time more than a landlord in Barnsley. The money saved should be used to buy/build more council houses that A: Cannot be sold and B: Should be given priority to low paid essential workers. Also the threshold for universal credit needs to be raised in a similar way to 40 hours a week, Over time this will encourage businesses to move out of the southwest, make property less of viable investment to make profit on and ultimately make working a full week the norm that gives you a reasonable standard of living.