I hate that "£5 coffee" line. Like their generation didn't piddle half their pay check down the pub urinals while smoking like chimneys.

To be fair, these old timers are absolutely right. I didn't buy a £5 coffee today and, would you believe it, I came home to find £34,000 in my bank account for a house deposit.

01:57 - In case anyone is wondering: £2,500 in 1972 corresponds to £28,337 in 2023. (Source: Bank of England)

I stopped buying £5 coffee years ago, don't smoke, and don't drink alcohol. believe it or not, I still don't have a deposit for a house. I think the older woman who sold her home for £600k is really switched on and upto date on the real situation in this country.

The average house price in the UK is £300,000. That's 9 times the average salary. When I bought a house 30 years ago, a house cost 3 times the average salary. Skipping a few costa coffees is not gonna bridge that huge gap. Wages in the last 30 years have gone up 20%. House prices have gone up 400 to 500%.

This woman saying that years ago, people had to save their money to afford a deposit, immediately after saying that she only got her first home because her mother passed away. It's absolutely mind boggling.

"Cut down uhh 3 takeaways a week and you'll be fine" the level of detachment from reality is palpable

Nice to see that old lady being interviewed who nailed the situation. Just shows how there's still smart people out there.

The lovely woman at 4:52 in navy coat and scarf who commented on young people, especially single parents "who don't have avocado on toast, they would be lucky to afford a piece of toast" is spot on. Every question she answered and comment she made, was well measured and compassionate, fabulous woman ❤

Blue jacket man is the voice of moderated reason here. Recognises the incongruence between his virtues and reality. Very refreshing to see

Couple in the blue jackets (Light/Turquoise) nailed every answer. Thoughtful, understanding and willing to share their genuine opinions. Top stuff

Drinking £5 pound coffee each day for 16 years and I can afford average house deposit of £30000, thanks gradpa! ...but then average house price increase is £17000 a year , then there is a stamp duty, report survey costs, solicitor costs, moving in, furniture ...so yeah if I don't drink £5 coffee for 50 years I'll get on that property ladder

I work 40 hours a week for £20k. I don't run a car or ever get coffee, let alone eat out. It is still mathematically impossible for me to ever afford a deposit on a house. These people don't have a clue.

Back in 1981, as a 19 year old hospital technician, I was able to buy my own home with a mortgage that was two times my salary. Fast forward to 2024 and my son, an academic at Oxford, has professional colleagues who can only afford to rent a room in a shared house. My son has only been able to buy an apartment because we helped him.

The last guy to speak, interviewed with whom I assume was his wife, had it spot on. He didn't do soundbites or trite phrases picked up from the media; he'd thought it through and gave a pretty good summary of the situation that showed insight and empathy.

The last man on there was spot on about short termism, it all goes back to Thatcher, she was the architect of the short termism we see today.

My ex landlord owns over a 200 houses. He bought them back in the 80's when housing was cheap. Now he rents them all out. He's a multi millionaire and flies around in a helicopter. There should be a limit to how many houses people can buy to rent.

That old lady is so sweet. In fact, most of the people interviewed showed a great deal of compassion, which was refreshing to see

The guy in the blue jacket had both a brain and empathy. Good man.

6:10 the best description of life on this video. You can't throw away the best years of your life just so you can hopefully afford a house 20 years from now.

Please protect the lady with the navy coat and blue scarf. She gives me hope that there are older generations out there that do understand our situation.

Some older people really are clueless, but you did a good job in showing that many are understanding and thoughtful.

I don't have takeaways make my lunch and coffee sadly can't save as paying for a room at £650 a month working 60 hours a week to so irritates me when people say don't have a £5 coffee

Rent in Los Angeles = $1600/m Daily coffee = (5x30)= $150/m Coffee cost everyday for an entire year = $1,825 Average single family house cost in LA = 1.2 million (2024) Down payment @20% = $240,000 Down payment in years of coffee = 131 Down payment In years of coffee with avocado toast = 50 Yo bro, just like, grind harder bro … … …

That old lady is an absolute gem. She's very wise.

We bought a house in 1983, it was 12k. I was 18 and factory worker and my husband to be a decorator age 21. Neither on top wages. We were still able to eat well, dress well, have a modest social life etc. Things are not that damn easy these days. All our friends could buy a home. I feel terrible about the world we've left, I'm Gen X and we should bloody pray we stay 'forgotten'! Stopping drinking coffee and saving up from a pittance wage is NOT going to make any difference. Only a fool or the wilfully ignorant could think it.

Bravo for showing that not all older homeowners are not out of touch work the struggles of young people. What did the outtakes look like? 😬

The guy in the blue jacket seems like a very intellegent guy and seems like him and his wife are then ones that TRULY understand the severity of the housing problem for our gen-z.

Some of these people - it’s like watching someone who started monopoly with 10x the amount of cash explain that they won it based on skill.

“They don’t have avocado on toast. They’re probably lucky to get a _piece_ of toast.” Well done that lady. Compare to “What are you paying for a cup of coffee? A fiver? Whatever, I don’t know.” No mate; you don’t.

We emigrated in 2022 to Sweden. 20 years working in the UK, only seeing the prospect of home ownership get further and further away. It's remarkable to witness how much the UK has declined in that time period. Conversely, home ownership here in rural, southerm Sweden is normal and a tiny fraction of the price of the UK. The average deposit of £34k that Ed mentioned would buy you a house here.

That old lady is a legend. Smart and understanding of real world issues and situations. Government are to blame - there is no concrete plan for social housing anymore!

Too many properties are used solely for investment purposes. In November 23 there were over 260,000 empty properties in the UK.

A cup of coffee 7 days a week is 150 dollars a month. Which is 1800 a year you can save which if you saved for 12 years is 21,600. Which if you did that for another 12 years which would 43,200. So in 22 years of saving coffee money you cant afford a house still. So 1 year of coffee money is 1 month of rent.....with room mates

Having grown up in North Norfolk (and gone to college in North Walsham), it's so nice to hear some Norfolk accents on here! It is indeed an 'old' county but a very friendly, welcoming one and a lovely place to raise a family. There is a lot of deprivation in Norfolk (as many parts of the country). Oddly, Norfolk has a strong digital sector but is otherwise a wasteland for most other jobs with any type of decent pay.

I have paid over £50,000 in rent to the same landlord and he refuses to fork out for even the most basic of improvements to the house we rent from him. He has never even seen the house we lets to use, and has never once been to the property. Millionaire with loads of properties treating his tenants like assets. We are trapped with high cost of rent unable to save, both earning well but still trapped, service the mortgage for a millionaire. Something needs to be done.

It's getting to the point where it's no longer a young person problem. My wife and I and many of our peers are approaching 40 years old and STILL have very little hope of buying a house.

Absolutely refreshing to hear some elderly people having a grasp of this and not just spouting Daily Mail waffle.

Nice interview. Good to hear that old people still have compassion for young people.

Nice to see not all taken in by the Daily Mail crap

The way that the older generation try to put blame on younger people for the hospital pass they’ve handed us is laughable. Cancelling Netflix, buying coffee, takeaways, avocado etc! The fact they can’t get away from is that we’re the first generation in history to experience a tougher life than our parents, especially when it comes to having a roof over our heads. It’s shameful

Everyone needs more than their salary to be financial stable. The best thing to do with your money is to invest it rightly, because money left for saving always end up used with no returns.

This ended up being a really wholesome video of messages of support for young people’s plight and difficulties in renting and saving for a deposit. Also the fact that lots of people acknowledge the failure of the government to provide adequate housing stock is refreshing too!

My sister is considered a key worker. She earned £35k in 2014. Tried to get a mortgage, and couldn’t because the deposit was too high. But she couldn’t save up more because of rent. In the end, she moved abroad to various countries to teach. Free accommodation and was able to save up enough to come home 5 years later and get a deposit. The fact she had to do this, as a key worker as well, was and is ridiculous.

I came from a working class background, bought my first house in 1992 for £78.0000 sold it ten years later for £370.000 as we had the advantage of cheap mortgages and interest rates, accessible dental care, low hospital waiting lists, good schools etc and so did my parents have even better advantages. My eldest daughter rents a two up two down with her partner for £1500 a month in the south east. People who say it was more difficult back then are lying or deluded. Things are ten times worse now, and I’d be happy to pay more tax or have a cut to the value of my house to help younger people get on the housing ladder. And I’d support a party that put real effort into building much more affordable housing but I know this current lot wouldn’t do that as mass house building would lower house prices in Tory areas and we can’t have that now, can we?

Glad your spreading awareness as the thought of renting for the next 30 years depresses me considerably and something needs to change!

Same situation throughout a lot of the world. I grew up in the UK, live in New Zealand nowadays and it is no different. The cost of a home nowadays compared to the cost and the wages you earned years back is so drastic, that very few have a chance of buying. It will be interesting seeing what happens in another 20 years time when the current 40 to 50 year olds who are renting are forced into unemployment.

I’m 29 and I live in north Norfolk. Everything that that woman said about young people having nothing to do, no opportunities, and the general vibe of there being no chance is real. I have 2 degrees (with debt ofc), I rent, I work in a job that pays me less than 27k a year and feel stuck. The issue is so wide spread (nationally) and it’s about wages, ridiculous rent prices and house prices, cost of living crisis and so much more. I’m lucky compared to most, but it would take me around 5 years to get any sort of deposit right now…

When I walk past our Costa in town it’s full of oap, the only youngsters are the baristas.

These people spoke so well. I found them to be compassionate and respectful.

It really brings me joy listening to some of the points shared by the individuals in the video and I genuinely perceive that they grasp the challenges young people face today and empathise with their lived experiences. I find it funny when I don't get the same feeling when listening to a lot of today's politicians :).

Well some of that was infuriating as you might expect, but it was lovely to see the lady who had sold her house with 2 acres of land being equally baffled about the value increase since she bought it. She seemed acutely aware of the issues that young people face and knows that it's very little to do with coffee, avocados and takeaway food!

Yeah just last week I spend £34,000 in Starbucks and thought, "house? Naaaahhhhh. I much prefer to gain zero equity and spaff money direct into the bank account of a private landlord." The ratio of house prices versus average incomes is now about 8.5 times, a situation that's worse than any time since 1876. But yeah, I think it's definitely my fault that I spend my pittance on having minor joys in my life like food and a telly.

I hope when I grow old, I'll be as emphatic as that older lady. She seems to have a good grasp on the world outside her own perspective.

I’m in the middle. I can honestly say that I did spend too much on rubbish like take aways, coffees, small crap I didn’t need to make myself feel better etc. But I never realized how small peanuts here and there amounted to a whole lot in the end. Once I consumed less, did some side hustles and got the discipline going I managed to save a years worth of salary within 3 years.i didn’t cut everything out, still went on a holiday. Just less and looked for cheaper options. If you still live with your parents, save your money now. Work hard and put up with the downpayment. I managed to only buy a studio when I turned 28, but it’s mine. I have no stress about a roof over my head or rising rent. It was very tough living in box rooms and proffesional houseshare for a decade before that.never had much and there were no jobs around 2008. We all have our scars

That coffee talking point is fucking infuriating, i don't even drink coffee. why don't they say the price of coffee should be reduced. so young people can enjoy their coffee and have an easier time saving. they won't say that. because they're happy to be complicit in this bullshit system because it benefits them

I like how one of the women said "they're lucky to get toast, let alone avocado on toast"

Where do these people get these ideas from? Young people today generally can't afford to eat takeaways 2 or 3 times a week or £5 coffees.

My 26 year old grandson has just bought his first house, he worked his way through uni', worked through his holidays, he could have sat on his hands and said there is no work, but he didn't, he went out and looked for work, it took him an hour, he came back with a job, worked there in his holidays, went to uni, got a masters, ended up with a very good job, and now is working for his future, it proves it just takes work, and no, don't spend every penny you make, put it away for your future, and don't be fussy about the first job you take, take everything offered, where was his first job? In a fish packing factory, and he went back every holiday!

My mother bought her house for 23k working part time at sainsburys as a cashier and being a single mother with 3 kids, it's a 3 bed terraced house in a small northern town, its now valued at over 220k. I'm 30 years old and worked as an engineer for most of my twenties and unless i split the bill with a partner or get a roommate i will never be able to afford a place of my own. This is what was stolen from us, my mother had her own home at 21 years old working a "non skilled" job with only the qualifications she got from school, meanwhile i have a degree, have a far better job and am stuck in the cycle of living almost penny-less paycheck to paycheck, i haven't been able to treat myself to a holiday or anything luxurious in over 6 years, and no its not because i'm buying avacado toast and coffee everyday for £20 from some poncey cafe. I don't smoke/vape, i don't drink, i don't gamble, i don't buy top brand clothes, i enjoy simple pleasures like long distance running and cycling/hiking (generally inexpensive hobbies) i am a typical saver, don't have a credit card and never have and even i am struggling. It all just feels so pointless i want to scream. what is the point in working non stop 50 hours a week just to never be able to escape the rat race and retire when your body is too broken to enjoy the little time you have left before the grave. I'm so tired of it all and every year it just seems more and more bleak.

Some pretty reasonable points of view by the folk of North Norfolk. Just frustrating to hear the army fella say there's not enough houses and not enough money when there's approximately a million properties vacant in England and there's recently been the PPE scandal and countless examples of companies posting record profits during a cost of living crisis.

these people are just a joy to listen to, I'd listen to them talk all day long.

I'm 27 and bought my first house at 25. I was very lucky that I got a decent paying job straight out of uni, was able to live with my parents for a couple of years to save up, and managed to be looking at the exact right time to find a decent house I could afford. Not everyone has the luck I had, and it doesn't matter how much they cut down on costa coffee or takeaways, that wont make the slightest bit of difference to their situation. Especially if they're already renting and spending half of their monthly income just to keep the roof over their heads, never mind the costs of food and travel on top of that

Funnily enough, I take coffee or tea with me to work because I can't afford to pay for take away coffee. These old people are clueless, much like the millionaires who govern over us. Even saving ten thousand for a deposit means you'll need to pay rent. As for 'affordable housing' you need around 20-30k deposit. For someone on a well-paid job (40k+ a year living with parents) that is still likely a 3-5 year mission. Introduce health problems, children, pets, and unexpected incidents and that timeframe creeps upwards. This is without including savings for furniture, etc... no wonder people on good jobs can still go into their 30s living with parents having lived a frugal life of saving! No wonder some young people think F&ck it and buy that coffee.

I bought my first place in 1998. It was easy, i was an apprentice welder and saved the £3000 deposit in less than a year. Even after the mortgage, i could still afford a car and two nights drinking. It is so much harder (imposdible) for young people now

My parents bought the house we live in now in 1984, they paid £50k for it back then apparently. At the time my dad was working in a shoe shop and had a second job in a bank. My mother was working in finance. In 2021, we had the house valued, the estimate was £500k-£550k. It's a tiny 3 bedroom bungalow, with 1 bathroom and a decent sized garden split into two halves. There is a small drive at the front with only enough room to park one car. We live on the outskirts of London. I looked at renting a house on this road, the cheapest house available was a 3 bedroom house, built in the 50's/60's, it was priced at £1,700 a month to rent. One of my neighbours is now in her mid 80's, back in around 1950-1960 she had her entire house BUILT for £6,000. Nowadays a new conservatory would cost you 6 grand. Around 16 years ago neighbours moved in, they converted the house (also a bungalow) into something slightly larger. They converted the garage into a bedroom, extended the house at the rear to make the kitchen larger and also converted another room in the house used as a shed/storage room into another bedroom. They got numerous quotes and were hoping to get the work done for about £40,000. Only a few months in the builders left their tools on-site overnight, and they were stolen. 8 months into the project the work was still ongoing and it took nearly a year before all the work was completed. They mentioned to us in passing once that they had estimated £40,000 spend on the project, but it ended up costing them £140,000 instead. They sold the house around 15 months ago and moved back up north where the wife was originally from. Just shows the clear contrast between how much things used to cost compared to how much they cost now. Also, the guy at 5:12.. 3 takeaways a week? What planet does this guy live on. By the nature of the work and the number of us in our household we have takeaways fairly regularly, but not even close to 3 times a week, possibly once every 10-14 days. I don't know anyone who has takeaway dinner 3 times a week other than my sister and her boyfriend!

The guy at 6:13 is spot on. Why should we have to spend almost our whole working lives eating beans on toast and drinking water, not having a life, not having kids (can't raise them in a flatshare), and missing out on any kind of meaningful experiences? We live in a first world country in the 21st Century. What's the point of capitalism if it's led us here?

Hmmm yeah but the older generation, particularly men, had tjeir own habits. Hitting the pub after work weeknights, smoking etc. every generation has its vices.

Yes, it's Millennial's fault because coffee. As out of touch as the Tories that made the situation.

@9:58, man bless her heart. She understands the plight of young people. speaking about the lack of young people and how they arent supported and have nothing to do, then crying aobut it. I want to hug her, she gets it man.

That older lady said it all! Thank you for being honest about this crazy situation.

No avocado latte for me today, now I own half of Grosvenor Estate. It's not even 5PM so will be buying the rest of London over the weekend, CHEERS!

My wife and I bought a house for 27,500 a year ago with a 110% mortgage at a fixed rate of 2.5% for the full duration of the mortgage (15 years). Before you ask we left England shortly after the referendum and now live in France. From everything I see since Brexit we definitely did the right thing.

As a gen x’er I find it very sad to see people fixating on soundbite arguments that pit one generation against another. Let’s look at the facts as opposed to soundbites: Houses were 4-7x average earnings from 1950-80, averaging at 5x. Houses are 9x average earnings in 2024. But to get the full picture you also need to factor in the average UK interest rate which from 1950-80 was approximately 11% compared with 5.25% today (which is at a 15-year high and expected to fall). Today, average earnings are £32K and average house prices are £285K. So a 90% LTV 25-year mortgage on the average UK house valued at £285K would mean: Monthly repayment at 5.25% = £1,537 However, if interest rates drop to 3.5% then: Monthly repayment at 3.5% = £1,284 Now if someone were to have purchased their house from 1950-80, where houses were just 5x salaries (vs 9x today) then they would have been able to afford roughly 1.8x the deposit. So a £32k salary in todays money would equate to an average house price of £160k. But as a ‘boomer’ could afford 1.8x the deposit lets calculate an 82% LTV 25-year mortgage on the average UK house valued at £160K: Monthly repayment at 11% = £1,286 In summary, during the past 2 years the younger generation are right to argue that housing is less affordable for them compared with the average person who bought from 1950-80. However, for the 14 years prior to that (2009-22), the younger generation had it easier than their older counterparts.

Depressing isn't it! I have been "fortunate" enough to have not had children myself, but I still struggle to make ends meet and keep a roof over my head despite working all of my life. I've never been able to purchase a home, and the only way I may ever stand a chance of owning one will be from inheritance. Our system seems broken and unfit for purpose, where the most basic quality of life is now seen as our only luxury.

£5 coffees... do me a favour! I don't drink coffee. I don't run a car. My phone is as basic as I can get and most of my clothes are several years old and starting to fall apart. I work full time in a warehouse, I take home approximately £1,600 per month. I rent privately. When I moved in, 2022, rent was £825 a month. Its now £950. THAT is the problem. THAT is why so many of us are struggling. Its got naff all to do with coffees I don't buy and everything to do with living costs increasing beyond worker's wages.

For me, buying a cup of coffee is the new " going out". In my teens, 20s and 30s it was still common to go to the pub with your mates, 2x a week, and a club for dancing at least once a month. By the Millennium that was getting less affordable, now the clubs are mostly gone. I'm over 50, never a big earner, now all my simple pleasures are gone bar a coffee out less than once a week. The sooner the younger generation realise this nation is kaput and make alternative plans for themselves the better. Short of a revolution, community self build, community land trusts, living in a caravan or investing in a derelict place with your mates are the few options available to get out of paying high rent the rest of your life.

In Norfolk we have no dentists, no decent homes, no decent jobs, no decent people. I'm basically counting the days until we are taken back by the sea.

I certainly don't go out for takeaways or restaurant meals or coffee. Ive been like this since leaving highschool... still nowhere near being able to afford an apartment, let alone a house. I'm not a economist but i do know that the world works because money is constantly changing hands. So a coffee in a cafe is adding to someone's paycheck, someone who is paying rent or a mortgage. Bad things happen if people stop spending.

I love the old lady, probably the oldest one, who understands the precarious condition of the younger generations. The other interviewees apparently seem to understand the UK is in dire straits but still express some prejudicial ideas...

I was at university in my twenties and as a tenant saw how shoddy and expensive the private rental market had become in the early noughties. By the time I graduated there were few employment opportunities so I traveled abroad. 15+ years living and working in Vienna, Austria: There’s no shortage of quality, affordable rental accommodation - indeed only very few people buy - and there is no compulsion for people to own. The city of Vienna owns a staggering amount of property and there is strict rent control which assures tenants long term security and stability. From outside looking in, it’s clear that Britain has allowed too much profiteering from basic social necessities, from greedy landlords to powerless local authorities unable to help with an aging population and ridiculous challenges for first time buyers… it’s a hot mess. Whilst Thatcher’s sell off of council houses back in the 80s was a quick fix solution to balancing the books, the generations since are paying a huge price for a basic standard of living and the future looks bleak.

Obviously just cutting back on a £5 coffee is not going to solve the issue, but the wider point cannot be totally invalidated. If one does cut back on certain luxuries where there is a significantly cheaper alternative, then it is amazing how quickly saved money adds up. Just from quitting smoking and turning to refillable vaping i worked out I saved about £200 a month. If i were to do that with other luxuries then obviously that figure increases. Just to reiterate before I get the mob attacking, this does not solve the chronic housing crisis, I am just saying they do have a point about saving for a deposit.

That last chap spoke common sense. Party politics means there's almost a disincentive for government to initiate a nationwide housebuilding programme only for the housing to become ready in time for the other party to get in power and claim the credit. I don't know how many caffe latte's it would take to pay for a deposit, but it's more the attitude of frugality, saving and delayed gratification that we appear to have lost..

Who can buy a house at 18 what a different place we are in now 😂😂

A £5 coffee 5 days of the week each month would be £100, times 12 would be £1200. Hardly even a fraction of what you need for a deposit nowadays

After 6 years at Uni (no fees so no loan to pay back) I work in a furniture factory on piecework and made enough to pay a deposit and get a mortgage on my first house costing £16k House prices were going up 30% a year .Young people cannot do what I did in the 1970's. Wages and house prices are too polarised.

Don't take the £5 coffee comment literally. It represents the propensity these day for short term instant gratification and to spend all, and sometimes more, of ones disposable income without saving or making sacrifices in the pursuit of something worthwhile in the longer term. The poorest will likely never be able to afford their own property, but the average earners can. In 2014 my daughter aged 26 and earning £25K in the NHS bought her first property on her own for £165K after renting for 3 or 4 years. She saved and saved to scrape together a deposit. The property was run down, needed new windows, guttering, boiler, kitchen, bathroom, and decorating through out. It was ex-rental and the tenants of 30 years had turned the back garden into a fly tipping site. It was a shit hole. With hard work and determination my daughter lived in mess and chaos for 5 years until she finally got it respectable. In that time she worked some overtime and worked hard on the property herself. She curtailed her social life, lived frugally, didn't blow money on coffees, takeaways or consuming alcohol on regular nights out. She gradually re-entered a normal social life and was none the worse for the experience. It was character building and she appreciated what she now had. And her mates were envious, of course. Wouldn't you know it, she then met a handsome young Italian man, got married and they now have two children. In 2020, during the Covid nightmare, they bought a 3 bed house together for £375K, using the £100K equity she had earned on her first property. Now they are in a nice comfortable place due to their continued hard work and determination. So all the whiners should take a long hard look at themselves.

Private landlords have ruined the UKS property market. A "landlord" on Twitter proudly showed his portfolio of properties to a journalist. He'd bought nearly a street of houses, then let the rooms separately (including half the kitchen and living room) "for maximum profit". When the journalist asked how he slept at night after buying the houses that could have gone to FTB, he replied that he had to think about his business. Sickening.

Young people are simply being priced out of the market. Back in the 50s to probably mid 90s, you could reasonably be assured that if you and maybe your partner worked, you could afford a mortgage.

I bought my first house two years ago in my mid 20’s after privately renting for 4 years. It is TOUGH and I agree unachievable for many people. I am fortunate to be in a relationship where have both contributed. If I was single, no chance.

Thank you for this video, I've found it monumentally comforting to hear how there are some of the older generations who can see how frustrating it it for us 'youngsters' to get on the property ladder. I'm 30 and still paying a substantial proportion of my earnings to a man who owns the building I'm renting. It feels so suffocating to be trying to save for a deposit whilst keeping up with your girlfriends desire for a holiday etc. It's probably partly the reason why so many people are on benefits in this country. Its a difficult time with so much red tape on everything!

Honestly quite refreshing to see a lot of these people understanding the challenges of buying a house these days. It seems like a lot of people have been misled of this idea that cutting back on some luxuries will solve the problem of unaffordable housing.

So when I was saving up for my first house in 2000ish, I drank a lot of coffee, and proportionately it still costs about the same if you add inflation. A luxury - and I was able to save. I was earning about 20K full time BEFORE tax, so maybe 15K a year take home, which was less than the average single person income, but pretty good for your average 24 year old. Average house price in late 90s was about £90K but that's because London wrecks every attempt to make sense of the housing market, it was closer to 50K everywhere else. My deposit for the £35K terrace house (in a poor area of a northern city) I bought only needed to be £1500 for a 5% deposit. I kept drinking coffee and saved up 10% so as to get a smaller mortgage. That house was just over twice my take home pay. And at 4% interest as it was at the time, I struggled to pay it. I did pay it, but it was a struggle - had to cut down on the coffee for a few years, sure. So an average house then was already (thanks to labour at the time having done nothing to alleviate the housing crisis caused by Right to Buy) pushing 4 times my takehome pay - a mere five years earlier had I been earning the same a house would only have been 3x my takehome pay. As it was, northern city, poor area, I did better than that. But I did it on my own. Solo. No other person in my life. I was only born in the late 70s I'm hardly a boomer, I was in my very early 20s in 2001. ON MY OWN. In a bog standard office job 2 rungs up from casual admin assistant. Because houses were increasing in price but were *actually* affordable, unlike whatever the crazy out of whack definition of affordable is now. Cos now: - The average UK household income nationally now - AFTER TAX - is about £35K. That's from NAO figures. That's household income, not individual income. 2 people. - The average price of a house in England now is £288000, or about £250K outside of London (it drops off sharply if you want to muscle in on the similarly-housing-starved locals in the other countries) . - That cheap house I bought in 2001 is now worth about £150K, more if its well appointed. Still a northern city, still a poor area. So that's either: 7x the average two person salary for a national average house in England. I still don't live in one of those. I'm not complaining about that, just pointing out that the fortunate timing of my start in life still only got me so far before the escalator stalled. 4x the average two person salary for that same house I saved up for and mortgaged on my own on less than national salary, in that same 'less desirable' location. Or closer to 6-7x the average single salary. ...It's not really any wonder the kids choose caffeination. Heck, I am now mid 40s, earning a managers wage - which comes out as take home pay *just less* than the national household take home. I'm still the sole earner for my household due to my wife's health, but I do have a household now, yay me. So hey that's pretty good, I'm earning nearly as much as two people do, go me, right? ....well, I'm in a property worth maybe £160K if you squint a bit because as much as the value of that first house has grown, the next rungs up the ladder have grown by more, putting them further and further out of reach, like galaxies and the expansion of the universe. A 300K house for me is well past the observable event horizon, I am basically stuck here because the next bracket up would mean putting another 50K on the mortgage and I can't possibly pay it. And I'm 25 years into my career with no complaints on my actual income - just the outrageous inflation of housing past the point where the only folk who can afford to buy are landlords who then make you pay more than the mortgage you would have had if only you could have saved up a 100K deposit. Somehow. After 10 years of cost of living crisis (it's not new! It's just affecting middle classes now so the papers have noticed). I'm doing *well*... and me/my family are still trapped, with no clue how on earth my son will ever manage to move out as and when he goes and comes back from uni. He's likely going to be stuck in one room in his parent's house until he can find a mate or lover willing to go in on a shared mortgage with him. So we're in a situation where no-one can get on the housing ladder, and people on the bottom rungs are stuck there and can't move on, freeing up the cheaper housing stock. The market is locked up... and prices keep going up monthly whilst wages only go up annually, if then. But Tories and Labour both are both talking about enabling mortgages that can be handed down when you die, and making it easier for two non-married/romantic partner people to get a shared mortgage! They both just seem to want to load everyone up with with more debt rather than apply any sort of controls to the clearly out of control housing market! This is what happened with Labour in the 90s - they didn't dare upset home owners so they just let the costs spiral upwards whilst pandering to everyone's ignorance by saying 'line go up = good". The Tories set the social housing stock on fire, and Labour just warmed their feet on the embers for 12 years going 'ooh, line go up!'. Tossbags. I was never fooled: in my life experience, Labour are Tory light. And the 'light' part is mostly only really that they don't actively hate the poor. They're otherwise still an authoritarian, profit-first establishment party. Proven over and over again and the current lot sound just like the last lot, so I fully expect that to be the case this time around also. They're NOT talking about how to get house prices down! They're NOT talking about european style mortgages with fixed rates for decades, they're not talking about rent control and deposit support, they're not talking about repossession protection or social housing they're only talking vaguely about 'affordable housing' without ever defining what they mean, and how to support people getting bigger and bigger mortgages. They just keep propping up the lie that you want to be on the property ladder because "line go up and line go up = good". Encouraging people to see house price falls as desperately bad news indicating political failure, when at a strategic level it's the exact opposite. Housing is not a high return investment in anything approaching a sane market. Average HOUSEHOLD income is £35K. Even if we said 'no-one may buy a house alone, everyone must be paired up', that should mean affordable housing on average outside london should be between £105-£175, or 3-5x salary, the conventional wisdom that prevailed for basically hundreds of years until the 80s when the rot set in. If we take the average solo salary like we used to, of abotu £25K take home, then houses should be more like £75-£125K Think on that and realise, we are being set up - not deliberately, but by total lack of spine - for banks to own our homes in perpetuity if it carries on like this. Barclays, HSBC and the like will essentially be the new social landlords, because they'll own everything mortgage free since they own the debt, but without the commitment to look after the house which will still be on you. More social housing. Get people into low rent accommodation so they can save, increase the housing stock available so prices come down, and for god's sake let councils take the money they get by not being able to say no when a tenant wants to buy and let them build with it. And for the love of f**k can we PLEASE kill off first past the post so we can vote for something other than the hegemony. And for the love of f**king *f**k can people stop buying into the nonsense about "line go up = good".

2 years before we bought our house a few years ago, my partner and I jist went absolute hell for leather saving absolutely everything we had. We cut out expensive meals, coffees, cocktails etc, and saved the deposit from scratch in 18 months. Those I see complaining about not being able to afford a deposit are the very ones you'll find out for brunch on a Saturday morning and in a cocktail bar the same evening. Younger folks live in shorterism and are unable to plan ahead enough and put in the hard graft and sacrifice.

Hard situation but the solution is. Dont move out yet. Get a valuable skill (no creative writing or arts doesnt count). Get a good job with that skill and whatever money you got left put into relatively safe investments like S&P500. Don't get liability loans (e.g car loan, cant afford a fancy car? Get a cheap reliable one). Eventually you will have enough to put a deposit down for a house.

We built their houses in the 1940s and 50s, they got them cheep and are pulling up the ladder.

*Average houses being 10x the average yearly wage in some areas, with people saving for years and having to take out £200,000 mortgages with 5% interest* Solution... Just don't buy that £5 coffee that you're already not buying.

I guess importing more people in the last 20 years than there has been in the last 200 years has nothing at all to do with the lack of houses.

Same situation in the US....uncontrolled immigration+low housing supply=high prices.

One easement I had in my teenage years during the 60's was no mobile phone bills, no broadband or roaming charges and to do anything now you really do need to be online. Public phone boxes were available and in working order and a call cost a couple of pennies. Credit was impossible to get until you were 21 so you didn't get into debt and my bedsit room cost 37 shillings a week. My wage after tax? £13 a week which allowed me as a single man to be comfortable. What has happened to our young is a total disgrace. I was sacked from one job in the morning and walked into a lesser paid but liveable one 2 hours later. Looked around and was back earning the higher wage within a month. I'm not bragging or exaggerating just bloody mad at what kind of future my grandchildren face.