I think a lot of the frustrations are caused by people being in the private rented sector who shouldn’t be. Both tenants and landlords.
People on housing benefit should be in social housing. It would be better for them (secure home) and better for tax payer so less resentment on subsidising others through taxation. Government can borrow long term at 1% so could easily do this on a not for profit basis and provide affordable rents to those on low income. This is clearly governments fault.
Landords that dont particularly want to be landlords but feel they need to be to provide a retirement income. A buy to let is a terrible pension for most people. It is high risk as it isn’t diversified, you are dependent on very small number of individuals you dont know, the tax is horrific, your money is tied up so you cant spend it and there is a lot or work and rules you dont want to get involved in. Vast majority of people would be far better off with a diversified investment portfolio which you can spend throughout retirement. People feel housing is safer as they can see it but it really isn’t.
If some of the landlords that dont want to be landlords sold then this would free up homes for tenants in good jobs that dont need the flexibility renting provides
I applaud you for your grit and determination. You are living proof that anyone with the right attitude and willingness to work hard can own property.
A piece of advice for you, if I may. Now you own and are letting these properties, your personal circumstances should not get in the way of you obtaining a buy-to-let mortgage, which is secured entirely by the property being loaned against. Perhaps speak to a broker who will be able to help you navigate the system.
I couldn’t edit my previous post, since Openrent are running some ridiculous go slow system on this topic.
However, as a follow up to my last post, I can recommend Chris Longhurst of Mortgages for Business on 01732-471607.
Also, have a look into 0% credit cards, some of which were on long terms, e.g MBNA, Virgin & CapitalOne, not sure now what’s available. Thisismoney.com have quite good comparison tables.
Good luck in your future ventures.
I fear trying to justify ourselves to people like this is a total waste of our time. They want what we have but unlike us who have gone without holidays etc scrimped and saved worked like the devil on run down houses to provide good housing at reasonable profits they don’t want to do any of that. It like anti capitalists. They want the jobs that money people can provide so they can survive but they resent that they are successful. They think its all been given to them on a plate. I tried explaining it to someone on here much the same as you but they didn’t wantto admit that they were the ones that lacked the get up and go in life. You will never win with these people because they expect everything to just land in their laps. Bad parenting.
This is the perfect example of generational delusion, rather than something inherently flawed with landlords.
Look at your professional income, and look at the housing market today. Could you afford a house today with what you earned, adjusted for inflation? Claiming it’s about not going on holiday and just “scrimping” shows a complete lack of the economy and the housing market.
This is nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with an entitled generation (baby boombers) having little to no understanding of the economy and inflation. If you are unaware of how much house prices have increased versus the average income, I’ve proven my point.
As a relatively young (43) landlord I do agree with you that scrimping isn’t sufficient for most people to buy a house. It does depend on where you live and some areas will be a lot easier to buy than others although most places are now hard. In a lot of places starter homes are £200k +, some places much more.
Taking an example of a tenant on a moderate salary of £25k which provides a net income of circa £20k after tax and NI. They probably have bills something like this
Rent and housing related bills £1,000 pm
Food £200pm
Transport/car costs £200pm
Clothes/other essential £100
That means they are spending £18,000 on essentials and have £2,000 pa left to enjoy life or save towards a house. Given average starter house price increases by around £6k a year on average it is fair to say that even if you had no life and saved all your spare income you aren’t really making progress towards buying a house. Far better to have a life, get in a relationship as for most people a joint purchase is only realistic option.
Is all this landlords fault? Not really. We do need a functioning rental market a lot of people do need the flexibility that renting provides whether they have moved location, in a new job, new relationship etc. The affordability issue is a lack of total housing due to failure to build sufficient homes, in particular social housing which would take a lot of pressure out of the market. Your anger would be better placed at government rather than landlords who are trying to provide for themselves.
With a constantly falling birth rate (Down 16% since 2012) whilst the population in this country continually rises (Now estimated to be 70m plus) - maybe someone should explain how this Housing shortage, (Along with crazy price rises) has come about before blaming landlords.
You need to change your attitude towards the problem, and start being proactive, instead of looking for excuses as to why you can’t, look for ways you can…
One very quick search online revealed this, and other, sites where property can be bought very cheap. Yes, you will have to do some work, is that a problem for you?
Cheaper today than the very first house I bought in Surrey in 1982/3, and the first (pure) investment property (3-bed house) I bought in 2001, both costing more than my annual gross salary at the time, both needing extensive improvements - some hard work. I rented them both, and made a profit on the sale of the first one, still renting the second.
I don’t believe anybody earns less than the cost of these houses on the linked site, since the minimum wage is currently stg. 9.50 / hr, i.e. stg. 18,525 on a basic 37.5hr week.
So you need to make a decision. Either continue languishing with your woe am I attitude, or get out there and do it.
This is just laughable and shows how disconnected you are from reality. Why are those properties cheap? Because they are in some of the worst areas for employment in the country, so are essentially worthless.
The fact you haven’t connected employment and housing together is a wonderful demonstration of how out of touch you are with reality. I could go to Hyton and buy a £1 house at auction, but I would also have no job opportunities in the area.
You bought a house in 2001, just as housing prices exploded. Chris, that’s not hard work, that’s luck.
The only decision you need to make is whether you’re willing to accept that careers and companies are not equally spread across the country, but almost all are heavily focused in the Greater London area. Now also answer this: given you previous occupation, on that salary today, could you afford those same houses you bought? Or have you forgotten to account the stagnant wages, inflation and property price increases? Here’s a hint: between 2000 - 2015, housing prices went up on average between 300-450%. Did anyone’s wages increase at that same rate? It’s amazing how disconnected so many landlords become with age.
London is not the epicentre of the world, but if you’re too afraid to step outside of it, so be it.
Perhaps you’d care to justify your comments with some indication of your personal position, instead of simply choosing the scenarios that suit your argument.
As I said before excuses, excuses, and quite likely irrelevant.
As I said before, there are people who look for ways to succeed and those that can’t be bothered, and look for excuses instead. The doers and the talkers.
I know a chap who built his letting portfolio with the 1 pound houses in, I think, Northumberland. Even if there was no work, there were still HB tenants to house.
London has over 5x the average job density than any other city in the UK as well as the UK HQ’s for almost every single large name across all industries, from banks to the tech. The fact you want to claim London isn’t the epicentre shows how far removed you’ve become from the working world.
As for the houses on Merseyside…what jobs are there in that part of the world? Call centres? Good to see how out of touch you both are with professionals who are pursuing careers rather than dead-end jobs.
When you’ve had the same years of experience working in different parts of the UK, including London, and in different countries around the world as I have, you’ll be able to talk.
It’s very telling, that you have never once described your experience and situation.
Go on, step outside of your anonymous bubble, and declare yourself. Until then, you’re just an inconsequential bag of hot air.
Very selective statistics, in that you only compare UK city to city. Opportunities exist all over the country, not just major cities, of which there are almost 33M people employed, out of that there are less than 5M in London, approx. 15%.
Furthermore, I referenced the “world”, where there are 3 Billion people working.
I continued running and building my UK property business whilst I was working in the Philippines, which proves the possibilities are endless, since you can’t get much more remote from the UK than that.
I repeat, London is not the epicentre of the world.
I also went overseas for my first expatriate job at the age of 23, when employment agencies would not consider anybody under 25, so age and experience is not necessarily a barrier either.
Hahahah what a joke. What industries are booming in Liverpool exactly? It’s a city kept afloat by it’s three universities with zero career prospects for anyone stuck there, unless you think being the manager of a call centre is a career.
Yes Chris, comparing city to city makes perfect sense, what other comparison would you make?! Also answer the question: what careers can you pursue outside of London? IT? Finance? And referencing “the world” is so vague it’s worthless. Can you just go and start working in San Francisco or New York without a visa? You are so out of touch with the modern world its sad.
Amazing. You’re going to quote experience from over 4 decades ago. I’m going to presume both the working world and visa requirements have probably changed since then. You’re far beyond help at this point, but try to keep up with the modern world, not the one that has come and gone.
I literally didn’t say that, but if you want to disagree, then tell me, what career opportunities are there in Liverpool? Or are you just another homeowner who struck lucky with the housing boom of the early 2000’s and made claims you aren’t able to back up?
Couldn’t agree more Colin, enough already. He has more reasons / excuses why not to do something, than a politician, but sadly no knowledge or experience to back it up.