Housing crisis!

[Leman]

Shared equity for millennials presumably. "I can't afford a house because my mobile, car, PS4, Netflix,Spotify premium and broadband costs so much. I hardly have anything left for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights plus my annual trip to Ibiza/Australia/Vietnam/India" .......snivel.
                                                                                                            Delete as appropriate

[Last Hussar]

Shared equity for millennials presumably. "I can't afford a house because my mobile, car, PS4, Netflix,Spotify premium and broadband costs so much. I hardly have anything left for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights plus my annual trip to Ibiza/Australia/Vietnam/India" .......snivel.
                                                                                                             Delete as appropriate

Even if they saved every penny they couldn't afford a mortgage.  At the moment I'm lodging, and its incredibly cheap thanks to my Landlady.  However even if spent nothing and just sat at home every night, it would take 10years to afford a deposit large enough for a.mortgage with payments I could afford, assuming prices didn't go up.

If I had my own place instead of lodging it would be 100 years.

[Orcs]

Even if they saved every penny they couldn't afford a mortgage.  At the moment I'm lodging, and its incredibly cheap thanks to my Landlady.  However even if spent nothing and just sat at home every night, it would take 10years to afford a deposit large enough for a.mortgage with payments I could afford, assuming prices didn't go up.

If I had my own place instead of lodging it would be 100 years.

While some of what you say is true -  Living at home is probably cheaper than lodging. When we bought houses we normally bought them when we got together with our "other half" so there was two of us saving. This brings your 10 years down to 5. so even if they go to University they should be able to save up a deposit  by the time they are 30 if they work hard and are sensible.

The issue is not the deposit its now the multiples of your salary that the institutions will lend.  This does not get to mortgage level in the southern part of the country where even flats are £250K. 

However as Leon says they want to spend their money like water.  I have two daughters who are the exact opposites. One got her degree, did a years teacher training and got together with a really nice bloke who is a mechanic. They have both saved hard and are looking to get a 3 bed house in Southhampton area. 

The other daughter again went to University, but is very like the millennials Leon mentions.  I pick her up to go out for the day at 10:30 and she wants us to stop off so she can buy a sandwich and for breakfast- because she was too lazy to get up and make some. She spends every penny she gets and does not budget in any way.

I also see it at work with the millennials. Despite having free coffee and tea at work, they buy at least one "posh coffee"  at £2.50 a day, have mobiles that cost them £60 a month, so just their mobiles and coffees cost them over £150 a month!

So I agree whole heatedly with Leon.

[Last Hussar]

I could afford a house if I moved to Runcorn. But who the hell wants to live there?

[Leman]

It has a very attractive ruined priory and is within easy reach of the Cheshire countryside, the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, Shropshire hills and North Wales. Lots of impressive National Trust properties within easy reach. London is less than two hours away by train and cheap tickets are readily available with planning. There is also easy access to both Liverpool Manchester and Chester. I could go on, but don't knock it til you've tried it. Where's Nobby when you need him?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Where's Nobby when you need him?

Hopefully not here !  It smells - due to the chemical works. Trains en-route to London dont seem to stop there any more, it's Lime Street Euston direct these days.

IanS

[fsn]

Ahem! Let's have it right. Runcorn doesn't stink. Widnes stinks 'cos of the bone crushing (that's not a factory - it's more of a way of life in Widnes) and the stink sort of wafts over the Mersey.

Norton Priory is very attractive, and there are plans to renovate the brutalist Shopping City with bulldozers which will be an improvement.

So that's good.

Very handy for transport links going both E-W and N-S, and coincidentally W-E and S-N as well, which is useful.

 

[Leon]

So I agree whole heatedly with Leon.

I think that was all Leman and not me...!   

I'd agree with some of it but it's extremely hard to get on the ladder.  We're still renting because we don't earn enough to qualify for the size mortgage we'd need to buy, never mind save up for a deposit.  We don't go out, we don't drink or smoke, we both have £5 per month mobile contracts and my car is 14 years old, so we're hardly splurging our income on luxuries! 

What's more annoying is that we're in Middlesbrough, one of the lowest areas in the country for house prices...    As a comparison, when my parents bought their house, they're mortgage was about 2.5-3x their combined salaries.  For us to buy now, we'd need around 6x our salary.

[Orcs]

That's right, even if you get help with a deposit, the lenders will only lend  a set multiple of your income. They used to do 5x or 6x but after the problems  of the sub prime mortgages they no longer do that.

I think most of us appreciate you are not driving a Ferrari , although you do have a Coke habit,  and they are now taxing the sugar content. 

While this will not be popular with some on the Forum, perhaps you need to look at your pricing structure again.  You are certainly not the most expensive 10mm manufacturer in the UK. Also you are top for customer service - something that people will pay for. So perhaps there is scope for a little upwards movement there and consequently on your salaries.? 

Perhaps your accountant could suggest something clever like using the company as a guarantor to allow you a higher multiple of your salaries, as i bet your probably paying as much in rent as a mortgage would actually be.

[Leon]

While this will not be popular with some on the Forum, perhaps you need to look at your pricing structure again.  You are certainly not the most expensive 10mm manufacturer in the UK. Also you are top for customer service - something that people will pay for. So perhaps there is scope for a little upwards movement there and consequently on your salaries.? 

The pricing is something to look at and we've been slowly moving it to where it needs to be for a while now.  I don't want to just whack the prices up in one go though, so we've been doing steady increments over about 8 years now.  We're close now so they don't need to go up massively, but there'll be another small increase in 2020 and maybe another a couple of years later.  That's all dependent on other things staying constant though!

[Matt J]

Don't mention houses! trying to sell mine at the moment 

busted my nuts on it last 4 months, anyone what a nice period 4 bed in rural Shropshire???

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I wish Matt!

[Techno]

Price wise....I can remember my dear old Sis saying how sorry for Von & I she was, when we went to buy our first home in the mid seventies. (A two bedroom ground floor flat, half a mile from the centre of Guildford)

I think we paid £11,900..... using a deposit of £1,000.

I've just look up the price of what it would cost now.....£275,000 to £300,000......Not a hope in hell of being able to raise the current deposit on that now.....And it's supposed to be a starter home !!!!



Cheers - Phil

[Orcs]

Price wise....I can remember my dear old Sis saying how sorry for Von & I she was, when we went to buy our first home in the mid seventies. (A two bedroom ground floor flat, half a mile from the centre of Guildford)

I think we paid £11,900..... using a deposit of £1,000.

I've just look up the price of what it would cost now.....£275,000 to £300,000......Not a hope in hell of being able to raise the current deposit on that now.....And it's supposed to be a starter home !!!!



Cheers - Phil

£ ?? don't you mean Groats?

Neither does it have the lovely countryside of your current location.

[Ithoriel]

In the early 80's we bought a "needs some attention" four-to-a-block maisonette in a pretty average area for £12,500, with a mortgage which took pretty much every penny the two of us earned.

Late 80's we'd done up the place and fallen out with the upstairs neighbours so we sold up for £19,000 and bought a spacious, Victorian, two bedroom, ground floor, flat in a nice area for £18,500. Price reflected the lack of floorboards in the bathroom, 13 amp sockets fronting 5amp Victorian wiring, every internal door damaged from the previous occupant's pursuit of his partner through locked doors and similar minor inconveniences.

We did the place up, lived there until we split in the late Noughties and sold it for approximately £250,000.

The bulk of which went to my other half, so I found myself buying a maisonette on the same estate and of the same configuration, except that it had a conservatory,  for £140,000.

Pretty sure that if I sold the place I couldn't afford to buy it back.

Given the increasing divergence between "normal" incomes and house prices and the realisation that, for many couples, if you live on gruel and water, in a rented place lit by candlelight and heated by the warmth of your own body, you may wind up retiring with just enough savings to buy a a dog kennel in a nice part of town I can't fault them for preferring to spend the cash on having some sort of a life while they can.

"Plan like you'll live 'til tomorrow, live like you won't see tonight!"