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.

Yes there is a definite 70"s vibe in the air, todays debt jockeys won"t know what hit them.

Demographics wont hurt.

At the moment a huge slug of housing is under occupied by a huge cohort of boomers in their 60s/70s/80s. They are refusing to move into the vast numbers of retirement flats built with them in mind, because of the service fee scandal.

Its already starting to happen in some areas, these are steadily coming onto the market az people die etc. Where i live (expensive south east) house prices have come down a lot from peak.

They are refusing to move into the vast numbers of retirement flats built with them in mind

Sorry,?

Refusing to move to somethng they don't want and didn't ask for?
How utterly patronising, cheeky and rude.
I realise some think the older generations are there to be despised and their only purpose is to get in the way of the ever-suffering youngsters, but this post really takes the biscuit.
Thank goodness they are dying (and passing their home's value onto their deserving offspring)

Of course it would be possible to sort the issues out around flats but there seems no political will to do so

They are refusing to move into the vast numbers of retirement flats built with them in mind

Given the sheer number of "over 50"/"over 55" flats on the market, surely it's time for planners to redesignate some of them to remove the age stipulation and make them available for all. It's insane to have retirement flats sitting empty for years at the same time we have a housing/homeless crisis.

Good luck with getting younger want to pay the extortionate service charges on those properties.

Who lives in a flat, by choice, with extortionate fees? If you do your research you will see the veil has been lifted on that Ponzi scheme.

We're aged 59 and 68 and are in the process of upsizing. We've finally got an inheritance so more money than we've ever had. For the first time in our lives, we're getting a garage, a utility room, a dining room, a decent sized garden, a spare bedroom and a study. We're definitely not ready to be moving into a 2 bedroom flat, and neither are any of our friends, and I refuse to feel guilty about that. Our family will be well looked after when we're gone but they're gonna have to wait a while yet. Neither of our (step)children went to University but both, in their 30s, earn more than we ever have and own their own houses (probably because they didn't choose to live in London when they were young).

Most of the service charges are to cover things that wouldn't be needed if younger people occupied the blocks, i.e. no need for a warden, for personal alarm cords, less need for cleaning of communal areas, in fact no need for communal areas such as lounges, kitchens, utility rooms, etc. You'd be back to the same kind of service charge needed for normal blocks of flats, i.e. a contribution towards cleaning the staircases and hallways and a fund for property repairs.

If they abolished leasehold flats would shift . As it is vast numbers of people who would traditionally free them up for first time buyers are stuck whereas they’d usually be trading up in readiness for marriage / families

Prices would need to come down a lot as well.

There are many empty flats, no one wants them because of the service charges. Why can’t these be converted to social housing instead of laying empty?

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/latest

I was about to say something similar.

Say what you like about Thatcher, but she did at least try to distribute wealth away from London.

Nothing for young people where I live (lower-middle). I live in a 3 bedroom bungalow on my own.

I am a stubborn landlord who will not be selling up. I don't think pricing small landlords out is anywhere near the answer either.

They will be owned by someone .

The service charge would still exist even if a younger person moved in. It is payable whether or not the person living there is healthy enough not to need or use the services. It can even continue after the owner has died and the flat is sitting empty awaiting a sale. That's one of the reasons these properties can be so difficult to sell.

As for service charges on normal blocks of flats... If that worked so well the Government wouldn't be looking at introducing reforms to give leaseholders better protection against unreasonable charges.

What do you mean by "pricing small landlords out"?

Yes, the developer.

still owned . Won’t be just developers

But if they are still unsold and still on the developer"s books it means demand is down and no one needs to buy them?

https://londondaily.com/london-new-build-home-sales-plunge-to-lowest-since-financial-crisis

Why would they be social housing though , they are still owned by the developers and it’s up to them what they do with them.

I remember when it was all about choosing a house to make into a home. My parents bought a three bedroom house in 1968 I came along in 73 DB in 75 DM still lives there because they bought a house to make a home
Astonishing isnt it 🙄

Well developers have form for selling to councils when they can"t shift units, this was before multiple councils went bust and councils still thought money came from the magic money tree though, I have heard about people borrowing 500 - 600k for "executive" flats ending up next door to drug users who were pissing in the stairs and elevators. Developers don"t want to have the hassle of maintaining empty units, safety inspections, repairs, security etc. they want them sold.

Anybody who still believes in "The ladder" probably still believes in Santa TBH. It is a debt ladder and it was built so bankers could live well in exclusive enclaves away from the cattle that take their loans for plasterboard boxes next to a roundabout.

I dont think there is a policy of small landlords being squeezed out. Plenty of truth in squeezing out Landlords, in general, with lots of debt though.
There is still a very good return on Lettings if you can afford to buy rather than borrow.

Maybe, but the majority of the BTL boom was borrowed money, nice earner for the bankers until it wasn"t, and with big drops in numbers coming here to study/work many potential landlords will press pause IMO, after a proper property crash will be the time for cash landlords to buy up flats.