Ownership amongst the young

Windofchange

Are people choosing to rent, or is it just that everything has become so very unaffordable up and down the country?

http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/home-ownership-for-young-families-has-halved-in-west-yorkshire-greater-manchester-and-outer-london-since-the-1990s/

Despite assertions on here that everything is cheap, and London is at worst affordable, this article alongside sources such as the ONS show home ownership plummeting through the 90's, 00's and 10's for all but the older generations.

Can it all be down to iPhones?

ukcarper

I'd say it's down to a combination of things.

20 years ago prices were at an all time low.
People start work later.
People get married later.
Prices to high in some areas.

To name a few.

GreatApe

Lots of migrants have arrived in the last 10-15 years and they rent privately because the social stock is full and they don't have the resources to buy straight away. Some 75% of recent (0-5 years in the UK) migrants rent privately.

The private rental sector has gone up in quality so more people choose to rent. Eg I know one landlord with a 6 bedroom 7 bathroom HMO and all his tenants in that house could easily buy a 3 bedroom house in the local area but they choose not to as their living arrangement is cheap and high quality.

There is also some interplay between the generations. If grandma is living longer then people are inheriting homes or money later thus they are having to wait longer

More people in university means more rentals for them. Also I think the younger are now far more mobile. If they went to a university in another town they are likely to not fret about taking a job I'm another town. Whereas the school leavers age 15 of yesteryear would have stayed local. More mobility means more renting for longer.

Marriage is often also a life step where people go from renting or living at home with their parents to buying. Fewer people getting married or getting married later means buying later in life

The fact that even the cheapest areas of the UK have seen renting increase shows us its not price driven but driven by other factors like more migrants and people want to rent longer.

In 8 regions of the UK homes are cheap and affordable. Anyone who isn't able to buy in those regions is just not trying hard enough or is aiming far too high for what they earn.

The oddity is not house prices today the oddity us why they were so cheap 20 years ago.

A lot of the crash cheerleaders have no clue. A house in the UK constructed using the typical materials and methods is expensive. My next door neighbor just spent the best part of £100k renovating. Why do the crash cheerleaders expect cheap houses when it's not cheap to build or renovate them. Neighbors across the road just did the roof and replaced the windows and doors. Nothing else. £20k cost. The day dreams of buying a 3 bed house for £100k are silly fantasies. The fact that in some towns of some regions you can buy a 3 bed house for £100k shows me clearly that those places are cheap although there are HPC clowns in those regions waiting for their 50% crash

Conrad

The 2008 tightening of mortgage regulations did not help. I warned about the effects this would have on capacity to own, but I got bored, no one was interested.

Zxcv_Bnm

GreatApe wrote: »

Neighbors across the road just did the roof and replaced the windows and doors. Nothing else. £20k cost.

Just been quoted £32k for the windows. Doors included, make it £40k.

economic

i paid £20k to get my bathroom and kitchen done. both fairly small size, just enough for a modest 2 bed flat.

Cakeguts

I don't think it is iphones I think it is car finance. Young people used to buy cheap old cars. Now they buy the latest model on finance. When you go out next just look to see how many young people are driving old cars.

Carl31

its iphones, its car finance, its credit cards, its those funny smoky pens, and xboxes and play stations and pot noodles and subways

Its everything young people do, because they are wrong and not as clever as old people who grew up in post war britain, living in orange boxes and eating their old socks or whatever they did

ruperts

It's not just the buying of the iPhone but also because they always drop them in the toilet.

It's nothing to do with houses being at an unprecedented high against wages. Nothing at all.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

ruperts wrote: »

It's not just the buying of the iPhone but also because they always drop them in the toilet.

It's nothing to do with houses being at an unprecedented high against wages. Nothing at all.

There is some truth in much of what has been said here, but none of it is the whole story.

Besides the area you live and work in, peer pressure (as in iPhones; cars) and *sorry, but* entitlement enters the equation yet again.

No-one is entitled to an iPhone, so you either save your money to buy one or you take out expensive contracts, cutting down your disposable (or savable) income. The latter is such an easy option that many choose that.

If you want a house it has to be earned; the easy options were removed years ago as Conrad correctly said earlier in this thread.
So you must save money for it; not just for the deposit you will need but for the costs involved - solicitors etc. etc.
There seems to be generally little appetite to choose this route.
Sometimes yes an area may well make purchase difficult.
Difficult does not however equal impossible; goals may need moving.
There generally seems little desire though.

My eldest daughter's fiance (mid-20's) purchased his first house a year ago, in an English city where they both live.
A nice, modern 4-bed house with a separate garage no less.
For not a great deal more than £100k.

You may have notice I said "first house"?
This is because he is now considering buying another; one to rent out - and he would like a few.
We're not looking at a remarkably affluent young man here, he is (like myself) a working class guy in a relatively ordinary kinda job with what may be described as an average income.
They have only just furnished the last room in the manner they wanted.

The difference then; how can he do this?
He has had the priorities in life explained to him during his upbringing by a loving, caring family who continue to provide a good example as well as providing good advice.
Like all of us he has his vices.
BUT his priority is his (and his family's) future.
Not his phone, his car or socialising.
In short, he "has his head screwed on right" as they say.

I know times change.
I know things aren't the same as "when I were a lad".
IMHO less seem to be like this now though than in previous generations.
Priorities have changed.

ess0two

Been done to death this one,plenty of property in my local area for not much more than 80k,its 2 up 2 down,seems most nowadays want straight off what their parents took yrs to achieve.