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.

Im not in London but close, 15 years ago new build estates had waiting lists and queues to buy.

Now my Facebook feed is plastered with ads. Containing many lies and exaggerations to make them sound more attractive. They’re just sitting there. I think a lot of people also
now think of new builds as bad quality.

I don’t think it will be solved; particularly in London. Sorry

The only way is make more money, save more money, or move out.

I listened to a Panel of housing experts and they said it will take about 40 years to see change. So no.

Its something to do with land laws. They changed recently to allow communities to buy assets. So for example people have been getting together to buy brixton market and bring it into community ownership away from private ownership. There are only a couple of examples like this though so far. I do think the solution will lie in more communities doing this though.

And people know a certain proportion has to be social housing, which for some is enough to dismiss the whole idea of living in a new build.

But of course the bigger issue is the prices of them. Just had a look on Rightmove and new build three bed houses in Sydenham are selling for a whopping £800k.

Things are changing, prices for many properties haven’t kept up with inflation.

You can’t have today’s high prices & today’s interest rates.

Are they selling though, or just sitting there?

Prices are still high, relative to income. I don’t know anyone who’s bought a house on their own within the last few years.

There has to be some correction because if people cannot afford to buy, places won't sell. Prices are already coming down in London. This could be helped by stopping house builders from sitting on land and developments waiting for prices to rise to bring new homes to market. We also need to penalise overseas property investors who buy new luxury flats and just seal them up.

Long way down to go from here, unless the really silly cheap debt comes back?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/30/houses-in-england-worth-less-than-they-were-20-years-ago/

We also need to penalise overseas property investors who buy new luxury flats and just seal them up

100% this! Ridiculous that lovely homes are sitting empty and green sites are being built on. Once we lose green space and their wildlife, we will never get them back.

young people can buy houses in most places but generally they need a decent job plus ideally family they can live with to save a deposit, two of ours have bought in their 20’s, one with their dp, the other alone, no London but not that cheap an area, they just saved hard for 4 years

Everyone needs a home. Why shouldn't ordinary people own one? Home owners are not the main reason for house price inflation or the reason young people can't afford homes. Successive governments are.

Yes I’m in a new build Facebook group - it came up one day and makes for interesting reading..
A very common post is ‘I’ve just found out my £000k house is next to social housing what should I do?’ Then people advising to pull out. Saw one earlier today!

Prices round here are nuts too. The new builds always cost more. They can be an extra £50-100k more for same size/bedrooms as older house. They’ve built thousands round here and it hasn’t reduced prices at all! They’ve got more and more expensive over the last decade. It has stagnated a bit recently and some people are realising this but in terms of wages to house prices it’s not even close to what it used to be.

www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/housing-associations-sell-record-number-of-social-homes-to-private-buyers-new-analysis-shows-98630?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The LCN said its member councils reported that housing for social rent had been “disproportionately” lost through sales by some housing associations. They also reported that housing associations were increasingly refusing families experiencing homelessness affordable-rent homes because the rent was not deemed affordable for them, leaving them “stuck in expensive temporary accommodation for longer”.

The LCN pointed to the regulator’s figures from 2024-25 which showed that housing associations’ net gain in social rent homes was 2,864, around 7% of their total net gain across all tenures.
The remaining 93% consisted of around 23,000 affordable-rent homes and nearly 14,000 low-cost homeownership homes. The LCN said these tenures were “out of reach for many households on council waiting lists or in temporary accommodation”

It won't be solved because there are too many vested interests who make money out of the housing shortage. Building enough new houses inevitably means prices and rents will fall due to the simple economics of supply and demand. All the landlords and property investors will then lose money.

Remember the 2008 crash - the banks were saved at a cost of billions to avoid a property crash caused if banks failed.

Look at covid - the businesses who had property to rent or on commercial loans were ensured of getting grants/support to give them enough funds to continue paying the rents/loans, again to avoid repossessions and a property crash. Same with owners of holiday lets - given special support to allow them to carry on paying mortgages.

The best we can hope for is a "soft landing" where property costs finally settle for several years and let wages etc catch up a bit.

It’s not too few houses, it’s too many people.

The issue with new builds in my area is that they are always in rubbish locations. Stuck out on the edge of towns and villages, usually on or very close to a busy main road, and a significant distance away from local shops and facilities.

I want to be within easy walking distance of a shops, pubs/restaurants, train station or bus stop, GP Practice, pharmacy etc and this almost never applies to new builds. Older houses are much better integrated.

The other issue is that some are leasehold, even the houses! Who in their right mind wants to buy a leasehold house!

Tbh, the past few decades, where ordinary people have been able to buy property, are an anomaly. Throughout most of history people have rented, and I think we are reverting back to the norm.

Not solved, just the level could change. End short term lets in some places and restrict second homes, you could make a difference.

It’s her home not a commodity.

Not really because rents used to be affordable and now they're not.

It’s not hers though, she doesn’t own it. I think we need to be far less emotional and far more practical when it comes to housing. There is plenty of housing in the UK for the size of the population, and absolutely no need to be building more all over the countryside. The problem is that so many older people are living alone in family sized houses, while younger families are homeless or in cramped conditions. Social housing should be for people who need it, not for sentimentality. It’s ridiculous.

Not really what?

Landlords can only charge what people can afford to pay. It’s market rate.

Older people are stuck in large homes because there's a massive shortage of bungalows etc as the developers simply don't build them anymore. Councils used to build whole estates of bungalows, but nowadays you're lucky if a new development includes more than a handful.

They're also stuck because they don't want to pay tens of thousands in stamp duty and don't want the hassle of having to deal with estate agents, removals men, downsizing and decluttering etc. There's a "sweet spot" where people are actually capable (mentally and physically) of moving to a smaller home - if you miss the optimum point in time, you do become trapped in whatever home you happen to be living in when your mental and physical health starts to decline.

We sold MIL's bungalow a couple of years ago - got swamped with viewings and offers within days, before even the for sale sign went up - estate said they're always like that due to the high demand/low supply.