A Generation Failed by Housing Market

A look at how things got so bad for the younger generation. Why homeownership rates fell, and renting so expensive.

00:00 Intro
0:31 Housing is expensive
6:04 Student Debt
7:42 Immigration
9:18 Optimistic Prospects

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ABOUT
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[nicennice]

This is what you call an abject failure of government. Kiss goodbye to any productivity improvements while this demotivating, unsustainable situation continues.

[Tommyleini]

And people wonder why young people aren't having children. Talk to childless people in their late 20s and 30s. A lot of them want children but can barely survive on a full time salary. Even with two people working full time it's never enough to more than just survive.

[joehughes]

It feels as if the social contract between the young and old has been broken…

[simonweakley]

I saw a programme worst house on the street and a young couple bought a house in W Bridgeford Nottingham, a complete dump and only a terrace house for £270K. 30 years ago that would have been £20k tops. They spend £90k on it (the programme didn't say where they got this money) and the house was revalued at £480k. On what planet can a young couple afford a £480k terrace house? My first 3 bed terrace house was £27k in 1987 and I added a loft conversion to make 4 bedrooms.I sold it for £35k in 1995.

[anthonyferris]

Unfortunately, the same problem across almost every industrial country on the planet.

[live_monkey]

I appreciate the video, very insightful. Regarding your optimistic comments in the final minute, I'm not convinced. Young people might have opportunities that previous generations didn't have. But the cost of such opportunities is so high that unless you are from a wealthy family, it doesn't really make any difference.

[Ligerpride]

All well and good having a job but it's no use if you're the working poor, which people who aren't homeowners are these days.

[tarquin]

50% going to uni. What a waste of time and money.

[garyb]

I cant believe that when interest rates were low for years that the Government didn't set up a scheme to build affordable houses in bulk. The could have borrowed the money on very low rates and the rents on the properties would certainly have covered the interest payments. The capitol could have been written off over say 50 years and the Country would have ended up with millions of extra homes. What ever is done it is impossible to build enough to supply the vast numbers of immigrants adding to the population every month.

[bartoszbrown]

After 20 years we are going back to Poland, we have a massive house there with plenty of land for 60k pounds,
Are we going to nominally earn less? Probably, but I expect the overall quality of life to go up, (safety and home grown organic food)
And hence we have the kids, the child benefit alone is £150 per every child in Poland (not means tested) and there is an additional £200 per child every month for the first year.

Nurseries are free, and if a mother decides to return to work the government will pay her (return her income tax basically) £300 a month.
Everyone thinks that the benefit system in the UK is so generous, but I find it to be generous for single mothers, (not hating on them, just saying)
and there is hardly anything for your average working families.

PS> I've always found it strange how rural areas in the UK are more expensive than a city.

[lightweightben]

I am a millennial and own my own home, as well as an investment property overseas.
My 3 keys to success:
1) Inherit s 6 figure sum
2) Be in the top 1% of income
3) Marry someone with 1+2 themselves

If you don’t do those three you’ve only got yourself to blame /s

[CD-pmkc]

‘Struggling to keep up’ with immigration levels.

[nemurerumaboroshi]

"Is overgloom exaggerated?" No, it's underappreciated. The key thing is not well understood by most people is the percent of their earnings that goes to all sorts of pockets just to pay for the basic access to life in the UK.

[Mitjitsu]

Another factor you've missed is poor job security. Most young people will find themselves in occupations where they're on temporary and zero hours contracts. Even if they're in a graduate job. You can't commit to a mortgage in those situations. I was resentful when I was in the workplace where I got layed off when I knew I was more productive than other workers who were on more secure contracts. Purely because of the timing that they entered their occupation. The solution is to reform contract law, but the unions would be dead against that.

[Polite_Indifference]

If a stake in society has been put out of reach, what incentive do you have to contribute towards it? The answer is you have no incentive, nor do you have any incentive to contribute towards the next generation of tax payers. The data indicates this is the case, with a substantial increase in the number of people who are economically inactive and a declining birth rate.

[Bertuzz]

A price to income ratio of 7.6 is pretty sweet. It's closer to 11 in the Netherlands. The average house is like 480K Euros these days. 300K Euros would get you a dump.

[crtivjf]

The increase in demand has surely nothing to do with the arrival of the boat people.








Am I gonna get arrested now?

[mikez]

private rental sector was unprepared?

Oh, they were fully prepared to profiteer out of this situation as much as they possibly could...

[Oris]

The worst thing could happen for young people is fight for first house which cost so much and has low quality compare to other country's standards.

[kalex]

According to a report from Nationwide, real average house prices are the same as they were in 2004- that’s 20 years ago. So the problem is not house prices, rather that real wages have been in decline. Add the cost of living crisis of recent years, rises in general taxation and you can explain why house prices seem expensive. Lots of manufacturing jobs have shifted into ASIA as the production of goods was outsourced there. While this benefited the public through lower consumer prices, it pushed UK wages down while at the same time it produced extraordinary profits for the big corporations. These profits have been mainly recycled into financial assets and that that in turn has led to increased amounts of wealth concentration at the top. I do not believe that the housing market has failed new generations, I think is the economy as a whole that has failed them.