IMAGINE a mortgage free Britain

[HarrowToCroydon]

For a moment, imagine if everyone in Britain lived in Government Housing. Everyone paid minimal rent, the cost to Government was 0 as the rent would cover upkeep and new buildings.

And society was secure in the knowledge that their children too will be housed.

How would you then spend your money which you have saved from paying a mortgage.

Will you be having a lot less stress?

For anyone except the government cronies who were "allocated" the best land.

It turns out property rights are one of the most important foundations of a stable and well-functioning society.

this happens now, its called council housing

They allocate your house, they pay for it etc

@carly2803 yes but the OP wants everyone to have that. No mortgages so now private ownership.
Very dystopia novel if you ask me!

And yet you would like those exact people to be in charge of everybody's housing?

I'm disabled, I'm used to being fucked over enough by this government thank you

I might be more enthused about the idea with a different government but as it stands I prefer to rely on a bank for my ability to remain housed than a government who has at times seen me as a waste to society when I couldn't work and barely worthy of a pittance and have encouraged a media to demonise and abuse people like me.

no private ownership not now

You know people pay rent to live in Council housing, right?

In owning my own home, I’m looking to live without a certain social element.
I believe historically the social housing was controlled for cleanliness and upkeep, windows washed regularly, no laundry hung out front. And the residents had a certain commonality, be it civil servant or mill worker.
However, social housing has somewhat changed from this idealized view (not sure how much of that is historically accurate) to include a segment of society which many don’t want to associate with.
It’s not density that’s my issue.
Plus taxes, to create this dystopia taxes would be very high, unlikely to be much headway with spending.

Everyone who contributes to a pension or a Stocks and shares ISA invests in property indirectly ( unless you specifically choose your own investments to exclude it).
Everyone paying a mortgage allows savers to earn interest on savings.
SDLT, conveyancing,
Estate agency and legal fees for buying and selling property contribute billions to the economy and employ many thousands of people.
What will replace that?

I still think the majority of UK housing is dreadful. It surprises me that anyone wants to buy it. I live in a house that's many years past its best. Neighbours continuously 'do up' their houses, destroying the only good fabric left in the buildings. The main problems with the housing remain. Without heating them they decline very quickly. And now that heating has become so expensive - the housing will deteriorate more and more. Many sheds make better houses. The bloke a few doors down has maxed out his terrace, bringing in the mother in law, and lives in the garden. The road would have looked nice at the turn of the century, but like many modern terraces and areas of Britain now just looks like a shit hole. That's not to say people aren't nice and don't like the area or their houses. My Dad traded up his entire life to pay for his house. Got about three years of retirement, got cancer and died. Waiting all those years to ironically do up the house that he moved into 30 years prior. It's a terrible swindle. Barn raising a house with your mates/building society for £25k, would make for a better deal. Houses can be built cheaper and better, given some innovation we could do something truly remarkable - housing that looks great and is also more healthy to live in - and is better for the environment. Heck I'd rather live in a caravan that I could move about if attitudes weren't so grim towards nomadic ways of life.

Have you ever been to or lived anywhere where people have no option other than to live in government housing? Are you aware that rent for social housing doesn’t go near to covering the costs? Are you aware that many housing associations are very poor at maintaining their stock and much of it in the uk and elsewhere is poor quality slum housing? Are you aware that perpetual rent to housing associations/ councils would likely be much more than a mortgage?

just checking.

People own their properties in Singapore, they don’t rent them.

The Singapore housing system is nothing like what op describes. The vast majority of Singapore citizens own their own homes. What op is describing is more akin to North Korea or the former system in Eastern Europe.

the government built the housing and is the ultimate freeholder. there are lots of things you can't do- like you can only sell to singapore citizens/permanent residents and you can only rent it out after 5 years.

the vast majority get housing benefit = so the majority (if not all) is covered by the council
who also do all repairs/new kitchens etc

I would cut my hours and not work as much

Yip - me too. It’s utterly divorced from reality to think that having the government control the entire housing market is a magic fix to the lack of housing. In every country this has been done in, it has been a disaster.

They are leasehold flats like we have leasehold flats in England. They are owned by those who live in them - both purchased from the government and on the secondary market (and they’re not at all cheap). It’s nothing like what op is describing. It’s owner occupied housing.

also there is privately built housing in Singapore (about a quarter).

Op is also suggesting that people pay rent to live in the state housing she is suggesting so not sure what the point is. No one is saying social housing in the uk isn’t rented.

I don't know about this allocated housing but we do need a absolutely massive great council house building programme in the UK. The current housing situation (or lack of housing) in the UK is causing enormous misery and poverty for hundreds of thousands of people.

I'm sure someone will come along saying 'we can't afford it' well I would argue that we can't afford not to. At the moment £££ of public money is being spend paying private landlords. Also, when generation rent retire, I very much doubt they'll all have fat pensions to live off, the state (you and me) will be paying their rent for them with no end in sight. If private landlords can make money from rent then so can the state. The main benefit though would be to reduce human misery in the country be providing secure, affordable homes for people.

They aren't cheap compared to the average UK house but given the fact that Singapore is a city state (and also a wealthy one), the comparable would be zone 1-3 London. And it is cheaper than most London flats particularly if you buy a build to order flat (which not everyone can, I appreciate due to the waiting times).

I think where it is similar to what op is describing is that it is government subsidized housing..it is cheaper than the private market because the government owns the land and is not seeking to earn a profit on it..they do the maintenance of the buildings and this is funded by taxpayer monies. The council tax hdb occupants pay is insufficient for the external maintenance of the buildings.

People who own private condos and private houses in Singapore do not enjoy such help from the government, they have to do all external maintenance of the building facades using their own money. In fact my relatives back home were gobsmacked that a young person like myself with a modest income was buying a property on the private market and 100% responsible!

@SueVineer , @carly2803 was saying that the Council pay for Council housing. Through Housing Benefit. I think she means UC, which is a DWP benefit not Council.

I know what the OP was describing. I think more like the Singapore model is a better idea.

Oh good grief.

We used to have that when most people lived in council houses.

It's my idea of hell being allocated a house and being stuck renting forever.

People do t look after houses they don't own.

Nothing. What I would deem to be a fair rent would probably be the same as my mortgage payment.

For families that are now effectively living below the poverty line because they have more money going out than coming in, it would be needed for food and household bills.

Wealthy families with an already healthy disposable income would be able to buy more luxuries , so I don’t think it should be available on a universal basis. Some sort of cut off should apply.

That they are, I am all for full rights of ownership, for your car, for your possessions, for your business, for your investments.

And may the strong arm of the law prevail.

What I am saying is that the current system of housing, which is a basic need, if this was Government controlled, will you and society as a whole live lives of less stress,