Will the housing crisis ever be solved?

[ByJustScroller]

Do you think there is any hope for young people wanting to buy in? I have friends and family where I live but now I am priced out. I am not just competing with locals but people who live in London and the ever increasing new arrivals. Housing supply has not kept up with demand for years and this government has no plans. I will be renting for ever.

It just takes the political will to do it

How many more housing units do you think we need to build?

I think we have to take the profit out of it. Owning your own home was a quick way to wealth - we need to stop that.

Realistically, it depends on how close you want to live to certain places - obviously if that place is Chelsea, or Esher then there can’t really be enough houses built to lower the price significantly enough for some people. I’m not saying that’s right and we shouldn’t build more houses, but desirable places tend to have expensive houses. People have always had to move out a bit further for more space or compromise for starter homes etc. Obviously for many it is well beyond that and they couldn’t hope to be anywhere within an hour of where they grew up, which is very difficult.

I don't think it will be solved.

I've said this before and got jumped on but I think social housing should be reviewed every 3 years and people e.g who no longer need a 3 bedroom home should be swapped with a family who need a bigger property within a 1 mile radius. The landlord should be obliged to provide a grant towards removal costs and new carpets, curtains, white good installation via a list of approved contractors and invoiced directly to the landlord.

E g DH ex-wife on her own in a 3 bedroom council house unlikely to ever move so house blocked for another 20 years , my sister and BIL in a huge 3 bedroom council house, kids moved out 15 years ago, unlikely to move as been in it for nearly 40 years, probably another 20 to go.

Not easily because to do solve it you need to reduce house prices and peoples wealth will take a hit. I'm a country where living costs are too high to save money and the only way to accumulate wealth is via property no government is going to do that. Sad but true.

I really don't think it is down to this though, I think there are massive problems with property and especially redevelopment. We own our home, a typical 3 bed semi and bought 12 years ago. We have 2 properties the same but corner houses next to us. One was sold almost 3 years ago, bought by propert developers who have spent the best part of 3 years extending it to a 5 bedroom to no doubt try and make a massive profit. Not a great extension either by the look of it! They have now bought the lovely and ready move in to 3 bed semi joined to it. No doubt they will also redevelop it to another 5 bed and take 3 years to do that! Meanwhile 2 perfectly good family properties next to a good school have not only been unavailable but also pr
iced out young families who need them! Such selfish behaviour! We have also had a load of new houses built, most of which are unaffordable for first time buyers.

It’s going to solve itself due to a falling birth rate. Building on every square inch of green space isn’t the answer.

No. It won't happen.

No, it’s an impossible task. But at least there’s various schemes to help - shared ownership, getting a LISA, rent to buy. Flats are generally cheaper than they have been for many years.

It’s already slowly improving. Prices down in real terms. Immigration slowing. Rental availability up. BTL landlords getting out.

The market will take care of most of it if the government reduces meddling with the factors that would make it a free market. Covering high housing costs for people on benefits or allowing mass immigration.

I always have to comment when ‘Londoners’ is mentioned. I’ve lived in compromised housing for 40 years to afford to house my family in London as a public sector worker. I am damn well going to take the equity and buy somewhere lovely to retire! Londoners don’t have it easy and many have earned a break.

I live in the affluent north. There’s a lot of empty potential homes mainly in the centre of market towns above shops and in former shops these have been empty for years. Some of the empty banks would make excellent small flat complexes. Many spaces that would have been flats or offices above shops are now empty. Not everyone wants to live above a shop but it would provide cheaper rented housing.
holiday homes/second homes/holiday rentals. Some that are not let out are now taxed at a higher rate but the ones let out don’t pay any local tax under the small business exemption scheme and there are hundreds of them. Sell those and all those first time homes would be available to buy.
There is a lot of housing being built locally but much is too expensive for locals to buy so people are moving into the area.

Watch the "Ten Year Yield", that is the medicine for a housing bubble.

I live with my DH in a first floor one bedroom flat Hes 76 and needs a bungalow
But i dont expect a non disabled spouse to move out of a bungalow if their disabled spouse has died to make way for us. We dont all think like you even those of us who are actually IN the situation

What young people want to live in a flat in a small market town? Where are the jobs and lifestyle?

I'd agree that we don't really have a massive problem of housing capacity in total, it's just not at all where people want (and need) to live. It's mainly just a pricing problem anyway in face, there are houses on sale and people who want to buy, they're just too expensive.

Much of this is due to London being made the only place you can live for in entire industries if you want a career, and London getting more money and attention than everywhere else regardless of need, for many decades.

We need to make other cities and regions viable places for more people to live if we are going to fix the house price problem. But it does seem the mortage rates going up will kind of fix house price inflation in total pretty quick if it keeps going.

Lets hope it keeps going!

A very small market town near where I live has numerous posts every single week for young couples wanting to rent a flat. Demand is outstripping supply.
Not everyone wants to live in a city, there are always job vacancies locally.

I agree. And if they want to stay they should pay the full market rate rent, not the subsidised social housing amount. My ILs are in a 3 bed council house, only been the 2 of them for the last 6 years. My GM passed away 4 years ago but she’d been living in a 3 bed council house alone for the previous 10 years, and my DM and siblings had moved out 40 years prior to that. As much as it had been her home for 60 years there were people with a higher need for her house.

House prices are correcting now, but as a previous poster stated: we are an aging country and the birth rate is falling. We may end up with too many houses for people in 30 years.

And how long did the council or HA give to clear the house?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-new-build-home-sales-houses-property-b1292587.html

I disagree wholeheartedly. Home ownership x 1 is not greedy, nor should one home ownership be penalised. Owning a home is a basic right in my humble opinion - it means we stop paying our hard earned cash out when we retire-the alternative being paying more than a mortgage would cost, until the day we die. No thanks.

There are so many factors causing such a mess in housing of all types. I don't think it will be solved any time soon. People are getting fucked every which way.

You need a lot less single adult households. That’s a huge contributing factor that often overlooked.

Yes, but the price of a home has to come down massively, hopefully the bond market is going to enforce that on the UK soon.