How can houses become affordable ?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Thinkingbob wrote: »

What would happen to the housing market and the UK economy?

Who would be the winners if it did happen and who would be the losers.

There are only a limited number of ways you can ration goods in limited supply, and one of them is through price. The other usual ones are waiting lists and lottery draws.

The market currently rations the limited supply of houses through price.

This means a number of people cannot buy one because they cannot afford one. Which is exactly what is supposed to happen, when there are more people in need of houses than you have houses to meet the need.

Substituting a different system of excluding people from the housing market, ie through lottery draws or waiting lists, seems pointless.

Putting a price cap on houses does not mean more people can buy one. The same number of houses exist, no matter how you choose to allocate them. Only building more houses will lead to more people buying, and limiting profit potential is a good way of ensuring fewer houses get built, not more.

spadoosh

A lot of people in this thread are a bit deluded from their situation and the current situation. Just so your aware the 70's, 80's, 90's were 13,23 and 33 years ago.

When did you ever have to pay 1.5/2 times your annual salary to put a deposit on a house?!

Im very pleased youve all got houses and your 'saving' routes worked out well but lets be realistic and try and think how easy it is saving £30,000 when your earning £16k, even the most frugal amongst us would take minimum of 3 years, and thats living rent free.

Btw im not feeling sorry for myself, i have my own home but sympathise with many of my friends that need 15%+ deposits on houses that are overvalued due to trapped sellers (who have never paid a deposit in their life!!) who live on bare minimum doing good well paid jobs because they cant do anything else than provide more than 1/3 of their income to someone else (rent).

And to those who say its tough they cant afford to buy well no, thats not true, i know people that are paying more in rent than they would for a mortgage so its affordable, they just dont have the finance to start it. Now im not saying everyone here did it but im sure a few of you know the people im on about that were using credit cards, loans, borrowing off family memebers etc to play the deposit system, well this just doesnt happen anymore, you cant do it, the only way to do it is to have £30000 sat in your bank account. (think thats supposed to be the average deposit isnt it?!)

Uk_Lover

Get a better job, buy in a cheaper area. Loads of ways to get on the ladder. I have friends that are right up to the limit for their mortgage, bills etc. Why, cos they spend beyond their means. They have nice houses, nice cars, nice holidays but have no money, everyting is on credit. We bought out house 10 years ago and is easily the smallest out of my friends. But we don't need a bigger house and will have no mortgage next year so maybe will think about moving when mortgage free.

mr_fishbulb

Emmzi wrote: »

have one second hand car per couple, stop buying gasdgets, have a week in a caravan one a year, and don't put your kids in designer clothes?

Exactly. My parents never had an iPad when they were saving for their first house 30 years ago. They didn't even have a mobile phone!

mufi

spadoosh wrote: »

but lets be realistic and try and think how easy it is saving £30,000 when your earning £16k

No one has suggested that anyone earning 16k should be trying to save up for a deposit; as others have said house owning is, largely, a modern aspiration, and not always a desirable aim. Some are better off renting, including those on 10k under the national average wage.

It was always like that...