Prince Andrew says Hi.

If you cant afford to buy a house, rent. Deal with it. Its not a god given right to own a house.



I know, to get the young on the housing ladder, why dont we allow them to borrow ever increasing amounts of money irrispective of whether they have the finances to pay it back. Its a foolproof strategy, what could possibly go wrong.....

Who's fault is that? The piper or the fool that pays him?

For some, it's fine but others need long term stability. Being kicked out and having to find somewhere to live when you have a family can be awkward at best. What happens if there are no suitable properties in the area? You have to move. Knock on effect on education for kids and possibly having to give up your job.

Don't forget that rents can be as much as mortgages.

The real issue is the cost of housing is disproportionate. The prices need to be more realistic and affordable.

Easily more. Mortgages only fluctuate with interest rates. Rent goes up with inflation (give or take).
It won't take too long (say ten years) before rent prices will be higher then mortgage payments for most people.

well you can dream that house prices are ever going to be realistic and/or affordable. Unless there is a massive and I mean massive building programme that ignores all the nimby outcry and places houses where they are actually needed then its just not going to happen.

We don't' have a housing shortage, we have a population imbalance and/or possibly an expectation imbalance.

My area isn't brilliant but it's not exactly a slum either and there are a ton of properties up for sale. Many of them are currently unoccupied. Either the sellers are asking way too much or the buyers are expecting to get them for a bargain price. Yet in other parts of the country there is no housing at all which pushes the price up beyond what people can afford, even if there were houses to buy.

Basically a lot of people are in the wrong place (i.e. they are not where the houses are - and it's a hell of a lot easier to move people than build houses) so we need to give people an incentive to want to move where houses are available and get people to buy and sell houses at prices that actually make sense.

Just building more houses won't solve the problem. The house builders want to build where they can make the most profit. As a result, the prices of the houses they will build will be too expensive for the people who need a house to buy, so they will sit empty because people are stubborn and won't sell at the price that's realistic. What we need to do is give the people who can't find a home a good reason to go and live in the places where there are plenty of homes for them to buy - which are places that, due to the laws of supply and demand, at least for a while the housing there is going to be relatively cheap.

Seriously, the houses round here are roughly a third the price of an identical property in the southeast. You want a nice house? Don't sit in London moaning you can't afford one, move to Manchester.

Jon

+1
Over population is the main thing. It's causing lots of other problems too.

And work where?

Don't get me wrong - I agree with you. However, the problem won't be solved until the jobs move North.

Well yes, that was the theory. However even if not, given the rule changes on housing benefit, you'll be better off in the North if you're unemployed, frankly. Lower cost of living helps everybody.


It's undoubtedly true that if the entire population of the south east decided to move North, that would cause severe issues. However, if you have skills, there are jobs. As I speak, there are two jobs for techies about to be advertised in my department. They pay roughly £30k a year each, gross. You can afford a pretty decent house up here on that wage, if you're willing to commute. It's not as if we're asking for MS MVPs or anything either.

Jon

We're doing it again.