House Prices

[Yel]

I'm not British and find the NHS situation and lots the rhetoric surrounding it fascinating.

People want to pay as little tax as possible (and vote for those that promise this) then expect a Nordic level of health service.

Something has to give somewhere with such unrealistic expectations.

If I had an asset and lived somewhere that had chronically underfunded health care I'd be happy to use that asset to provide for a comfortable life. This idea that inheritance should be a right to pass on I do find a bit odd. Especially as lots of it isn't even earned income but asset appreciation.

 

[BettyCrockerr]

No need to for the rudeness, just pointing out facts. Yeah I have lived in both of those…. FYI we’ve just sold out flat and have bought a house for 425k, it’s not that hard to save if you prioritise. I’m not yet 30 and haven’t had help from parents.

If people say they cannot save I don’t realistically agree, it’s that they prioritise other things such as going out, holidays etc (absolutely nothing wrong with that, we decided to forego that because we valued the home ownership more).

I don’t care about what you have or haven’t bought, I haven’t mentioned anything about saving/how easy it may be to save. Nothing!!!! You haven’t had help from parents.….
ok so how have you saved money for a deposit?!

 

[Clickbait]

Oh it is there, you just have to look at the wasted spending though this pandemic to see the checks and audits for spending are not there. Worthless PPE, contact tracing, wages for managers who are incompetent.

I’ve worked for the NHS for a number of years through the years of seeming plenty, and the years of austerity and crippling underinvestment - both have left us with an estates infrastructure that often is not fit for purpose, a divided and worn down staff, and problems for the future in making a service that is sustainable.

There can be money found if the government want to make a political statement, but it’s often IMO not spent in the right places. We have restructures every 2 years and with every change in government, that are expensive and destructive to the workforce and continuity of service. The NHS does a lot that is good, but often the focus is on its faults. Due to massive underfunding of social care and MH services there is much more strain on the system.

I hate the phrase ‘NHS Managers’ as it is often thrown around in a very meaningless way to refer to individuals considered to be wasteful, overpaid and incompetent. It’s a stock phrase for the Daily Mail types who froth at the mouth about these phantom managers who sit in their ivory towers whilst Rome burns. As with all organisations, there is dead wood, there are people who turn up and do the bare minimum, but there are also a vast number of people who would be classified an ‘NHS manager’ - by virtue of the fact they are not a clinical member of staff - who work very hard and regularly do many hours over their paid amount.

The people who may be held up as examples of poor performance are often without an NHS background and given a job by one of their Tory mates (e.g. Dido Harding). The exorbitant contracts awarded to companies profiteering from the Covid crisis are done so by the Health Secretary not NHS managers.

 

[Pixipoppy]

I get so offended at those leaflets that ask you to sell. We’ve even had handwritten notes through the door from some estate agents, I hate it. It’s so beggy. Im a tenant, of course I don’t want my landlord to sell, please don’t encourage him or I could lose my home????

Begging people to sell their homes should be banned imo.

I don’t believe it was a direct result of those stupid leaflets but we started getting them all the frigging time in our old flat, then lo and behold our landlord told us he was selling. We always get them at our new flat which is in quite a high demand area, and our rent has already gone up after one year. Competition is crazy. I don’t care what people say, renting is not a stable and secure way to live! Honestly every email or phonecall I get from my landlord I assume it’s him contacting me to say we have 2 months to leave I could absolutely never settle down and have a pet or a baby in a rented place! I don’t have the nerves for it!

 

[Homebird44]

I do laugh when people in their 30's talk of retiring in their 60's and living off of the state pension. That's something that should have been pegged to life expectancy many years ago, it really can't go on for that much longer giving a state pension for 20-30 years.

I was told for years that the state pension won't even be a thing when I retire. There is no excuse now with workplace pensions, you can pay a tiny percentage. My job is pretty dull but the pension is the reason most of us stay.

 

[Yel]

When I viewed my current house to rent it my landlord told me (after signing the lease of course) that he picked me because I work in tech and my salary goes up quite often. Which allows him to raise my rent knowing that it "wouldn't bother me". I was so shocked on the moment that I kept quiet. When I brought it up with my friends they said that their landlords did the same thing. Every year or two they'd raise their rent by 50-100€. And apparently it is quite common for landlords to do that for people working in tech in Ireland.

It pissed me off so much that I made it my goal to save as much as possible to buy my own place.

Absolute parasites!

Few things make me rage more than people boasting about how much their buy to let portfolio has gone up and congratulating themselves on being such a smart person all while acting like theyre a pillar of society that works harder than anyone providing healthcare

 

[Bitofthebubbly]

Thought this article was interesting:
Half of people who bought homes during covid regret it according to a survey.

 

[Homebird44]

Some of the boomer generation came from working class families and managed to save up and buy a house - they didn’t earn a lot but they could afford a lot more because things were cheaper and tax rates were far lower. In the mid-60s it was just over 2% (if you had a family you were given bigger tax breaks) and nowadays it’s around 23%.

Many now own houses that are worth several times what they cost when they were built or purchased. A deposit in the late 50s/early 60s was around a fifth of an annual salary, nowadays it can be more than twice an annual salary.

I don’t doubt that they worked hard to save a deposit and to keep paying the bills, and went through periods of financial uncertainty but objectively it was easier to save and buy than it is today.

Not everyone is frivolous with their money and to suggest that people could work harder, get a second job, cut back on any/all luxuries is a very simplistic view when there are many other factors in play.

I do also understand in some cases that people complain about not being able to afford a deposit when they’re choosing to spend money on having a particular lifestyle instead.

My parents nearly lost their house in the early 90s when the interest rates went through the roof. They went from paying £200 a month to nearly £1000 a month. Its hard across all ages. I had to move from the town I grew up in as I couldn't afford to buy there. Plenty of people move further away.

 

[Sln2404]

We’ve been trying to buy a house since February but it’s so slow as the builders had to stop. We were due to exchange tomorrow! Just called the solicitor and we’ve saved £12,500! It makes such a difference.

 

[Mejustme]

I live in a 3 bed detached house, it's owned outright and was our pension fund, we want to move to a 2 bed bungalow but they are 50 thousand more than our house in the same area, so that's that plan out of the window

 

[BorisBear]

House prices are crazy we just sold our 3 bed terrace for 248… close to beach but not a great area, we are buying a 3 bed 8 miles away with better schools for 425k I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. This is in Dorset.
We got our first flat 135k at 24 with our own money, we didn’t go to uni just went straight to work with a 90% mortg sold for 155k & got this home for 189k. We will have a big mortgage but need to be close to work & good schools .

Just read the other comments & might delete this now

 

[Anne1448]

What's annoying is that I'm spending £750 on my rent and bills currently (earn about £2000 take home so it's less than 50% of my wage), with expenses like phone bill, car running costs and food I think I save about £500-£900 a month depending if its a quiet month or not but still that's not enough for the mortgage companies.

Friend bought a flat in London recently, they are on £60k and still needed to put down a 40% deposit and get help from a grandparents inheritance in order to do it. The market is broken. I also can't understand how landlords keep jacking up the rent when wages aren't growing that fast either.

We will see the effect of this in about a decade as the lack of young people (because it's harder to have children) hits the employment market

I have the exact same salary, savings and rent as you (I earn 2k and save between 500-800€ per month) yet I can't buy a single house on the market right now because the entry level house starts at 150k. I moved twice in hope to find a cheaper neighbourhood but by the time I spend 12 months in a place the prices go up by 50k. It's mental!

My parents said that they could give me 8k which would put me at 20k of down-payment but even that isn't enough.

Out of my entire family only 3 have a house and they bought them in their late 30s.

My biggest fear is not being able to buy in my youth which means that my entire pension will go towards my rent when I'll reach the age of 70. Or worst being homeless.

 

[Begborrowsteal]

My mum is still in her council house. Shes been paying full rent for 45 years. She has changed the bathroom and the council have installed a Magnet kitchen and the soffits and facias have just been replaced. Its a 3 bed house in a well off town just outside London. Its only her and my step dad living in it now, two spare bedrooms. I do wonder if the council would move them to somewhere smaller so a family would move in but she said that they wouldn't do that. She ripped the bath out and installed a big walk in shower, it looks amazing but I do worry for them that it could be taken away.

But really, they should be moved you know? 3 beds and more are like gold dust.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

They will be in trouble when the prices drop and they’ve overpaid. I’m in the north as well and know of so many houses that have gone 40-50k over, it’s ridiculous. I don’t understand some people’s mindsets atm.

If youre mortgage free or small mortgage in a forever home it really doesnt matter if prices drop. Youre going to live there for a long time.

Prices dropping is only going to be an issue if youre mortgaged to the hilt and your mortgage comes up for a renewal, likely your payment might go up. Or you plan to be selling or moving.

In our previous property our neighbour across the road put a double extension on, it was definitely more than the house was worth to do but they liked the area, was there forever home so why not. Once theyve paid off there mortgage its theres and it doesnt really matter.

Obviously unexpected things can crop up which means your forever home isnt no longer but if youve got a small mortgage or mortgage free a drop in prices isnt gonna affect you that badly.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

It's similar to unemployment benefits, if you've saved up some cash then if you lose your job you get next to nothing. Where as if you have no savings then you can get housing benefit, council tax benefit and all that. I don't know what the answer is.

It’s difficult isn’t it. My MIL was one of the WASPY women who got fucked over with her pension, she also didn’t have the full NI contributions despite working her whole life as her private pension deductions ate into her net pay so NI wasn’t off the gross which would have meant she did the full contribution or something?? It was something bizarre as she’s done really well for herself, bought a big 3 bed outright and extended it twice, kept it lovely inside, always had decent cars, but she only got £300 private pension for years whilst she waited for the partial state to kick in. Her bestie has never worked but had enough credits from marriage (I don’t think this is a thing anymore? I think if you’re eligible for child benefit that counts, but I cba to claim it then repay it so imagine a lot of ineligible women are missing out on their mat leave year potentially, especially if they’re not HRTP themselves so their partial year of pay pre mat wouldn’t have gotten them the stamp) so gets the full state pension.

The only thing you’ve got to think is work does undoubtedly pay & you do get a far higher quality of life out of it? I personally wouldn’t want to be unemployed on UC it looks like an absolute nightmare from an admin perspective and very little to live on. I know no one in this thread is being a weirdo so this comment doesn’t apply to anyone, but the Facebook brigade who say how good they have it are…… completely welcome to go try it themselves! ETA - work doesn’t actually pay for the majority of the country does it, I’m being narrow minded sorry but being in work and getting top ups must be better than 100% unemployed still surely?

It’s difficult tho and tbh the saddest thing is the loss of family spaces and under provision of care for those vulnerable elders

 

[JoeBloggs]

I don't think the money is there and there's no way to just spend it better.

Oh it is there, you just have to look at the wasted spending though this pandemic to see the checks and audits for spending are not there. Worthless PPE, contact tracing, wages for managers who are incompetent.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Also, I certainly hope the “just work harder and spend less” crowd are well prepared for potential interest rate rises too…

And the people that stretched themselves to make use of the stamp duty holiday. I only know 2 people that moved during that time but 1 has lost hair because she was so stressed her app wouldn’t go through before the deadline (that was then extended) cos she couldn’t afford it otherwise, the other has moved into a dive and can’t afford to drop a day (20% pay cut) so god knows how they’ll fix it up? Both me and my husband have been seriously unwell at points in our lives so unpredictable shit really does happen, you just can’t guarantee being at 100% of your current earnings for decades.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Being able to be politically apathetic also reeks of privilege.. just saying

(I’ll stop now, promise )

Not moderating the thread but I suspect the airing of the house purchase and good Tory values was enough for some, those of us who have read anything in the last decade get it, thankfully.

Tbh only follow this thread for anecdotal tea about houses, if I wanted Tory propaganda I’d log into Facebook

 

[Yel]

It's the k shaped recovery. Some have never had so much.

So many people can pay the huge prices because of the unearned money in their current home. I know people on a very normal income who recently completed on a house costing around a million.

Then the lack of supply for many reasons - mortgage holidays delaying distressed sellers, building supply shortgages, probate delays etc.

All the furlough money and bounce back loans have kept the economy well oiled. So we're still waiting to see where things land in a few months.

Last time they were able to decrease rates to keep house prices high, but now they're already at the lowest and with inflation coming to bite they may have to rise. The current situation isn't the "new normal" and feels quite transitional.

 

[Tublet83]

I dont know what it's like outside of where we are but in my town there is plenty of available houses, it's just that they are in such run down areas where drug use is sky high, derelict areas full of fly tipped rubbish and generally litter strewn everywhere that you just don't want to buy because you know you'll never be happy there or be able to sell on in future.
Theres also a lot of houses in states of such poor repair, local scum have ripped out lead and generally just destroyed the house or it's simply been left to rot. And it's such a shame that these cant be forced to be sold instead of letting them sit there empty for 20 years. If you cannot afford to or have no desire to maintain a house then the council should have the power to force you to sell so that it can be done up and lived in by someone who will look after it in my opinion.
We had a meeting with a mortgage broker yesterday and found out that we could have x amount. It was slightly more than I would like to pay out for a house to be honest but at least things are moving along finally and we seem to be making some progress. It been an eye opener how long everything seems to take I thought it would be more straight forward.
Also already seeing more and more houses being put back up for sale that we was refused a viewing on because sales have fallen through.

Where I live landlords/owners leave houses empty they are charged additional council tax as punishment.