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Calls for Help Freeing Up Family Homes

444 replies

CogitoErgoSometimes · 19/10/2011 07:35

Free Up Family Homes The charity 'The Intergenerational Foundation' is recommending tax breaks to encourage older people to leave oversized homes. They estimate that there are 25 million unused bedrooms in England. Half of over 65's have 2 or more spare rooms in their home. Housing minister Grant Shapps doesn't sound keen on the idea. But what do you think? Should home-owners and tenants be encouraged to trade down for public-spirited reasons? Or should they be able to rattle around in their multiple spare bedrooms and left alone?

OP posts:
gaelicsheep · 21/10/2011 23:47

Abendbrot is so right though. How many people, even mid career, could afford to start out on the housing ladder in many parts of the country? Even where I live, and with me on above average earnings, a small family house starts at 5 or 6 times my salary. It is crazy.

iggly2 · 21/10/2011 23:56

"Iggly, by the time you're mid 40s you may have changed your mind about handing everything over to your son; mine will be 25 in exactly 9 years time, and I don't propose to downsize to give him a house deposit. He would feel guilty. We will give him help through uni and he can live with us for as long as he needs, but I am not Italian or Spanish, so he needs to be more or less moved out by his late 20s."

He may be married by 25 and certainly not feel guilty if you gave him the deposit for a home. Do not guess at your child's thoughts no one knows but them.

iggly2 · 21/10/2011 23:57

DH married with a kid by then Grin.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:00

We will of course be paying Ds's uni fees as well.

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:07

We'll have to downsize to pay ours fees. We're not going down that debt road again. No sir.

Scaryteacher how much do you realistically expect your son to be earning at 29? Nobody can buy a property on the average income. Nowhere near. You can get 25% part buy option in a ripoffsharedownership scheme if you really want to live for the next ten years in poverty while shoring up the bank balance of a housing developer.

And inflation will mean there is even less money to spend on a roof over our heads. In fact the smaller the roof, the less it will cost to heat - so perhaps we should be grateful?

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:09

Something's got to give and I hope it's going to be the housing market.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:09

Scary I think you misunderstood a question I asked you last time when I said take your earnings and multiply by 4 can you afford your house?

I was not refering to mortgage repayments but getting the mortgage and being able to purchase the house in the first place. eg my parents joint income circa £40,000 house worth circa £300,000-this was a semi downsize as well Shock. They could never get that now.

gaelicsheep · 22/10/2011 00:14

I also think the concept of starting small and upgrading as your salary grows is totally outdated these days. We bought our first house 10 years ago, but despite career progression it took considerable help from my parents to allow us to trade up to a 3 bedroom house. House price growth just totally wiped out and overtook any growth in earnings and continues to do so. The way I see it the only way you can upgrade these days, without generous parents, is to win the lottery.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:14

"Something's got to give and I hope it's going to be the housing market." He's hoping its the housing market . If not I will be truely upset if DS remains in the country.

I cannot think of many jobs that provide enough at a young enough age to support a family with decent house and education.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:16

Blasted keyboard! "Here's hoping...."

gaelicsheep · 22/10/2011 00:18

Indeed iggly. Which is why, as someone said earlier, it is ridiculous to try to wait until you can "afford it" before having a family. No chance, and it makes me hopping mad when people on here berate others for having a family before they can afford to be totally self sufficient. Many people will never achieve that in their lifetime, let alone during their fertile life.

Are you SURE you would lose your house if you had a second child?

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:20

Yes, DS is privately educated and I do not feel I could send a child to a different school.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:23

2 sets of fees are out of the question

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:23

On that note, I shall bid you all a good nights rest.

I look foward to the day my dcs can buy a home on 3 times their income, be proud of it and themselves, and get a good education for their little ones.

We won't get there without a massive house price crash.

gaelicsheep · 22/10/2011 00:24

Hmm, that's tricky. That's a choice we didn't have to make as there was never a question of private education. Thankfully we live in a small community with an excellent local school.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:26

Local school not good. DS is on a bursary (he got at 4 when they do not usually offer till 10). They saw our financesSad and were horrified.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:27

Houses near good school were out of price range (would be very tiny flat).

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:27

Iggly that's no good. You can't NOT have kids because you think you should have to pay for a private education. There are bursaries if you really want that. But to put off DCs... most siblings go to different schools these days anyway. One school suits one child, another suits another.

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:27

I think I offended "abendbrot".

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:29

Remember thousands of children go through 'bad schools' and come out perfectly fine.

gaelicsheep · 22/10/2011 00:31

Well done to your DS Smile. Hard luck to you though. This is the reason why everything about house prices is so so wrong. And don't even get me started on rents. One reason why my parents helped us out to buy our house is because without that we'd have had to continue renting. At the time we literally could not afford to rent privately on our income.

We moved from a tiny house because I suffered a drop in salary - public sector job evaluation - and we couldn't afford the mortgage any more. Couldn't afford to rent either, so moved north to a better job - job evaluation again and could no longer afford to rent but could afford to buy in new area with equity from previous house and help from parents. Kind of felt like a career in reverse.

Thankfully all's well that ends well as finally won my appeal and got a decent salary at long last. And we have a nice house that we're not shifting from for anyone. Grin

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:31

Politically though this is all linked . Most economists are horrified that with the deficit the areas cut have been education and defence (mainly influencing the young).Pensions and NHS ring fenced. Roughly 84% of the deficit is due to NHS and pension costs, only 14% due to the bank crisis Shock.

My son would be in a class of 33 in a local school and would struggle (he gets lots of 1-2-1 for various reasons).

iggly2 · 22/10/2011 00:32

Sorry 86% NHS/pension Blush

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:33

I'm not offended, I just think you're being a bit OTT about this. Life can't be perfectly carved out. You just have to face it and see where you go with it. Actually there is a raw nerve because I wanted to have a third but my second had SEN and by the time I was able to cope it was too late to have a third. So now I will be a carer for the rest of my life and oldest will have a lot of pressure on her. You can't plan life to be the way you want it to be.

abendbrot · 22/10/2011 00:40

Iggly I don't think education has been cut. Councils have, but education was protected, as were front line childrens services.

This whole mess is due to the banks not being regulated. You can't blame the NHS and pensioners for the deficit. If we put 14% of our GDP in to rescue some banks then that's 14% too much.