The crushing housing burden on the young. Boomers, investors and landlords profit

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

GwylimT wrote: »

I am skilled, I'm a vehicle mechanic and at the moment I teach vehicle mechanics at an FE college. £600 is actually a mortgage, rent would be more, I'm being theoretical (we can only afford this home as my wifes grandmother passed away a few years ago and we had considerable inheritance). We don't buy any none essentials, the only reason we have the internet is because it is vital for my job.

I already cycle to work, have done for a very long time. Couldn't sacrifice anymore, no TV, no holidays, don't eat out, don't have nights out, only go on day trips when there are special offers. If we didn't have inheritance (and lets face it, we would rather her gran was still alive) paying rent would be difficult, there would be nothing left to save for a mortgage or even as an emergency fund.

People on decent wages cannot afford to rent and it is worrying, I earn well above the minimum wage, but we are in an awful situation when someone earning minimum wage cannot afford to rent a home and pay their utility bills without help from housing benefit.

Lets say I wasn't skilled, how could someone on that either afford to drop their wages, or attend university? Even when I was younger and I'm only in my early forties you could train on the job and earn a wage and so if you did change career you wouldn't suffer financially, now you just cannot do it without help or unless you have hefty savings in the bank to fall back on.

2 bed 500pm
Leasowe Road,
Moreton,
CH46: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-26089202.html

And there are loads like it.... if you're on minimum wage then you would need to live in a worse area.

Life is about sacrifice and achievement... its unlikely you'll achieve a great deal without sacrificing things along the way.

[Deleted User]

It's all a matter of expectations.

You expect to be able to get a home vaguely similar to one your parents might have bought in their 20s. Problem is, you're a graduate, in your 20s, and have moved to a flat-share in London. Your family doesn't live anywhere near where you are now. You have a mentality that you are middle-class. The only places you can afford are pretty nasty, ex-council, surrounded by gangs and 'poor' people. Eww. Also, it's on the wrong side of London for your work - so you've now got an hours commute and thousands in underground fees to pay.

So yes, there are cheap, available properties in London. But they're rubbish, because if they were somewhere nice they'd be expensive (because someone would want to spend more to live there).

To the guy complaining about houses in Leeds... are you serious? You could get yourself a 2 bed terrace for £60k. Something similar in London would set you back £200-250k!

E.g. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42690740.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E787%26maxPrice%3D90000%26radius%3D5.0%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E787%26maxPrice%3D60000%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26previousSearchLocation%3DLeeds%26radius%3D1.0%26searchLocation%3DLeeds%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D-1.75125%2C-1.28708%2C53.70580%2C53.93441%26popupPropertyId%3D42690740&fromMap=true

GwylimT

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn wrote: »

2 bed 500pm
Leasowe Road,
Moreton,
CH46: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-26089202.html

And there are loads like it.... if you're on minimum wage then you would need to live in a worse area.

Life is about sacrifice and achievement... its unlikely you'll achieve a great deal without sacrificing things along the way.

Do you know where Moreton is, approximately 110 miles from my work, few employment opportunities, lower wages than I can expect here, higher council tax, no appropriate health care for my wife within 60 miles, we would be 130 miles away from my son, I would also be unemployed and therefore unable to afford £500 a month.

I have sacrificed a lot to get a good job, unfortunately the NHS is unwilling to provide my wife with appropriate care to manage her condition so at the minute I am unable to work full time and almost her entire wage pays for her medical treatment.

GwylimT

ringo_24601 wrote: »

It's all a matter of expectations.

You expect to be able to get a home vaguely similar to one your parents might have bought in their 20s. Problem is, you're a graduate, in your 20s, and have moved to a flat-share in London. Your family doesn't live anywhere near where you are now. You have a mentality that you are middle-class. The only places you can afford are pretty nasty, ex-council, surrounded by gangs and 'poor' people. Eww. Also, it's on the wrong side of London for your work - so you've now got an hours commute and thousands in underground fees to pay.

So yes, there are cheap, available properties in London. But they're rubbish, because if they were somewhere nice they'd be expensive (because someone would want to spend more to live there).

To the guy complaining about houses in Leeds... are you serious? You could get yourself a 2 bed terrace for £60k. Something similar in London would set you back £200-250k!

E.g. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42690740.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E787%26maxPrice%3D90000%26radius%3D5.0%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E787%26maxPrice%3D60000%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26previousSearchLocation%3DLeeds%26radius%3D1.0%26searchLocation%3DLeeds%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D-1.75125%2C-1.28708%2C53.70580%2C53.93441%26popupPropertyId%3D42690740&fromMap=true

Very wheelchair friendly!

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

GwylimT wrote: »

Do you know where Moreton is, approximately 110 miles from my work, few employment opportunities, lower wages than I can expect here, higher council tax, no appropriate health care for my wife within 60 miles, we would be 130 miles away from my son, I would also be unemployed and therefore unable to afford £500 a month.

I have sacrificed a lot to get a good job, unfortunately the NHS is unwilling to provide my wife with appropriate care to manage her condition so at the minute I am unable to work full time and almost her entire wage pays for her medical treatment.

clearly I wasn't suggesting you move there ..... just giving an idea of northern prices.... I know it's a nice area hence posting a link. You seem to have entitlement issues.... and your earnings are actually way below avg

[Deleted User]

GwylimT wrote: »

Very wheelchair friendly!

Better? http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-20664777.html

To be honest, if you are a skilled craftsman, you need to look for positions higher than £17k. Heck, you could work at a primary school, rather than a FE college, and you'd be on a better salary.

Now, consider that if you moved that to my village, they'd suddenly want £300k for it. Now you might have an idea of why it's even tougher in the South

Here's the closest to me like that as an equivalent: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39060325.html?premiumA=true

I'm not saying life isn't hard for you and your wife - but, if you were earning an average wage, it wouldn't be unbearable.

thedalmeny

Now including the JRF Standing of Living cost for 2013 for a single person.

The JRF cost applied is to meet an 'Acceptable Standard Of Living', accounting for everything from bills, food, transport, entertainment etc.

Leaves the average person a good £200+ a month left over to save for a deposit.

Meaning Mr or Mrs 'North West' would take around 4 years to save for a 10% deposit, which doesn't seem unreasonable does it? At a 10% deposit his/her mortgage repayments would also be comparable to their rent based on an average rate of 5%.

[Deleted User]

Repeatedly posting average salary isn't very useful - since most FTB-wannabies are likely to be younger than 'average age' and under 'average salary' too.

thedalmeny

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Repeatedly posting average salary isn't very useful - since most FTB-wannabies are likely to be younger than 'average age' and under 'average salary' too.

Incorrect - the average FTB age is actually higher.

A decade ago the FTB age was in the same age range as the average salary earners

[Deleted User]

The only thing i could find about an average is from here: http://www.indexmundi.com/united_kingdom/median_age.html

Where the median age in the UK is apparently 40.2

To be honest, if you've got to 40 and not bought a house (and are earning an 'average' wage), i've not got too much sympathy for you as you've had plenty of working years to save up - not to mention you've had 'dips' in the market to buy in.

Looking at the figures, there's not a major change in salary by age - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom#Income_distribution_across_age_bands

Ho hum, i'll need a new hypothesis