Most are Priced out, will it ever change?

tommy75

2001: Average earners are priced out as home prices rise
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1364163/Average-earners-are-priced-out-as-home-prices-rise.html

2003: Average earners cannot afford to buy a home
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1421592/Average-earners-cannot-afford-to-buy-a-home.html

2006: Key workers now priced out of housing market in most UK towns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/29/keyworkerhousing.housingmarket

2007: Property woe for public workers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6544577.stm

2008: Home ownership 'out of reach' for average earners
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/property_and_mortgages/article4305394.ece

2009: First-time buyers still struggling to afford supposedly 'affordable' properties
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/mortgages/firsttime-buyers-still-struggling-to-afford-supposedly-affordable-properties-1677859.html

What would the governments overall purpose be of locking out first low earners, then average earners then key workers from the vast majority of towns in the UK?

Are we not being blindly pushed into 21st century slavery? Does you average BTLer and their family escape this in the middle/long term?

PasturesNew

I was priced out in the town I lived in before I even left school. I remember when studio flats were £70k, in 1990. I was earning about £13k at the time and those were the days of 3x income.

HammerSmashedFace

Will it ever change ? I'm not too sure, I think things will get better and houses more affordable than they are now, but seem unlikely to offer the kind of value of the mid nineties.

The reason is simple, we are governed by people who have way too much self interest in keeping the market over-valued (MP's second homes, flippers etc). We could easily curb the costs going into the future by restricting salary multiples, LTV's and 80%+ capital gains tax on BTL.

They won't do it though because even though a nation and society at large would benefit hugely over the coming years, it would come at the cost of those who over-leveraged in the last 6-7 years (which includes the very same MPs), therefore it will never happen, pure selfishness.

I have recently bought but would be very happy to see property fall by 50% or more, it would benefit our children massively and the nation itself.

Greed is not good.

Running_Horse

Depends where you take your snapshot. Were the mid-nineties a one-off freak event where many ordinary people got lucky? Sadly, probably so.

Even if we decided to give up enough farmland to build enough new houses for everyone who wants to buy one, recent events have shown that property developers would probably just stop building again to force prices back up.

It seems that governments no longer have the will to intervene.

mbga9pgf

Wouldnt bother me. If the homebuilders stop, I am more than willing to buy my own plot and do a decent self-build at a fraction of the price of the main builders. Problem is, they have major monopolies on the land banks dont they?

the_ash_and_the_oak

If over the last few decades houses have become increasingly unaffordable does anyone know why owner-occupancy stats rose during the same timeframe?

chucky

HammerSmashedFace wrote: »

Will it ever change ?

no it won't ever change... but there are opportunities where property is cheaper. timing is obviously everything.

these windows of opportunity are even better for those having to buy property with a mortgage when interest rates are cheaper and along with property.

usually when people can buy property when it is 'cheaper', lending is not cheap or is not available.
when house prices are increasing is when lending is easier to get and is cheaper...

the_ash_and_the_oak

but it must have got progressively easier if more people were able to do it?

chucky

the_ash_and_the_oak wrote: »

but it must have got progressively easier if more people were able to do it?

yes it has, since 1996 rates have been historically cheaper

chucknorris

chucky wrote: »

no it won't ever change... but there are opportunities where property is cheaper. timing is obviously everything.

these windows of opportunity are even better for those having to buy property with a mortgage when interest rates are cheaper and along with property.

usually when people can buy property when it is 'cheaper', lending is not cheap or is not available.
when house prices are increasing is when lending is easier to get and is cheaper...

I think you posted something a while ago which was that in the future 'shared equity' might become much more common as the first step of property ownership, that may well become true.

the_ash_and_the_oak

chucky wrote: »

yes it has, since 1996 rates have been historically cheaper

then we're not saying "its always been this hard and it won't change" - we're actually saying "no - it used to be harder than this, it already has changed, and now more people are able to do it than in the past" (excepting this current period where it got a bit harder again - but in general)