i live in the suburbs of London. How do people afford houses?

Loughton_Monkey

setmefree2 wrote: »

After graduating in 1983 I lived in rented accommodation........

A very familiar story - not unlike my own 10 years earlier.....

On this forum, though, there is a very strong flavour of this type of determination to get onto the property ladder is "not possible" these days. I would love to know the reasons for this, since it doesn't stack up to any logic I know.

Is today's younger generation a bunch of whingers? Or is it just that they form a majority on these boards?

setmefree2

The other thing that my peers used to do when they couldn't afford to buy a place on their own and didn't have an OH was to buy with a friend.

Do people not do this anymore?

Cornucopia

I think there's a perception that it was easier in the past (not sure that's true).

There also seem to be a belief that the young are suffering as a consequence of older/richer people's wealth and/or habits with their money. (Not sure this is true, either - there are plenty of older poor). It's almost always been the case that older people are richer than young, because they've had their whole lives to earn & invest.

Finally, I think the media/social media create false expectations of what is achievable in property. (Tired of seeing ordinary characters in £1m+ properties on TV and of seeing celebs in £xxxM places).