Housing crisis solutions

Soldato
Joined
8 Apr 2009
Posts
12,702
I think one of the biggest problems with the housing market and why everyone is clambering for a house is because it is that unsafe to rent. There are little guarantees and your only protection against the landlord is their integrity as a person and the fact if you are a good tenant that they will usually try and do right by you so they don't lose you and get a bad tenant. The problem is that still encourages them to do just enough.

I've been renting for a few years now whilst I have been waiting for my house to be built. There is little protection offered and I consider myself fortunate enough to have a good landlord but I think that is partly because of the quality of house I rent. For places that are more 'replaceable' then I can imagine the situation get's a whole lot worse.

One thing I would say it that everytime we have one of these threads and people say come and live by me you can get a 3 bed semi for this cheap price - I look on Rightmove and they are there! But then you look at the school checker and see "Failing" "Needs improvement" "Satisfactory" etc and you see why no parent in their right mind would actively aim to live in such a place.
 
Associate
Joined
7 Aug 2012
Posts
948
This is my point. Rent somewhere cheaper (yes that means smaller, yes it means not as nice as you want, where you want) save up that deposit. Make sacrifices. Get on the ladder. Or dont. But with a 50k joint income its wholly achievable.

This ^^^

I sacrificed an entire year to save for the deposit I put down for my house.

My first house (my current house) is a 3 bed detached with garage in the countryside.

I had no life for literally 365 days. I worked every single day for a year as I wanted to save for a decent deposit so that I could get something nice.

I'm sure there's plenty of ways for you to cut back on spending to help get a deposit for £20k
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Dec 2004
Posts
15,762
I think one of the biggest problems with the housing market and why everyone is clambering for a house is because it is that unsafe to rent. There are little guarantees and your only protection against the landlord is their integrity as a person and the fact if you are a good tenant that they will usually try and do right by you so they don't lose you and get a bad tenant. The problem is that still encourages them to do just enough.

I've been renting for a few years now whilst I have been waiting for my house to be built. There is little protection offered and I consider myself fortunate enough to have a good landlord but I think that is partly because of the quality of house I rent. For places that are more 'replaceable' then I can imagine the situation get's a whole lot worse.

One thing I would say it that everytime we have one of these threads and people say come and live by me you can get a 3 bed semi for this cheap price - I look on Rightmove and they are there! But then you look at the school checker and see "Failing" "Needs improvement" "Satisfactory" etc and you see why no parent in their right mind would actively aim to live in such a place.

This, it wouldn't be so bad if there were reasonable tenant protections in place. It's crap renting in the UK. It's obscene that that taxpayer's money is used to prop up the housing market through HTB and other nonsense, but sadly the people getting rich off the back of the property market are the people that vote so don't expect anything to change any time soon.

I'm happy renting comfortably here away from the grind of life in the UK, if there is a proper price correction I'll probably move back but not a chance the way things are right now.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,508
Location
Surrey
Also, and this is meant to be constructive, you say you have a student loan and also some other debts to pay. Obviously there isn't much you can immediately do about the student loan. But is there anything you can do about the other debts? E.g. If it was for a car or other high value asset then consider selling it and getting a cheap run around. Having debts will not only affect your ability to save a deposit but will also affect your ability to get a mortgage. So you have to be looking to pay those off asap.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2010
Posts
2,840
Location
Somewhere in Asia
I think one of the biggest problems with the housing market and why everyone is clambering for a house is because it is that unsafe to rent. There are little guarantees and your only protection against the landlord is their integrity as a person and the fact if you are a good tenant that they will usually try and do right by you so they don't lose you and get a bad tenant. The problem is that still encourages them to do just enough.

I've been renting for a few years now whilst I have been waiting for my house to be built. There is little protection offered and I consider myself fortunate enough to have a good landlord but I think that is partly because of the quality of house I rent. For places that are more 'replaceable' then I can imagine the situation get's a whole lot worse.

One thing I would say it that everytime we have one of these threads and people say come and live by me you can get a 3 bed semi for this cheap price - I look on Rightmove and they are there! But then you look at the school checker and see "Failing" "Needs improvement" "Satisfactory" etc and you see why no parent in their right mind would actively aim to live in such a place.

I shudder remembering the research the wife and myself did when we were looking at moving. We had a list of must haves :

1)Good or Outstanding (OFSTED) school.
2)School had to be walkable (my wife does not drive)
3)Little or no social housing close by
4)4 Beds ideally (3 beds minimum) - 2 kids
5)Close to major road network for my work commute to the city
6)Close local amenities (wife not driving issue again)
7)Great broadband

Unfortunately all of check boxes added significant value to the property price. I worked in London at the time, and we lived in Hertfordshire (easy commute). The reality was however that at the time we couldn't afford a 4 bed semi or detached in St Albans. So hands tied to hit ALL of those boxes we had to move to Bedfordshire which made my commute that much crapper.

Our house was great but its geography was a compromise.

In respect of house prices, I have contributed on similar threads before. As a landlord myself I believe there are a number of issues :

1)Help to buy is a bomb waiting to happen and will cripple FTBers if they sit on it and don't react to the 'Government loan'. It also horribly inflates the price of new builds because builders know that the largest hurdle of a deposit is effectively avoided for the exchange of contracts.It also drives competition amongst all of those FTBers eager to get on the property ladder.
2)BTL explosion(although the new changes when they come into effect with cripple small time landlords and either force a sale (helping supply) or force an increase on the rental market. This can go one of two ways. For a number of reasons including my ex pat status this is currently not an issue for me, but if it did become I would seriously have to reconsider the financial viability of one of my properties.
3)Lack of new construction (also when they are there, usually horribly priced because of the ability of HTB to kick in for FTBers as mentioned above).

I also think that a lot of people (not specifically the OP) do not want to make the necessary sacrifices to save for a deposit. I also think that a lot of people have just accepted that they will never be able to own a property.

Even if house prices crash the deposit issue is still going to be a problem.

Average house price is around 210k (21k for a 10% deposit). Lets assume that we have a biblical house price crash in the UK of around 30% which the Daily Mail is fear mongering, bringing it down to 180k. People are still going to need to find 18k......it wont make much of a difference in the mentality or feasibility IMO.The issue will still be there.

Even if interest rates go up against the current Brexit trend of reduction (IMO it will never hit the highs of decades gone again) this will just make mortgages that much harder for people to afford. It wont just screw the landlords, it will screw FTBers as well.

In short if I was the OP, and I don't know all of his outgoings. If he is unable to save for a deposit in his particular area (gods knows the size of the loans he is currently servicing) he needs to move to make the impossible.....possible by moving. Unless you have financial help and support it isnt always possible to have your cake and eat it. Something has to give.
 
Associate
Joined
23 Sep 2007
Posts
1,160
I have a number of properties and I find that some people choose to rent and some use it to save and then buy their home.

If the OP feels he cannot afford to buy in the current area then would it be possible to rent where it's cheaper and then build up your savings for a deposit on a house?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
16 Mar 2005
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8,052
Location
Clevedon , Bristol
It's obscene that that taxpayer's money is used to prop up the housing market through HTB and other nonsense, but sadly the people getting rich off the back of the property market are the people that vote so don't expect anything to change any time soon.

House prices rise, and very occasionally fall, irrelevant of who is voted in power, it is a major gauge of the countries economy. And the majority who gain are homeowners, therefore taxpayers.

Whilst i have empathy for todays buyers, it is no different to how it has always been.

First thing i looked at when i started work in 1984 was a place for my own.

A one bed flat was £17k, but i was young and had better things to spend my money on ( beer/motorbikes/girls etc. ) so i thought i'd buy later.

Same property in 1992 was £35k, my wages certainly hadn't doubled by then so i continued to invest my money in social activities.

Last time i checked, possibly 5 years ago now, that same ( well same building ) humble 1 bed flat was £130K.

Point being, don't put it off - Bite the bullet and accept it is a major purchase, make cuts in you lifestyle if you want it.

There will never be a good/cheap time to get on the property ladder.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2008
Posts
7,367
I think you are focusing on the sums of money of '16k in the 90s' but not really taking into account the 90s' bit.

Thats over 25 years ago, so the amount is irrelevant.

16k in ' the 90's was a decent wage for a non-proffessional, i was there, i am an old person ( 49 ) if you want to class people by age.

Trust me, it took a huge percentage of my income to get a mortgage then, pretty close to 2/3rds and life wasn't all rosy and cheap.

Stick bills etc on top and you could forget about social life, but thats part of life. You just exist to pay the bills and eventually you might have the capital to live in the future.

Buying a house is a sacrifice, but its a long term investment, whichever way you look at it.

If you are not prepared to make adjustments in your lifestyle, which judging by your arguements of make everything more affordable/ban people from multiple homes etc.. then that is your problem.

( as a point of reference to 16k, the highest i remember earning from the nineties was 12.5K/13,5k with annual bonus (which was not guaranteed )

a lot of people forget this my parents purchased their house for £6,000 in the 70's I think... its now worth 600k+ ...

so they lived the dream? Holidays, cars, drugs? nope they were skint all the time second hand TV, clapped out old cars (one car as well not two), 1 holiday to Butlins a year... no central heating (house was freezing in the winter) frost on the inside of the windows...

people expect too much these days.. a nice house and all the trimmings / holidays from the word go
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Dec 2004
Posts
15,762
House prices have never been so consistently out of kilter with earnings for such a long time.

The government should be aiming to flatline property prices for at least a decade, mainly through boosting house building (not through HTB). Property prices are not a sensible gauge of country's economy, as we saw when everyone was feeling super-rich in 2007 on the back of loose credit and 100%+ mortgages driving prices through the roof.

I wouldn't count on interest rates staying down, the BoE will be obliged to raise them once the inflationary effects of the weakened pound kick in.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2009
Posts
6,358
Move elsewhere.

Thats not really ideal though is it,Who wants to travel a million miles to see their family & friends?

The housing situation in our country atm is silly,Its not so much not been able to get one,Its affording one!.

There needs to be more affordable housing complex thats strictly for 20-30 year olds,Even if its Static caravans..Imagine how many people in the 20-30 age bracket would snap a static caravan up if they were £20k - 30K.

I would happily live in one of these.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
16 Mar 2005
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8,052
Location
Clevedon , Bristol
so they lived the dream? Holidays, cars, drugs? nope they were skint all the time second hand TV, clapped out old cars (one car as well not two), 1 holiday to Butlins a year... no central heating (house was freezing in the winter) frost on the inside of the windows...

people expect too much these days.. a nice house and all the trimmings / holidays from the word go

Whilst you missed out ' a handful of hot gravel for breakfast ', i totally agree with you.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2010
Posts
2,840
Location
Somewhere in Asia
House prices have never been so consistently out of kilter with earnings for such a long time.

The government should be aiming to flatline property prices for at least a decade, mainly through boosting house building (not through HTB). Property prices are not a sensible gauge of country's economy, as we saw when everyone was feeling super-rich in 2007 on the back of loose credit and 100%+ mortgages driving prices through the roof.

I wouldn't count on interest rates staying down, the BoE will be obliged to raise them once the inflationary effects of the weakened pound kick in.

Completely agree with the whole interest rate thing, I think any reduction will be for a limited amount of time. When Article 50 is finally invoked the USD and the Euro will have another run against Sterling and our import culture will trigger inflation above the BoE target. Will we ever see anything over 5% though? Personally I don't see it....but hey what do I know!
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Apr 2009
Posts
12,702
There needs to be more affordable housing complex thats strictly for 20-30 year olds

You may be interested to know it's not just that age bracket that is having problems getting on the property ladder. I know plenty of people my age who have no chance of getting on the property ladder where they live and have resigned themselves to that fact. Saying just up sticks and move is kind of a retarded answer when people have kids in schools, elderly relatives that need help, jobs which are not available elsewhere, etc.

Let's not pretend this is a problem just giving the young problems.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,042
lot of people forget this my parents purchased their house for £6,000 in the 70's I think... its now worth 600k+ ...

so they lived the dream? Holidays, cars, drugs? nope they were skint all the time second hand TV, clapped out old cars (one car as well not two), 1 holiday to Butlins a year... no central heating (house was freezing in the winter) frost on the inside of the windows...

people expect too much these days.. a nice house and all the trimmings / holidays from the word go

Must have been terrbily difficult when the average wage in the UK was 2k-3k in the 70s.
You can't blame lack of technology for me being able to enjoy central heating, I have a cheap care and an old tv. If those things would make house 60k I'd happily swap with them, but I fail to see a bit of heating an a few hundred quid flatscreen being the reason a house is 10x not 2x the average salary in comparison.
 
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Man of Honour
Joined
16 Mar 2005
Posts
8,052
Location
Clevedon , Bristol
The government should be aiming to flatline property prices for at least a decade, mainly through boosting house building (not through HTB). Property prices are not a sensible gauge of country's economy,

Of course it is a gauge of the countries economy. The UK building trade involves millions of people.

What you propose is those millions building housing at a zero return for ten years , but bailed out by the government ?

Where does the government get this money > the taxpayer > everyone has less money > the economy slumps.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,042
Of course it is a gauge of the countries economy. The UK building trade involves millions of people.

What you propose is those millions building housing at a zero return for ten years , but bailed out by the government ?

Where does the government get this money > the taxpayer > everyone has less money > the economy slumps.

Could maybe not waste billions on nuclear weapons, how many houses could be built for £200 billion?
 
Associate
Joined
22 Sep 2007
Posts
2,179
Location
Abingdon
The problem is that there are no affordable homes where people want to buy, because the demand for homes in these areas makes them unaffordable. A new 1 bed apartment in Leeds city centre costs £75,950 on Rightmove for example.

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