95% mortgages & HTB - Buying a house in 1959

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Dual income households, government grants, 95% mortgages.....

The more things change, the more they stay the same. (other than the prices):D

Of course, there was probably one of his mates down the pub who read that new fangled housepricecrash chalkboard saying he should keep renting until prices fell, government HTB (Help To Bath) schemes were a rip-off, nobody needs indoor toilets, etc.... :whistle:

BobQ

Yes nothing changes.

I did like the air of respectability that the estate agent engendered in those days, being mentioned in the same sentence as the solicitor.

This particular advert was clearly targeted at professionals (graduates) and white collar workers of the day at those prices. The poor were still doing up hovels and accepting outside WCs for a few more years than this. Of course they would be lucky to see the advert since they were unlikely to be able to afford a TV.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

BobQ wrote: »

Yes nothing changes.

Indeed.

And yet still some poor misguided people think 95% mortgages are a recent invention and the cause of prices rising so much in the last decade.

Yet here we are with 95% mortgages and government HTB schemes being widespread at least as far back as 1959.

Gosh.... I wonder if something else might be the main cause of the boom from 2000 onwards after all....

The poor were still doing up hovels and accepting outside WCs for a few more years than this. Of course they would be lucky to see the advert since they were unlikely to be able to afford a TV.

Quite.

A shame our resident bear population insist on wearing rose tinted bear goggles in this regard.

Perhaps they'd be happy to take on a house with no central heating, no indoor toilets or baths, and no double glazing. And then be unable to afford a television as the mortgage payments were so large.

That is the reality of just a few decades ago..... With millions fewer people competing for housing as well.

No wonder houses were cheaper.:cool:

the_flying_pig

>find evidence that at some point in 1959 there was a scheme whereby you could buy a prehistoric wreck with a 5% deposit (earnings multiples unstated but likely to be at best three times his salary plus one times hers) provided you brought it into the 20th century at partly your own expense.

>use this find as support for argument that contemporary blanket 5℅ mortgage availability on properties worth up to about four times the national average (with, by the way, four times joint salary loans not uncommon. Oh, and interest rates are about zero) represents the most restrictive, tightest, lending conditions ever that, when inevitably cut free, will send house prices, especially in Aberdeen (despite a couple of small issues with oil prices), into the stratosphere.

PasturesNew

In 1959 my mum was a soon-to-be-divorcee, once she could track him down - and got a 2 bed council house as she had been living at her mother's for some time.

Although she had a job, working at the local shop and cycling home to give my sibling her dinner, then cycling back to work each day ..... being a home owner wasn't on the radar in her circles.

ruggedtoast

Geez, I hope its near a pub to escape to after he's done a few years with Margie. Its going to take more than Raised Nosed Pillar Cocks and an inside convenience to stop her moaning.

Good find though, they actually managed to make doing up a wreck of a house look like it would be pretty exciting. There are no pipes. Yay!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Good find though, they actually managed to make doing up a wreck of a house look like it would be pretty exciting. There are no pipes. Yay!

Yep.

Fascinating to see the reality about housing just a few decades ago.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

BobQ wrote: »

I did like the air of respectability that the estate agent engendered in those days, being mentioned in the same sentence as the solicitor.

You wouldn't see that nowadays.... Except perhaps in Scotland, where most Solicitors are estate agents.

Generali

My parents opened a savings account with the Southern Building Society (now part of Nationwide) for me when I was a kid as showing 20 years of savings record would better enable me to borrow from the cheap pool of money building societies then provided.

ukcarper

Generali wrote: »

My parents opened a savings account with the Southern Building Society (now part of Nationwide) for me when I was a kid as showing 20 years of savings record would better enable me to borrow from the cheap pool of money building societies then provided.

I save with Halifax in 70s for same reason but they wouldn't lend me enough shopped around and managed to get 20% more.

purch

My parents bought their first house in May 1959.