Are these the type of people creating housing issues in London? “‘We bought two flats in Kew but our boys want to live in Hackney – what do we do?”

9 comments

1. “They don’t have huge pensions” thank goodness they have that 2m in savings then. Phew.

2. She should tell her sons to get to fuck. Boo hoo I want to be in Hackney I don’t want a flat in Kew. Jesus wept

3. They are just somewhat wealthy. London will always have somewhat wealthy people.

   The types of people who are creating housing issues are those who are frivolously blocking more housing being built

4. lol everyday the Telegraph publishes an increasingly out of touch article about housing in the U.K.

5. She cashed in her pension to buy the investment properties and is now worried she can’t retire…? That’s a really weird article

6. If your parents own multiple properties, you shouldn’t ever be entitled to be treated as a first time buyer.

7. No. I hate these people, but they are not the reason there is a housing crisis. There is a housing crisis because we are not building enough fucking houses, and we aren’t building enough houses because we have an antiquated planning system that is filled to the brim with red tape and prioritises the needs of local homeowners over people who need homes.

   We need to slash the bureaucracy around building houses, disempower the NIMBY’s, and fund more social housing as a public sector competitor.

   Every other supposed solution, whether it’s rent control, banning foreign ownership, cutting immigration, or preventing rich people from owning 2nd or 3rd homes is a nothing policy parroted by politicians to appeal to your pre-existing assumptions and biases because it’s easier and cheaper and gets them more votes to do that than to pick a fight with the NIMBY’s that control their local council meetings and vote in every election no matter how small. If the policy does not, directly or indirectly, cause more houses to be built, it is a waste of time and energy.

8. Imo no. A couple of properties to cover for their kids and others that do this are a drop in the ocean vs mega property companies and international investment. The children would end up buying those properties it’s just done sooner – passed this yes it’s more of an issue

9. Frustrations aside, this seems like a fairly straightforward case, their sons need cash to fund a deposit not a buy to let in Kew, sell the property work out what cash they need for themselves and gift the remainder to their sons for a chunky deposit..£200k each should be enough to make a dent but they would still need to borrow around £250k+ to get a decent 2 bed flat.

   However they like many of their generation they may be discovering that the same factors that caused them to accumulate huge amounts of unearned value (nearly £2m by the sounds of it here) in the form of rising house prices have also backfired meaning that even those with average to well paying jobs will struggle to buy even a flat let alone a house in London (and those without huge amounts of family wealth are even worse off) …

   Also I assume the Telegraph picked this one as they knew the controversy would drive clicks.