DonJop12

At some point in the 1980s my parents were given a secure council tenancy. The tenancy gave them stability and the confidence to start a family. Today it is unthinkable that a council house would be given to a couple in their early 20s that both worked. I now feel financially stable enough to consider starting a family, but I am a decade older than my parents were when they had me.

I experienced this recently. It is one thing handing over two recent payslips. It is another when you are generating admin for your employer who has to fill out a form as well confirming certain details. I am not convinced that the process was GDPR compliant. Anyone who knows my e-mail address and DOB can access my NI number. The reality is that landlords have the whip hand in certain cities. You do what they say, or the property goes to someone else…

I would buy The Guardian were it not £3.20 for a Saturday edition.

I suggest reading the Gransnet forum. The financial "dilemmas" of the boomer generation do not generally concern how to get on the property ladder.

Young people will never be able to outvote those who benefited from cheap housing and decent pensions. We are outnumbered. In any case, I am not sure that housing is as big an issue for voters north of the Bristol Channel and The Wash. I spent yesterday in a city in the midlands. It was an eye-opening experience for someone who has lived down south all their life. I visited a suburb where you could buy a house for 200k. By a house I mean an actual freehold property with a garden and two bedrooms rather than a leasehold rabbit hutch. In the midlands people on average incomes can achieve traditional markers of adulthood such as buying a property and starting a family.

Indeed. I will "gain" another £1,000 tomorrow when I max out my LISA for the new tax year but that is a drop in the ocean when trying to buy in London.

I do not see a solution until the boomers die off. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. By the end of the year my deposit fund will *equal* the amount that was my parent’s mortgage albeit one that benefited from a sizeable right-to-buy discount.

This is something I noticed with my peer group during the last recession. Postgraduate study to try to ride out a weak economy. It is almost as though people become a bit institutionalized. Taking into account SATs (including mocks), GCSEs (including mocks), A-levels, and a degree I once worked out that I completed over 100 coursework/examination assessments over eight years. Contrast this with my father who left school at 16 and therefore had an extra five years of earnings at the age I graduated.

I'm ready to move mine to HSBC for an extra £60 interest pa. Every little helps....

Should have taken my father’s advice – “never buy leasehold”. Although in his 20s there was plentiful social housing and it was possible to raise a family on one salary…

I'm confused. Are these the same landlords that refused to accept "DSS" pre-covid? Strange that they want Government money now...

There is the problem. After years of saving I now have a deposit that would allow me to buy in London, but I cannot see the point when money goes much further elsewhere. You play the hand you are dealt and I’ve made peace with the fact I was simply born too late to compete with boomers.

Perhaps we will have to look at BTL.... 😁

Yes – do not delay. Yesterday I was mulling over opening a West Brom building society account as it offered a dizzying 1% interest rate. It has already disappeared.

Ditto. I have moved my deposit fund every December for the last three years. Post Office > The AA > Marcus I’ve worked out that a move from Marcus would allow me to gain an extra £50 a year which is hardly going to help me compete with the local BTL boomers.