Housing Shortages ? What's it like in your area?

I've always thought 'affordable homes' is a silly term. What's affordable for one is not for another!

Perhaps if those living in social housing who could afford to move out and buy had their rent increased according to their income they would buy these houses and then those who need social housing could get it. I think it unreasonable for trade union leaders on huge salaries to live in social housing.

I heard part of a programme a few days ago when a guy was advocating that young single people/parents should have hostel accommodation instead of their own flats. Not sure where he was coming from but perhaps that might make a few think a bit more before having children they can't afford? I lived in a hostel when I first left home and had a great time!

There is a shortage of affordable rental properties in this area as well as the lower end first time buyer type houses. The council waiting list is huge.

There are lots of lovely big, very expensive 4 and 5 bedroom properties being built on greenfield sites with lovely views.

The rules requiring developers to include a certain number of 'affordable' homes in order to get planning consent have been relaxed. What a help it is to big business to have friends in high places.

Greatnan I love your irony, (hope that I have interpreted correctly?)

VQ , you say that there is a shortage of affordable rentals in your area. As you drive/walk around, How many "for sale" or indeed "for let" signs do you see?

What I am trying to ascertain here, is whether we actually NEED more houses to be built, or just need to change "the system" .

Does that make sense?

In this area we need more houses and they need to be better quality. I live near a university city so massive influx of students every year plus we now have a large eastern European community and like it's always been the immigrants move into the cheaper housing. Not complaining about the Eastern Europeans btw it just showed up the lack of affordable housing even further. Then the increase in demand for cheaper rentals pushed the rents up across the board.

When my eldest daughter tried to rent her first flat she was one of twenty applicants. The landlord didn't bother with the property because he knew that he could always find another tenant.

My youngest daughter moves on Monday but has paid the rent up to 17th December. The landlord is badgering her for the keys back as he already has someone lined up to move in.

I live in a new city that is still being built. So lots of land allocated and lots of new houses. There is low unemployment and it is also commutable to London. 35min on the fast train.
Rental properties are not cheap though.
I was talking to a friend today about my first home in Southampton. My Gran had left me a little money so we had a deposit. (I am guessing it was about 20%). My husband was on a postgraduate vocational course - good prospects but still on a mature student grant. We were able to get a mortgage and buy a 3 bed terrace house in the middle of Southampton!! And had a 100% LA grant to put on a decent bathroom and kitchen. And we were just about able to pay that mortgage until he went onto a salary a year later. We were completely skint - but there is no way if we were in a similar position today that we could have even dreamed of buying a house.

VQ - when my grand-daughter had to move with two weeks rent already paid, she found out that the landlord had another tenant next day. She went to see the housing officer at the local council and she got her two weeks rent refunded! Worth a try!

As usual, I think conditions in the south east are driving the actions of the policy-makers.

What might be a useful way forward is to do something about the huge number of empty properties. If VAT on restoring an empty dilapidated property were reduced from 20% to 5%, as it is on new-builds, perhaps more homes would be brought into use.

I'm sure you're right Lilygran. Where I live in the North-east there is a very robust rental market and rents don't seem to be unrealistic in the light of local wages.

Movedalot Who decides that people in social housing could afford to buy and what criteria are you suggesting should be used? Someone in social housing in London might be able to afford a house in Middlesbrough, a town with massive unemployment, for example, but would it be reasonable to expect a family to move there? Increasing rent in accordance with an increase in wages isn't really going to help someone save a 10–15% deposit.

While arguably unethical, highly paid trades union leaders living in social housing are few and far between and are hardly making a major contribution to the housing shortage.

I am sure that exactly this idea has been suggested on Gransnet before and I am also sure that it struck me as ill thought-out then.

The problem with "affordable housing" is, as has already been said, what is affordable for one isn't for another. Also if someone buys an "affordable" house when they in turn come to sell they will, naturally, want to get the highest price they can for it and it then is no longer "affordable".

What is needed is more social housing. Purpose built units for single people as well as family homes. Unfortunately, no-one wants social housing built near them because they think it will reduce the value of their own homes.

Most 'affordable' housing is social housing. It is built/bought by Housing Associations from the developers and they find tenants or purchasers that just buy part of the house and rent the rest, or at least that is how it works near me.

In the south/south east there is a desperate need for more housing as so many people cannot afford to buy there own home and renting is extortionate.

As absentgrana suggests, there are parts of the country where there is plenty of "affordable" housing for sale and for rent. Unfortunately, in those places there generally aren't the jobs. And as Barrow says, even if council tenants bought their house at a special price, they expect to sell it for as much as the market will stand. Just as when people living in a nice part of the country sell a house, they can often get more from a holiday or second-homer than they would get from a local young person or young couple wanting to stay in their birthplace.