My dad bought the house he rented in 1957, a beautiful big Georgian house on the outskirts of East London, they offered it to him for £1,050. He said he’d never have money for that but the council were doing a fixed rate interest so it only cost £3.00 a month, it was the making of him and a lot of other working men at the time, they came back from the war to a bomb site environment, he was fortunate to be the type of man that would do any work, worked on the railway, building sites lorry driving but it was a hard life. It came with the disadvantage of having a tenant upstairs, who hated the fact that she had to pay rent to my dad, also after having had no bath and an outside toilet for the first 16 years of my life, we now had the right to use the upstairs one. She didn’t like that at all and left. It was certainly the best thing he could have done for us, a lot of men couldn’t be bothered and chose the new towns.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I know my 'view' appears mathematically and logically flawed - as the number of buyers went up with the number of available properties - so the balance remained. No shortage. But, and whether the numbers were big enough to cause this I don't know, I would guess that the influx at the bottom end (as even if the houses were large, the area meant the prices were kept low) started a ripple up the chain. And it becomes a shortage higher up - which itself then ripples up - and eventually turns full circle and hits the lower end (as people have to get more to be able to move). I'll see if I can see evidence of this. The second ripple would be in the change of attitude - whether good or bad, house ownership in one generation I bet lead to more ownership in the next. People saw their parents with their own places, and realised they could buy rather than rent privately or from the councils. All then in period of declining house building.
This then also leads to social care today doesn't it? I wonder how many people ended up having to sell the council place they bought to fund their care. But, irrespective, 2m+ people had assets that they wouldn't have had had they carried on renting. Strange thought eh? Buy a house to then have to sell it to pay for care they would otherwise have got for free.
Yes Steve, When my dad came out of the navy after the war, my uncle was the same age. My dad worked hard saved and bought that house in London. they worked side by side until they retired, each one getting the other set on with work as time went on. My uncle had a council flat in north london, spent his wages as soon as he got it, bottle of whiskey a day and fags to match, when they needed care he got everything he needed because he was a poor old man, my dad as most of you know got sod all.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
When we bought our first home we were limited to 2.5 times joint income, and I wasn't even willing to stretch that far as I believed the repayments were too high to manage and still be able to live rather than exist.
I think that Hosta's point is that 2.5 times the average salary today would be just under £75k. There are no houses, flats or even garages on the market for that price in this part of the country (or, indeed, much of the rest of it). Your restraint is commendable but the average house price in the UK is currently x10 the average salary. So even if there are two of you, you'd need a deposit of about £15k (which is half of the average annual earnings for one person) plus a mortgage of nearly x5 joint salary.
If banks and building societies had stuck to the sort of figures in use at the time we bought, house prices wouldn't have spiralled out of control. The increase is mostly down to the greed of the financial sector. They knew they were in a 'win-win' situation. If the borrower continued to pay the banks were getting steady income for decades. If the borrower defaulted, the bank repossessed and sold it on to somebody else in need of a mortgage......
Yes Steve, When my dad came out of the navy after the war, my uncle was the same age. My dad worked hard saved and bought that house in London. they worked side by side until they retired, each one getting the other set on with work as time went on. My uncle had a council flat in north london, spent his wages as soon as he got it, bottle of whiskey a day and fags to match, when they needed care he got everything he needed because he was a poor old man, my dad as most of you know got sod all.
Exactly the same situation with my father and father-in-law. My father had the same attitude as your father and the f-i-l 'p****d it against the wall every weekend', never saved a penny but moaned about other people who had things he didn't.
My daughter has two friends who have not long bought their first houses, they lived only on his wages and the girls saved every penny of theirs, they didn’t go out, didn’t buy anything other than food. wouldn’t happen now though as everyone is buying up anything in Cornwall without even seeing it, they’re sold within hours of going on the net. COVID’s put paid to that.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Gone through the roof now! 19.? % interest rate when we bought our first house. I saved all my wages for the deposit, £800.00 I don’t know the equivalent now, that was 1976. Interest rates practically nothing now, and I think they stopped the stamp duty for the duration of COVID everyone went mad to buy up the cheaper houses just to use as holiday homes or renting out at exorbitant rents.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
It's a strange situation isn't it? There's a difference obviously between sale value and rebuild value. In the old days (don't know if this is still held for mortgages), the rebuild value was (vastly) lower than the sale value - and rebuild was the figure used for buildings insurance. But even at a quick Google for rebuild value, it looks like the amount being spoken about now puts house prices out of reach for the lower paid. What I'm getting at, I think, is that it doesn't seem to be sale profit that is the sole upward driver. We're all happy that people get the minimum wage or even better, the living wage - but how much does that then affect housing? All a catch-22 eh?
We've got 18 pages of comment on this so far, but I haven't seen anybody come up with an answer to the question (including me). So what practical ways are there to fund social care if the method proposed by the government is not acceptable. As usual the Opposition parties are crying woe, woe, and thrice woe but not coming up with anything. That isn't a pop just at the Labour party, as had the positions been reversed the Conservatieves would have been doing the same. Sadly thats the nature of our adversarial system.
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It came with the disadvantage of having a tenant upstairs, who hated the fact that she had to pay rent to my dad, also after having had no bath and an outside toilet for the first 16 years of my life, we now had the right to use the upstairs one. She didn’t like that at all and left.
It was certainly the best thing he could have done for us, a lot of men couldn’t be bothered and chose the new towns.
they worked side by side until they retired, each one getting the other set on with work as time went on. My uncle had a council flat in north london, spent his wages as soon as he got it, bottle of whiskey a day and fags to match, when they needed care he got everything he needed because he was a poor old man, my dad as most of you know got sod all.
If banks and building societies had stuck to the sort of figures in use at the time we bought, house prices wouldn't have spiralled out of control. The increase is mostly down to the greed of the financial sector. They knew they were in a 'win-win' situation. If the borrower continued to pay the banks were getting steady income for decades. If the borrower defaulted, the bank repossessed and sold it on to somebody else in need of a mortgage......
Exactly the same situation with my father and father-in-law. My father had the same attitude as your father and the f-i-l 'p****d it against the wall every weekend', never saved a penny but moaned about other people who had things he didn't.
COVID’s put paid to that.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Interest rates practically nothing now, and I think they stopped the stamp duty for the duration of COVID everyone went mad to buy up the cheaper houses just to use as holiday homes or renting out at exorbitant rents.