Flyin'Dutch' wrote: @eltonioni I can't think what the percentage is but a substantial number of first time buyers can only do so with part/the majority of the deposit being provided by their parents. To suggest that the only thing young folks have lacking in their quest to have affordable accommodation is a bit of moral grit is non-sense.
I haven't suggested that young people are merely lacking moral grit - it would be nonsense to do that. What I have said is that there are affordable homes, that might need a commute, it will probably require expectation management.
Help to buy gives first time buyers a free £3k from HMG. They also get (if I recall correctly) access to a special savings ISA that gives them a n additional free gift of about a quarter of what they save towards a deposit. Interest rates are on the floor. It's not a bad package, and certainly better than it was 25 years ago while you and I were allegedly busy buying ladders to pull up later.
(This is all a moving target and might be different this week)
No moral grit is required, just information and the desire to buy a house. Nobody is making them. The world isn't going to change by moaning about it not being fair. Plenty of first time buyers are just getting on with it, making the commitment and a few sacrifices, coupling up, borrowing a bit , doing some overtime, looking further away than's convenient, etc ,etc.
On prices, quoting average house prices is ridiculous when discussing first time buyers - first time buyers don't buy average priced homes. I'm confident that we've shown above that there are affordable homes in the reach of young couples on regular wages, and yes homes are expensive and need commitment, but it's still the best way of spending your money if you want to make money. My advice to "just buy it now and look back in ten years" is pretty solid real world advice don't you think?
There is undoubtedly a supply side problem in the UK which affects prices. More people = more demand (are we nearly back on topic ?;)) Want to create a more competitive marketplace for homes and make them more affordable? First train more of our young people as builders, etc. Then build more homes by granting more planning consents and releasing more greenbelt land for development.
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