Houses are affordable!

Red-Squirrel_2

GreatApe wrote: »

The stats show inheritances have more or less continuously gone up except for a short period in 2008/2009 when asset values crashed

I reckon things like equity release are only going to get more popular though. Remember, most pensions are only getting worse!

GreatApe

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

I reckon things like equity release are only going to get more popular though. Remember, most pensions are only getting worse!

Its a myth that the old do or will spend most their wealth

As a country we still have positive savings rate which means that the wealth left from old to young is actually increasing the government records this data you can go have a look it keeps going up

Something on the order of £200,000,000,000 per year is left from old to younger. That is equal to about 1 million fully paid off homes given from old to younger each year. Of course it is not all in the form of actual houses about half that sum is in the form of bank savings shares land commercial buildings bonds family businesses pensions cars furniture art jewelry diamonds gold etc etc

This is one of the big 'hidden' areas that explain how it is we are such a wealthy country and how people can afford expensive properties. It is 'hidden' because people generally do not discuss inherited/gifted wealth with others or even often with their own family. The young today crying that houses are unaffordable most of them will be gifted huge amounts of wealth probably more than the cost of buying a house. As I say for most UK born they will get free housing from their parents/grand-parents

It is also the reason why the predictions of the old Tories dying out and the young socialists bringing forward a never ending lefty government dont pan out. The 20-something socialist discovers that they are not so keen on tax and redistribute when they inherit grandmas wealth and it is they would will be taxed and their stuff distributed

Waterlily24

We bought our first house in 1968 £5,900, we had to put at least a 10% deposit. We put £600 down and had a mortgage for £5,300. That was a fairly high interest rate time. It cost us £40 per month on a repayment mortgage (they were more usual than endowment mortgages in those days). My husband earned £40 a week - my earnings weren't taken in to account.

It was very, very hard to get mortgages at the time but we were lucky because I worked in a building society. We couldn't get a staff mortgage because I am a woman and women didn't get staff mortgages until they were 26 (men 21). In those day the staff mortgages were 4%.

Red-Squirrel_2

GreatApe wrote: »

Its a myth that the old do or will spend most their wealth

Sorry, but if people have planned for a 20 year retirement but actually live for 35 they are going to need more money to fund that! Some of today's elderly people are on very good pensions even from working in rather ordinary jobs, that won't be the case for most going forward.

GreatApe wrote: »

The young today crying that houses are unaffordable most of them will be gifted huge amounts of wealth probably more than the cost of buying a house. As I say for most UK born they will get free housing from their parents/grand-parents

Also, do you really think its most? Even if most people did leave a property or the equivalent amount of wealth behind, most people who have children have more than one so its split anyway. That's without remembering that lots of older people do still rent, either privately or socially, and that more and more will be spending their assets and wealth one way or another as time goes on, even if they aren't now in huge numbers.

I am one of those who will inherit half a modest property assuming that my parents don't need extensive care in later life and that they don't partake of equity release (to be honest I hope they do if they need/want the cash) but my parents are in their fifties, they still have living parents themselves, they are in good health and longevity seems to be in the genes. I'll probably be retired before I inherit that half a modest house up north! Inheritance isn't the solution to housing the young

GreatApe

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Sorry, but if people have planned for a 20 year retirement but actually live for 35 they are going to need more money to fund that! Some of today's elderly people are on very good pensions even from working in rather ordinary jobs, that won't be the case for most going forward.

I did not say no one in the history of old people has died penniless

What I said was the stats clearly show the amount of inheritances that are being left to younger generations keeps on increasing. So while you can think up a hundred reasons why someone might not leave much behind that is neither here nor there the stats show the figures are huge and increasing

BucksLady

What makes my blood boil is the number of 'new' apartments in London which are actually empty. A friend bought an apartment in North London about 3 years ago. In this block a large percentage of the apartments were purchased by overseas investors - who don't even Let the properties. That practice should never have been allowed.

Lurkingtoposting17

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Sorry, but if people have planned for a 20 year retirement but actually live for 35 they are going to need more money to fund that! Some of today's elderly people are on very good pensions even from working in rather ordinary jobs, that won't be the case for most going forward.


I am 31, have grandparents, and parents who own their own modest homes.
My parents have no savings, just their home own outright and are near retirement. They will probably rely on a large chunk of the sale of their parents home, to fund them having a sufficient pension. If my grandparents bypassed their children, their home would be split a number of ways, and we would get around £40k each, a deposit yes, but my cousins and siblings don't have the income multiples still, to purchase even with that deposit.

I would not expect my parents to give up their inheritence to fund my future. I will continue to work hard to save for my future, and if they can afford to gift me around £10k towards a deposit with their inheritence, great. But its not a solution, and certainly not one people should rely on.

Cakeguts

What I would like to ask is how many people know someone personally within friends or family who cannot afford to buy a house but could afford to if they had changed their lifesyle choices. By that I mean people who buy too many things and don't save or people who work in part time jobs when they could get a full time one etc

Secondly how many people do you know personally who really couldn't afford to buy somewhere whatever they do?

I know one family which comes under the part time job thing and one who couldn't afford to buy anything where they work. Also a single person who couldn't afford to buy anything. All the others own or rent abroad.

I have a suspicion that there aren't as many people who really can't buy a property as we think there are. I think it might be one of those things that appeals to voters and we only hear from people who want to buy but either live in extremely expensive areas and can't or who don't want to give up anything and who like complaining. All the others either have bought or are not complaining about renting because they like it.

lincroft1710

ukcarper wrote: »

That’s the problem, people come out with these story’s of what thier parents bought and how easy it was then, which are not accurate. While others say there is no problem and houses are affordable. From my own personal experience not hearsay, I know that it definitely wasn’t easy to buy in the 70s but it is more difficult now. I can only speak for the area I live in but figures back up my experience.

What I don’t understand is when prices in many areas are clearly unaffordable why people have bring up these inaccurate about the past.

My story about my purchase was completely accurate!

For the majority of the UK on an average wage, who didn't live in London or immediate vicinity, houses were very affordable in the mid 1970s. I would emphasise that to buy the same house today would cost about 6 times my expected salary, whereas then it was less than 3 times.

Red-Squirrel_2

Cakeguts wrote: »

What I would like to ask is how many people know someone personally within friends or family who cannot afford to buy a house but could afford to if they had changed their lifesyle choices. By that I mean people who buy too many things and don't save or people who work in part time jobs when they could get a full time one etc

I don't know anybody like that.

All the people I know who can afford to buy and want to have done so, and all the people I know who rent do so because they can't afford to buy or they don't want to buy, mostly the former.