Why is property unaffordable for even the relatively well-off among the population?

vivatifosi

Mike_parsonnage wrote: »

The highest interest rates went was 15% not 18%

No that's not true. 15% may have been the base rate, but mortgage deals tend to be above base. I know for a fact that I paid 17.5% for a short while so the other poster may well have been paying 18%.

gauly

ILW wrote: »

A bright, hardworking person will generally do allright for themselves with or without a degree. You do not need it to start your own business, which to me is the ultimate test of ability.

I think that most people don't want to start their own business - I know I don't. Plus, entrepreneurship and academic ability are probably correlated, but not very strongly. Most people will still need to go to university to get the job they want, and as ukcarper says, companies are no longer prepared to pay for training.

PasturesNew

ILW wrote: »

A bright, hardworking person will generally do allright for themselves with or without a degree. You do not need it to start your own business, which to me is the ultimate test of ability.

That isn't true. I've been bright and hardworking, but I fail majorly in "people", so I can't start/run my own business because I have a big black hole where "people skills" should be. I can therefore only ever work in a supporting role, where all the actual hard work goes on; I can't do the networking/schmoozing bit.

PasturesNew

I will say I have never ever worked for any employer that ever paid for any training for me.

Any qualifications I have, I've paid for out of my own small pocket.... although, having said that, I've also found I then never used that to get jobs, which is annoying.

I'd love to have had a job where there was training and/or progression, but I never have. And I've spent my life, it seems, "starting at the bottom again" for a myriad of reasons.

And now, after all these hard, long decades of working, I'm just fed up with it because now it's harder as I'm older and so many things seem to want a degree now.... so, between the two, I feel thoroughly "on the shelf" work-wise.

ILW

PasturesNew wrote: »

That isn't true. I've been bright and hardworking, but I fail majorly in "people", so I can't start/run my own business because I have a big black hole where "people skills" should be. I can therefore only ever work in a supporting role, where all the actual hard work goes on; I can't do the networking/schmoozing bit.

Friend of mines son started a little grass cutting business a few years ago, with just a van and a few tools. He now has about 10 people working for him and is doing very well. His qualifications and people skills were virtually zero.

LillythePink

Just because you have a degree, doesn't mean that you have a job - if that was the case, then there would be no graduates looking for work after university.

I don't believe that you need a degree to get a job - in some ways, starting work first gets you a head start when your friends leave uni and start looking for a job.

How many people actually use their degrees with their job?

Over here, you need to be earning a good wage to get a house - house prices don't fall over here - they just go up as space is at a premium - it costs a lot of money to move/buy as well, far more than in the UK.
Our house last year cost us £25.5k in fees, the good things about over here - we still get tax relief on mortgage interest (up to 400k) and the banks are a bit more flexible on multiples - if we had to have the 3.5x joint or whatever is the norm - then hardly anyone would be able to afford to buy.

My first house cost £95k in 1993, sold it in 2001 for £220k, if it was to sell now it would be about £340k.

StevieJ

Mike_parsonnage wrote: »

The highest interest rates went was 15% not 18% , then the first 30k of mortgage( quite a lot back then ) attracted tax relief bringing the the net rate down to about 12% . 15% gross was also for a very short time . Back then the fairy god mother of wage inflation made big mortgages small very quickly, that is not happening now.

Average house prices were £60k (so double the relief) in 1990 and base rate was 14.785 mortgage rates being higher. Just a technicality but (from memory) Lamont raised interest rates to 18% on Black/White Wednesday although the rise was never actioned as we pulled out of the ERM.

C_Mababejive

Conrad wrote: »

Then you have not taken the trouble to read your history.

Look into the formation of Building Societies - they were co - operatives where locals clubbed together so that each in turn could borrow from the pool IN ORDER TO AT LAST ESCAPE THE CLUTCHES OF THE FEAUDAL LANDOWNER - and at last enable ORDINARY folk a bit of security and self determination.

Seriously, this is how the property market began here.

Indeed and from such noble beginnings a monster has grown which has served to give the illusion of freedom and give smarter houses to slaves.

sellaconcepts

ILW wrote: »

Plenty of non grads buy houses, they just get out there and earn the money and have no loan to pay back. Nobody is forced to go into higher education.

Are you talking about if they do not get a good job then they do not have to pay back their loan? But all the time the compound interest is well compounding.

If ever they come into some money relative leaves them in will or something they will have to pay off their loan.

Its very dangerous leaving a debt build up as we are looking at interest rates going up this year.

Just ask all those with interest only mortgages and now their house is going down in value less than they owe.

ukcarper

sellaconcepts wrote: »

Are you talking about if they do not get a good job then they do not have to pay back their loan? But all the time the compound interest is well compounding.

If ever they come into some money relative leaves them in will or something they will have to pay off their loan.

Its very dangerous leaving a debt build up as we are looking at interest rates going up this year.

Just ask all those with interest only mortgages and now their house is going down in value less than they owe.

I'm not sure that is how it works and I believe it is written of after a certain time.