Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

In a situation mirrored in Australia and many other Western countries home ownership rates in the UK are dropping as more and more people find themselves unable to get onto the property ladder.

Around one in three homeowners in England are pensioners as crippling house prices freeze younger generations off the property ladder, official figures revealed yesterday.
In a sign of the property crisis facing young people, the Government’s English Housing Survey revealed homeownership has dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s.
At its peak in 2003, 71 per cent of householders were ‘owner occupiers’.

Old people's homes: A third of people who own their own home are over 65, a new survey shows

Alarming: In a sign of the property crisis facing young people, the Government¿s English Housing Survey revealed homeownership has dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s

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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...tion-Rent.html

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

My grandparents never believed my parents would be able to afford their own home in the 1940s. My parents never believed we would be able to afford our own home in the 1980s. I have no idea if my children want to own their own home but I assume that going by the history, if they want to, at some point they will be able to afford it.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Aaah, there's nothing like a good copy and paste from the Mail...:sneaky:

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Well I didnt write it but I didnt I certainly didnt copy it from the Mail, it makes me shudder to think thats where it came from actually. :lol:

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Funny that what you've pasted in your opening post looks surprisingly like this Daily Mail article - even as far as the captions below the photos on that page.

Doesn't that come under #7 of the Site Rules?

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

I don't know what the feeling is in Australia, but I do feel like people in the UK are a little bit obsessed with buying houses - it's big talk amongst my friends, most of whom are mid 20s - mid 30s at the moment about how we're all ever going to be able to afford to get on the property ladder. My honest feeling is your better off saving and investing in a really good pension scheme - if you have a decent post-retirement income then it doesn't matter if you're renting - you can afford to! Also, there are definite benefits to renting - generally you can move on at a month's notice; equally you can usually find somewhere else very quickly if you need to. Not to mention that it's someone elses problem when the boiler packs in or when the washing machine packs in.

I see advantages to buying too - you are almost guaranteed to make money, and it's good to be able to release the money if you ever need it. But ultimately it just feels a bit like you're putting all of your eggs in one basket so to speak. And imagine how annoying it would be if - like my parents - you invest all of your money into your house to find there's going to be a high speed rail link built in your back garden which completely devalues the property...

Of course there are risks with savings and interest rates and pension schemes as well, but it still seems the favourable option to me. Maybe this is just a lack of experience talking though?

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Yes it is the same in Australia, owning your home is quite probably the No1 priority for the majority.
I would hate to have to rent again, I love the freedom you have with your own place, not having to get permission to paint a wall or change some aspect of the house. I know renting appeals to others and of course many others have no choice in the matter.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Im not exactly sure who you are arguing with, I said that I didnt get it from the DM.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

I've owned two houses in my time, one in Cardiff and the other in Queensland and wives got both of them. BH had a nice house in a rural area and her ex cheated it out of her while she was suffering from cancer. Well, bad life choices, hard luck story. However we don't mind renting. When you are resigned to it, it's not too bad if you are in an area with affordable rentals. However I'd hate to be in Sydney, Melbourne or metropolitan Brisbane.

Advantages of renting are that, if you get your attitude realistic and stop pining for home ownership, you can move fairly quickly if you feel like a change, many home owners are stuck next to feral neighbours or can't move when they get made redundant and get a job offer interstate. You don't spend all your weekends in Bunnings, and at the end of the day the rent is just another utility charge like electricity, water or petrol.

Renting is much more common in Continental Europe, they get 5 year leases and still drive their BMWs and go on holiday to Greece. The major problem with Australia and to an extent the UK is that the rental market consists mostly of mum and dad investors. In Europe most rental properties are owned by companies, some families like the Borgias who are still going strong, yup, and even the Church. All above board and no stigma attached.

Amazes me that in Australia the superannuation funds hold trillions of dollars, you would think they would build houses and apartments, rent them out, so that not only do they have a sound capital investment but also an income stream. Instead they gamble most of OUR funds on the stock marked. Might as well send them into the casino to play the pokies for us.

On a positive note, I've calculated that if we were to win enough on Lotto to buy a house outright, with rates, repairs and maintenance, insurances and losing the Centrelink rental allowances then compared to the rent I'm currently paying on a nice 3 bed villa near the beach we would probably only be a hundred bucks a week better off. Big deal.
End rant.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Yes as I said renting appeals to some and is the only choice for others, thats fine. For us we couldnt imagine having to rent again or even pay a mortgage again but everyones situation is different.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

I wasn't arguing with anyone, I was making an observation. Here it is again:See - merely an observation that your first post is identical to a Daily Mail article, down to the captions below the photos in their article (and also the text in the aside box too).

It was also an observation that this probably comes under Rule 7 of the site rules:Even if you didn't copy it from the Daily Mail, you still copied the same article from somewhere else that the Daily Mail has used (they most likely had permission from their source).

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Well for now that's that's the link I've added. If you've copied it from elsewhere please provide the source.

Thank you.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

I never post articles as I can't be bothered to add a link or reference.
So I just mention that I read something somewhere!

Never mind Chris! Good post - it's true in the Anglo-Sphere.

I agree that it is very Anglo-saxon to want to own.

It seems to me that owning allows you to build a pension or equity from repayment money whereas the same rent money gets you nowt. Even if Centrelink houses you in retirement there is likely to be no 'dowry' from the home you own - no releasing of said equity for example.

I don't buy into this 'move when you want' business about renting - I want to have a place I can raise a family and feel is mine (indeed ours), right down to each blade of grass, tree or feature...a sense of belonging, stewardship.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

I agree with all you say. I didn't say that renting was better than owning. Otherwise I wouldn't have actually bought two houses during my life. What I did say was that if, by bad luck and circumstances, you are unable to own, or the property is taken off you - which is another aspect nobody has covered here, affecting tens of thousands of defaulting mortgagees, usually with families, then renting isn't the horrible life that's often touted and indeed has a couple of advantages.

Another point; for every retired person living in glorious retirement in their own home I, personally, have seen another person unceremoniously raced off into an aged care institution by the family and the profits from the quickly-sold house divided up.

Then they never seem to visit them :thumbdown:

Edit: not wishing to sound sour or judgmental or sneering, but when I was in Real Estate a number of years ago, it was an industry saying that the most motivated vendors are the three D's

Death
Divorce
De Bank

And I'd have to say that in my fairly short career in real estate, this seemed to be the case. The Second D is extremely common amongst empty nesters who have slaved all their lives to establish that dream home in the acreage-belt, and they are left in this empty house hating the sight of each other, right at a time when they should be enjoying all fruits. Sad but I've seen it many times, and sold many such properties.

Re: Home ownership for many in the UK a distant dream
 

Not unless the wage/house price ratio returns to average. As can be seen from various recent articles, home-ownership is now out of the reach of the majority of young people. We're going back to Victorian economics when most people rented from a handful of landlords. They're doing it on purpose to fund boomers' pensions shortfalls.