It's not me I'm concerned about, although thank you for the comment. It's colleagues, family and friends in their 20s and 30s. I used myself as an example, but I'm resigned to renting and I have no dependants. The younger people I know have their lives ahead of them and are wanting families. Rent for a two bed terrace in Barnsley is now around 700 quid or more a month. How do you possibly save for the deposit for a house if you're paying that every month before bills and food and travel to work and student loans? If I had to get another place in the current market, my outgoings just to put a roof over my head, pay the bills and get to work and back would swallow all my wage before I bought any food and I'm earning a lot more than some. Being single is entirely unaffordable. I would have to move in to a house of multiple occupancy.
I think mortgage companies are now looking at if you show you can pay a rental amount each month you may need less deposit. Seems like a move in the right direction.
Skipton + 1 smaller one have(can’t remember the name) unfortunately none of the larger ones have yet, in fact some of the larger ones pulled all their offers a couple of weeks ago. Some of smaller ones have also started to offer longer mortgages too.
A colleague in my office applied to Skipton. Impeccable credit and history of paying rent. Turned down flat. Not enough savings. Well, no, of course not, she wouldn't be entertaining the outrageous interest rates on this product if she had the savings for a deposit which opened up more reasonable mortgages.
The combination of sky high house prices and high interest rates are making houses unaffordable and can only see prices going down over the next year or two so maybe not the best time to take out a 100% mortgage unless it's a significant saving on rent payments.
Why don’t you rate private pensions? It’s fluctuating daily but mines averaged close to 7% growth per year over the last 15 years. I get an extra 20% on anything I contribute. 25% back as tax free cash. If I die before 75 my beneficiaries get the lot tax free & even after 75 they can have it as a pension themselves rather than having to draw it all & pay lots of tax. No inheritance tax to worry about either. As you’re self employed you would also save on tax you pay won’t you? It’s also dead easy. I literally pay in every month & that’s it. If I rent a property out I’ve got to worry about the up keep of the house, do jobs myself or get workmen into do them, worry about rates coming to an end & potential inheritance tax issues.
Programme on TV tonight was talking about the situation for people in debt and brought on a boss of a charity which helped with advice. He stated that they employed 800 people, so at £10 an hour 38 hours a week,52 weeks a year x by 800 staff it came to 15.8 million! A charities money well spent.
I think I've missed the boat in term of age to get a half decent return from one. How old were you when you started the pension?
You get 25% on top of anything you put in (so long as your pension isn’t so large you get taxed when you take it). Even if it’s 25% of a small amount it’s better than 25% of nothing.
Started as a teenager through the advice of my uncle. I don’t know your circumstances but the state pension doesn’t use up all of your personal allowance so if you can’t put much in or are doing it a bit later in life even a pot of 30-40k will be useful as you’ll get 20% extra when you contribute & at the other side you can pull a couple of thousands taxable income from the pot each tax year but not pay tax if you aren’t earning more than £12,570 a tax year
Surely the point of a charity offering advice is having people to talk to? What else would they spend the money on?
I don’t get it? How do you expect tailored advice to be given out if not by people? It’s not like £10 an hour is a lot and they must be trained in financial matters to give the correct advice.
This housing crisis goes way back to Thatcher selling off council houses. Another example of tories knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing (If another example were needed)
Suppose it gave people who would struggle to ever buy a house chance at a reduced rate. My gran had rented for 40 years and never owned a brick but they bought through that scheme. I think the fact that not enough affordable homes have been built for 40 years is a big contribution to the crisis
I think what I was getting at was that loads of council houses were built not much after the war and as such were paid for by the 70's/80's so when high interest rates hit, the rent didn't need to go up to cover it. As far as "affordable" goes, it's a bit subjective, at the moment, no house would be affordable to millions of people no matter what the price.
Looks like the tax payer will be bailing out Thames Water enall soon. I wonder where all the water rates payments have gone?