Long term rental

ChangN4N6

Did you hear William Hague on the radio. He sed that he went to a comprehensive school in Rotheram and ended up Foreign Secretary. He said it is determination that matters. The prime minister said that social mobility is a problem cos the poor have low aspirations. Hague was not poor but not privelledged and he got to the top. If that's what you want . He had spunk. I don't think anyone is owed a house or low rent by the state (ie the rest of us). London is an expensive place. If you live here you need to recognise that and fit your means to your needs (most on here get this - Annie etc). Others are living in a daydream. Chang

Detritus

For once I totally agree with you chang. Socal housing shouldn't be a right, and a single person living in a council house that has 2 or 3 bedrooms is ridiculous and just wrong.

andy

<div>Lots of sanctimonious Horatio Alger nonsense on this thread</div>

Mirandola

Hey, I'd never heard of Horatio Alger. File next to Walter Mitty, I think. Thanks Andy.

miss annie

I suppose it is more convenient to shove people from a disadvantaged background into a pigeonhole and belive that they can't, or don't want to, improve their chances. It makes those who come from a more privileged background feel better. Patronising claptrap.

Mirandola

My guess is that Andy didn't mean that, but was making a John Rawls type argument that we ought to work for a society where children from deprived backgrounds who don't have artistic flair or the maths brains to read physics at Cambridge have decent outcomes too.

miss annie

Long post ahead with no relevance to long term rentals...feel free to skip. That's the thing, in my experience most do. I'm well aware that some people have awful lives and are dependent on the state through no fault of their own, but there are opportunities all over the place, it's just that many people don't take them. I mix with a large number of different people of all ages because of the various different things I do, and most came from working class backgrounds, most went onto further education, the people who didn't have actually done better in some cases, starting their own businesses etc. Again, from personal experience, my youngest sister hardly ever showed up at school. Now a self employed yoga teacher and beauty therapist with a nice little salon in her house. My middle one left school with middleish results, she is now Account Manager for Tate & Lyle. I know plenty of young people out on the same paths now, grabbing opportunities as they come. The young people at Waterstones come and go at a rate of knots, leapfrogging up from job to job until they get where they want to go. They haven't all been to university or college. The vast majority come from outside London and see London as one giant lake of opportunities, they network like mad and work really hard. I think that if you've come from a nice background in the 'burbs, had a jolly home life and trundled off to a good university it probably is hard to imagine how the rest of the population can possibly thrive or have aspirations without the same advantages. Particularly as the left wing papers portray 'the poor' as living as living in Rookeries and eating out of bins. Yes, there are plenty of people who are absolutely in need even in our relatively prosperous area, but I maintain that there are opportunities aplenty for those with a bit of oomph. There also people who are choosing not to go for the boring, minimum wage job which will just about cover the rent and bills because they don't think about where it might lead and what opportunities may come their way as a result. My Christmas temp desperation job has led to the newly formed role of London display manager - that took a lot of bloody networking, hard work and elbowing my way up believe me! I'm excluding people with small children and no one to look after them from all of this. That's a horse of a different colour

andy

<div>What MIrandola said.</div><div><br></div>15 years ago, the teacher on £40k year could afford a modest house because they cost £150k. Now that exact same teacher, just fifteen years younger, who still makes £40k, can't because they cost £650k.<div><br></div><div>And the reason they can't is because they aren't making the most of their opportunities? And the answer is to work harder and network more? </div><div><br></div><div>MIss Annie, there's no doubt you're a lovely person, but you can see that there might be a bit more to it than this? I'm all for aspiration and ambition and hard work, but not when the dice are loaded.</div>

ChangN4N6

Yes but 40k was a lot 15 years ago. Their wages have certainly gone up over that period. Yes property prices have more so (in London) but that's all the influx of super rich. It's like Japan we'll just have to realise we can't live in modest places on modest incomes. It's like beer, I drink half pints now and spend less. My aunty lived in a cottage in Highgate . We thought nothing of it. She sold it on ten years ago and a year ago it was resold for nearly 2m apparently as a doss house for uni kids of a rich parent. Amazing but a sign of the times. SG will be like that in 20 years? Chang

andy

SG is getting like that now

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miss annie

I never think about the can they afford a house thing as an indicator of success as I genuinely don't feel any need to buy one. I had one in Cheshire for a while but it didn't give me an 'I am now a more worthy member of society 'feeling. I just felt like it was an enormous burden.

Stella

Andy I think what Annie meant was that one shouldn't be judgmental of the ones with a lesser privileged background. That, anyone who gets their act together, has a goal and goes for it, can achieve it. 

Stella

I think if I could afford it, I'd only buy to live in that place myself. I imagine being a landlord is pain in the arse. If you get lucky and have good tenants who look after the place, don't get in trouble with neighbours, fine, but if you get the wrong ones, it's a lot of hassle.<br><br>If I were a landlord with more flats, I'd try to make sure the neighbours are 'matching' to eliminate stress. <br>

vetski

Annie, do people want to buy property to feel worthy? Odd concept! Isn't it more about security & putting down roots? Can't argue about the burden bit, sometimes it is; but I meet quite a few tenants who didn't want to move but had to, because their landlord decided to sell (or died & the heirs wanted to sell), or kick them out for tenants who could pay higher rent. I get that the flexibility of renting might be useful for a lot of people, but for some, it seems like an uncomfortable position to be in.

Idoru

Well look at it this way, with the recent increase in fuel costs if this winter is anything like the last two old people will be dying all over the place, freeing up lots of housing. Problem solved.<br>

miss annie

No, I don't mean that anyone who has a goal and goes for it can get there. I mean that anyone with their wits about them can improve their chance of rolling a higher number, even with loaded dice.

Stella

Vetksi. It has a lot of flexibility. If you have shite neighbours or get bored, you can normally just move. If something's broken, you call the landlord. It gets fixed without you having to splash out. Ideally, that is.<br><br>But yes, I had to move because my landlord needed his flat. Not nice. The only thing that would worry me is, if you are buying, it's a lot more responsibility than people think. Often they assume if they buy a house, they only pay lower rents and rub their hands. But a house needs maintenance and that is where the real money pit lies.<br>

vetski

Agreed, maintenance is an ongoing expense - which is why a lot of landlords only do the bare minimum, and some not even that. I'm a landlord as well (not London), and leap on any maintenance issues like a ferret on a rat - but the agent tells me that I'm very unusual in being so responsive.

Stella

My previous landlord in Stokey was like that. Really good with maintenance. Not so great with choosing neighbours, though. She had an agency to deal with lettings and he was just after the money. <br><br>What landlords don't understand is that if you don't maintain your building, it'll just add up. <br>