House Prices

[Anne1448]

Refinery29 has an incredible series about how people can afford homes. And almost 99% of them have stories such as "My grandparents gave me 100k" or " my parents gave me 50k" completely ridiculous.

 

[BettyCrockerr]

PMSL. The last time we remortgaged the advisor in the bank went through every single transaction on our bank statement. She even asked what the Love honey payment was. Think she was just a pervert.

Hahaha!!! NO REMORTGAGE FOR THE SEXUAL DEVIANTS!!! CANT ENJOY SEX IF YOU WANT A MORTGAGE, SEX IS AN UNNECESSARY LUXURY!!!

 

[Rxt156]

It baffles me too. If money is so tight and mortgages so hard to get how come they are selling so quickly so much higher than their worth?

I’m thinking that this may not actually be the case. As annoying as it is, some people haven’t struggled during the pandemic and have ££££££ to burn and no money issue

 

[TheWitchIsBack]

God the Tory vibes are quite awful here. The whole “go without” to save method works in theory where the salary warrants it, but socioecenomics play a huge part in this.

You might forego a holiday and phone bills to save, however you’ve done a university degree and as a result have a job that warrants you being able to save a decent chunk each month. Great, however not a one size fits all situation and doesn’t take into account people that are a disadvantage from birth that might not make it to a better paying job?

Those that grow up in abject poverty are likely to have lower school grades or may have left school at a younger age, may have poorer qualifications and as a result will be in a poorer paying job where they’re still required to pay the same rent or council tax as the rest of renters.

In my area mortgage payments are around 20-30% cheaper than rental payments but there are so many people living hand to mouth. Being able to mortgage would reduce their outgoings and improve their lifestyle but they can’t save because their income/outgoings completely align and not on frivolities. There are also properties in Scotland often snapped up by English investors meaning less availability, rising prices and a generation living in poverty at the mercy of landlords.

 

[Yel]

"most buy to let people only have 1-3 investment properties"

That's still 1-3 more taken out of the hands of owner occupiers! This multiplied by the millions of buy to let people is a fucking huge amount of the housing stock.

"If they tax buy to let more I might sell up and that's less homes available"

The house wont cease to exist if it's sold! It may give the chance for someone to buy it and feel like part of society and be more invested in the local area as they can put down roots!

"I didn't have a smartphone"

They didn't exist! The generation before you also didn't have access to modern recently invented things. Most cost a few quid a week on a and are essential these days.

"I didn't have fancy avocado toast, I had oats for breakfast"

Avo toast on sourdough costs about 50p a portion made at home. Porridge with some fruit isn't really that much cheaper

"I've worked hard for every single penny I have, other people could do the same if they weren't lazy"

When their house makes more money than they do each year and other people certainly could not do the same now!

I'll stop now

 

[Kim Mild]

I have seen prices in my area go up 40k in the last year alone. Regarding house prices and the recession, I think they may stay the same or drop in London, but outside of London I don’t think they will drop due to other factors to consider.

1. COVID-19 allowing people to work from home, therefore not needing to live in London and not needing to commute. Therefore wanting to buy places with more space and land.

2. Stamp duty being cancelled, therefore making people who have been wanting to buy do it sooner to make the most of the saving. Also it makes buying more property v attractive to people who already have property, but want more for buy to let / property portfolios.

3. Lack of good quality housing stock. There are new build estates popping up all over the place, but majority arn’t built to last. Demand outweighs the supply for quality housing.

I’m no estate agent or expert, but that is just my two pence!

I also think lockdown has made people realise they want something different from the house they live in, examples more space or a garden so they are keen to move .

 

[Yel]

"Help to buy is the worst decision I ever made"

Why I regret using Help to Buy to get on the property ladder

Help to Buy was the government’s great promise of homeownership to the priced-out generation, but now many who took their first step on to the property ladder

www.thetimes.co.uk

Bought a flat in Clapham for 490k in 2017 and tried to sell for the same price in 2020 and the best offer she got was 390k.

It's behind a paywall but basically it's saying all help to buy did is line the pockets of house builders, keep prices high and offload poorly made new builds that even with the house prices rises some are still losing tens thousands if they're city centre flats. Lots of extra fees that have caught people out.

All these "help" schemes are not to help the plebs, they're about keep prices high and helping the house builders and finance companies. Don't be fooled by it.

 

[Tublet83]

I got messaged by the agent that one were interested in had its priced dropped by 15k they also wanted me to make some sort of commitment to it after only having a virtual tour .

As if! I would never ever trust an estate agent with a virtual tour!!

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

This gets so tedious! If only people just admitted they were born at the right time to buy rather than patting themselves on the back and thinking they're a wealth management expert .

Even worse is the BTL people who remortgage to pump more unearned money back into houses, helping push up prices and outbid first time buyers and then they think they're some genius buisness man/woman. It's not difficult signing forums to take out mortgages!

I owned a flat that nearly tripled in value….I was only able to buy in the first place because my Mum died and I got left a sum of money which I used as a deposit. I’m very grateful (but would rather have my Mum than bricks and mortar but there you go) I know how lucky that makes me, I certainly don’t go around pretending I knew what I was doing and I’d make that much money….those people need to behave

 

[Boutros-Boutros Ghali]

I wish my phone was £20. I pay for four mobile phone contracts, over £100 a month.

Are you a drug dealer?

 

[Nebbymoo]

I work in social housing and it pains me to see the lovely old council houses sold off. The new builds may look nice but they simply do not function as family homes.

The Mayor of London is pushing to be able to buy back the right-to-buy houses that have ended up in the private market, and use them for social rent. I hope it goes through. No one in social housing should be allowed to buy their property. Literally no justifying it, imo.

Maybe a little controversial here but I'm of the opinion that anyone who's claimed benefits to pay their rent shouldn't be allowed to use that time/payments towards money off when purchasing their council house. Because the tax payer has paid the rent not the tenants. Why should people be allowed a discount on a property when its tax payers who have earnt that discount within that period? When most tax payers cannot afford to save to buy a home themselves. Council houses shouldn't be for sale in the first place but knowing the likes of my aunt has bought a house with a market value of 200k for 18k after 30+ years on benefits and only now has got a mortgage because of a significant discount earnt with tax payers footing the bill makes me sick when me and my husband work our arses off and cannot buy.
And just for clarification shes only recently (past 2 years) worked. Shes otherwise lived a life on the dole constantly having children as the older ones leave home (which I'm aware is a whole other debate).
Call it jealousy if you will be it just doesnt sit right with me that councils allow this.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Wow I think you need to work on your attitude

Simple, we prioritised. We bought our flat in our mid 20’s having both worked at university alongside studying, before going straight on to grad jobs.

We don’t go on fancy holidays as we’ve prioritised having a home, we don’t really go clubbing and we eat sensibly. We usually go for a meal each week at a nice restaurant but other than that we take lunch to work etc. It’s pretty easy to save if you want to.

Many people buy lunch every day - over a year assuming £5 lunch and a 5 day working week thats £1,200 (5 days, allowing for 20 days holiday). People pay £50 a month for phones, pay crazy money for cars on finance, spend money on takeaways and it all adds up

It totally depends on what job you have, where you live while youre saving, and also where you live location wise.

So much of the country live pay check to pay check with v few luxuries. People are chronically underpaid vs hourd worked, childcare costs are crippling, private rent is expensive (before we had our mortgage our rent was double the cost of our mortgage for an identical house)

So the irony is we would find it much easier to save now than we did when we rented.

It can be a huge struggle for some people to save up 15-20k. Especially those on lower incomes. House prices are also off the chart high.

 

[Lanavalentine]

Exactly. It may well be a business to the landlord, but it’s someone’s HOME.

It’s incomparable to the vast majority of services that amateur landlords love to compare it to, to legitimise their cost-cutting and exploitation. A home is so personal and so important to the tenant. There must be boundaries and I think tenants should have more power, to be honest.

 

[Lanavalentine]

Yeah exactly - I’ve always worked off the assumption that the state pension won’t exist when I reach traditional retirement age, or at least retirement age will be pushed back by a good 10 years.

Re: birth rate going down, I think there are multiple factors at play, but a major one is definitely the cost of living and the cost of children in particular.

 

[Yel]

I've got zero sympathy for landlords. Voids and people not paying is part of the risk they accepted when they those to do it. During a recession it's right that renters get more protection as this country has some of the worst tenants rights.

No one needs to own more than one home. If someone doesn't like the risks that being a landlord is then sell it. All this speculation on property is causing misery.

It's the "ordinary people" who were lucky to buy at the right time then remortgaged to pump money into the Ponzi scheme that the most damaging.

A home should be to live in, not an investment vehicle to speculate on.

 

[PennyLane321]

What world would you need to live in to think that people can’t afford to buy a home (never mind 2 or more) because they just don’t work hard enough?? There’s a demand for rental properties because of a dangerous lack of social housing coupled with the fact that people who want to buy are being priced out by greedy landlords hoovering up properties and pushing house prices up.

 

[Clickbait]

A friend’s sister decided to do shared ownership to buy a one-bedroom flat on the outer edge of zone 4. She lived there for about 8 months and then landed a dream job abroad. She wanted to rent the flat out on the open market - not allowed. She wasn’t allowed to sell (a clause about length of time between purchase and sale) and so in the end she had to rent it out on the sly.

Everything was ok until the tenant stopped paying rent. She was abroad and he had basically cottoned on that he shouldn’t be there legally from opening post/talking to other tenants. She then had to pay him to leave(!) and get another family member to stay rent free to keep an eye on the place.

It may work for some people in certain situations, but if you can avoid it I would.

 

[Italy2]

I was also born in the 90’s. But I have worked hard and saved and have now sold my first home looking to buy my second. (On my own I might add with one income) It’s what you make of it. If you were able to do something that would make you money I’m sure you would. It just comes across as very bitter saying that landlords want to not work and have others pay their mortgage - of course, who wouldn’t want that?! I have been a student and rented. Landlords are necessary and it’s a service that wouldn’t be there but for these people able to buy a second property and rent it out to you

So anyone else who was born in 90s and later and can't afford to buy a house is not working hard? That's a bit patronising to say the least, isn't it? There are lots of people who work hard in life but can't have lots of things. Someone who works at Tesco works equally hard as someone who is a CEO at a bank. Retail workers, carers, hospitality workers and lots of other people in this country are not just some lazy useless and stupid people. They all work hard but things don't have to be made harder for them to attain just because they are born in a different generation. We should leave the earth a better place then how we received it and not have the mentality that tough, work harder if you couldn't get what you wanted. I worked in retail whilst at uni and although it was a part-time job for me for a short period, it was actually a living for lots of my colleagues who worked really hard to feed their children and family but would probably not be able to afford to buy a house because the minimum wage is so out of proportion with house prices. The maths just doesn't add up?!

Also the mentality that who wouldn't want to earn money without doing anything is disgusting and greedy to say the least. You should always have to work hard to earn things. Why should anything be free?!

 

[hollowcrown]

It's also not bitter to be angry or upset at the entire entire market being a complete shit show.

I will never be angry or jealous at someone owning their own property but when they start leveraging that to explot others it's unacceptable.

 

[Anne1448]

Did some rough maths and worked out we’ve spent over £50k on rent the last 10 years. 50 grand spent on someone else’s mortgage, always on time, zero payments missed, with the knowledge that we can be given 2 months notice to leave at any time. And it counts for nothing when it comes to eventually getting a mortgage. It’s galling.

Fwiw my current landlord is ok, he was an accidental landlord so there have been some minor issues and our kitchen is dated and starting to get a bit thread bear, but on the whole can’t complain. I’m sure there are other decent landlords out there, but the system sucks. People are trapped renting and are exploited by those with wealth.

Shared ownership needs to be abolished. What a shit show that is.

Yep I had the same conversation with my banker who said that my current rent (which is 795€) can not be used as a proof that I could spend the same amount for a mortgage. So because I earn 30k I can only get a 105.000€ mortgage which won't even buy me a house in the countryside.

Landlords are charging rents that are close to what massive rental corporations do. Yet, their rentals do not come close in terms of quality. Someone may say that it is simple demand. However because there isn't enough new properties built (at least in Ireland) people are forced to rent these terribly overpriced rentals. When you have the choice between being homeless or renting an overpriced home it is indeed exploitative.

A lot of landlords are boomers who bought these homes for peanuts. Yet, they have no problem locking 3 generations ( Gen X, millenials and Gen Z).

When people are forced to rent forever it means that poverty will rise. And when poverty rise violence and insecurity is near. These governments and landlords better not complain when their neighborhoods will be flooded with homeless.