Yep.

Average wage = £25,000

Average house price = £240,000



Also there's the issue of rent. There are too many people paying effectively a mortgage rate as rent.

I came up with a solution to affordable rents some time ago

It is already the case, which is what is causing the problem, prices for most of the housing stock on the market are far beyond three times the average 25 year olds income.

Far beyond three times mine. It's ludicrous.

If it were the rule, then prices would have to return to sensible levels

And when you then add into that equation the increasing use of one-year and zero-hours contracts (particularly for young people) it becomes even more difficult – including with even to rent.



The short-sightedness of so much going on in this country at present pretty much beggars belief.

Someone who's bought a house for £240k is unlikely to be able to afford to sell it for £75k. And that's the scale of the drop that would be required to bring house prices back into line with average earnings. So although it would work for new builds the existing housing stock would be a different matter entirely.

Getting out of the mindset of a house as an investment rather than somewhere to live is also required. Besides, we all know the valule of investments can go down as well as up, so tough luck. Gamblers often lose.

A great start would be getting away from the mindset that renting is somehow inferior to buying. There were plenty of what would now be categorised as middle class households in rented accommodation through the 1950s, 60s & 70s

I have never viewed buying a house as an investment. I never understood why people who only "own" one house would do so. It is a place to live and for me buying has been cheaper than renting an equivalent property. I have never gambled on the value of it going up. The fact housing prices have usually gone up over the years means little to me because I would be selling and buying in the same market.



However people do have to move house occasionally so where there a housing price crash then that would make it impossible for many who also didn't buy their house as an investment to move.



So ideally you want price stability but we will never get that in our supply and demand driven market unless there was just the right amount of housebuilding to stop the generally ever upward trend in prices and I don't see that happening.



If on the other hand you buy a house to rent then I guess you ought to do this based on your returns of the invested cash. So if you bought a house for £150K to rent, is the rent you will receive a better return on that money than investing it elsewhere? Basing your rate of return on rent + increasing value of the asset [iis[/i gambling. Mind you I am sure some people will still see property as a safer place for their money than a bank! Even if prices did crash the property is unlikely to be worthless and you could reasonably expect to continue getting some rental income off it.

Spot on! I'd happily rent, at least for a few years anyway. But it's just not worth it as the rental price is almost the same as the mortgage rate.



House prices need to be significantly cheaper, rental prices need to be massively cheaper. Think of the benefit to the economy if people weren't spending such a huge chunk of their income on housing.

I think the economic benefits work the opposite way. Personally I'd have got off the treadmill years ago if it weren't for the mortgage. At one time food was the main expenditure, now its housing. In the future it will probably be food, energy and housing.

Pain for the few for the long-term good of everyone. Call me Jeremy Bentham.