More house purchase mortgages were approved last month than at any time since December 2009 – and first-time buyers tired of paying high rents are ‘rolling up their sleeves’ to get on the housing ladder.
The claims come from national valuation firm e.surv, which makes forecasts from its own data ahead of statistics from other bodies such as the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
But if the e.surv figures are right, then the CML’s next statistics, for November, will have to show a surprising turnaround from the downbeat figures it has newly released for October (see next story).
E.surv correctly forecast for October that lending had dropped, but its overall figure of 50,383 mortgage approvals is much higher than the CML’s figure of 44,500 loans for house purchase.
E.surv now claims that looser lending criteria meant that approvals rose to 54,658 in November.
This was 15% higher than November 2010, says the firm, which is part of LSL, parent company of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents.
E.surv is also predicting that more loans were made last month to borrowers with small deposits, including first-time buyers.
The firm, which claims that its forecasts are to within 1% of official figures, says that loans to borrowers with a deposit of 15% or less accounted for 13% of all mortgage lending in November, up from 10% in October, and the highest since October 2008.
The average deposit for a first-time buyer property was 31%, down from 33% in October. Mortgage approvals for homes below £125,000 rose to 12,791 in November, up from 11,904 in October.
However, e.surv points out that its figures are boosted by buy-to-let purchasers snapping up exactly the same kind of cheaper properties as first-time buyers.
Loans for purchases below £250,000 accounted for almost three-quarters of all loans, the firm is predicting.
Richard Sexton, director of e.surv, said: “For the last few months, the banks have been focusing their lending on specific groups, particularly buy-to-let investors, but this is the first time they appear to have increased lending to first-time buyers in any notable sort of volume.
“More first-time buyers are rolling up their sleeves and piecing together the bigger deposits required to access high loan-to-value mortgages.
“No doubt they are sick of paying astronomically high rents and having their monthly budgets ransacked by the increasing cost of living.”
See also next story.
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Comments
Rant, once again you fail to grasp the concept.
The value of any asset only matters when you buy it or sell it!!!!
I am not selling any of my properties so any value is only a figure on a piece of paper. If the value of each and every one of my properties fell away to zero, would it affect me? No of course not, because I wouldn't sell.
If during this up/ down value period, I am achieving around £550 per month for each of my properties, then I am generating an income. If any mortgages I have are being repaid, then effectively my properties will eventually be paid off by my tenants, not me!
One of my properties is a 3-bed detached house with a garage. It could do with a more modern Kitchen & bathroom, but otherwise it is in good order throughout. I only ask £600 a month from the tenants, but could ask more if the kitchen and bathroom were replaced. The value of the property is around the £135k mark. At it's peak it was worth £165k so yes you could say that I have lost £30k on it, but hang on, I only paid £55k for it back in 1994 and the mortgage is a little over £30k so how can I possibly be in negative equity?
My initial 10% deposit was £5.5k and if the tenants pay off my mortgage, I will own a property currently worth £135k, which has only cost me £5.5k plus repairs and maintenance, call it £10k overall. If I can sell it for more than £10k, I have made a profit. If I sell it for the current £135k, minus the outstanding mortgage of £30k and my £10k (Deposit + Repairs), I am still £95k up. :-)
As it is my intention to use my small portfolio to fund my retirement and provide me with a monthly income of £2k or £3k per month minus repairs, I do not need to think about selling them ever and my kids can worry about the value of these properties once I'm dead.
Have you ever looked at tracker ISA's? Each month you put in a fixed amount (I think I save about £100 a month into one) and this is converted into shares. When the share price is high, my £100 doesn't buy me as many shares, yet when the share price is low, I do better.
The advantage of saving like this is that over a long period it balances out. The low price dips offset the high price peaks.
In buying a BTL property every few years (Before the peak and during the peak) some of my losses are offset by my earlier gains, so I'm not worried if a few properties bought near the peak are technically worth less than I paid.
Now while I mentioned earlier that my tenants are nicely paying off my mortgages and this business model is sound, I have been in the fortunate position of owning my own business earning a 6-figure salary each year and this has allowed me to pay down some of the mortgages, not tied into fixed penalty periods. In September this year I paid £70k off one of these properties that had £76k outstanding. Now it has £6k remaining. It just means that I will be paying less interest to the bank and my Santander savings account was only paying 2.5% interest and my mortgage rate was 5.5%, so made sense to pay down a BTL mortgage. Accross my portfolio, I currently own 53% of equity and if you include my own house this figure rises to 67%, so I am not exposed to house prices in any way.
Stick with your plan and one day, eventually, you might actually get onto the property ladder. In the mean time, I'll stick with my own strategy and in 10-years time, we'll compare notes shall we?
Come on PeeBee - as I said, back of an envelope using a few figures that are publicly available. Someone with your experience would look at the specific properties in case, the situation on the ground, what properties have sold for nearby, access to schools in the area and a whole range of other things and come up with something FAR more comprehensive which, correct me if I'm wrong, might come under legal scrutiny. I'm not even pretending to come up with anything as detailed as that.
If you wondered how much a car loan would cost you each month, a family member or even someone down the pub could put some notes down on the back of the beer mat for you. I doubt, no, I know you would see that for what is - an estimate. If it turned out to be more than they said, would you be round their house with a pitchfork? If however the bank manager stuffed up their figures, and you ended up paying more than they predicted, then that would be a totally different scenario.
X
rant. Thanks for that. I always wondered if there was a better and quicker way of doing an appraisal than my old methods. I had heard of such means to ascertaining values - but I honestly did not believe that it was possible to 'value' a property from many miles away, not having seen it; or have any information whatsoever about it.
NOW I am enlightened. And ashamed. When I think back how many miles I covered in those years travelling once; twice - or more - times to each new property appraisal... all the carbon emissions this released into the atmosphere... I have probably killed the planet and could have done it all on the back of an envelope.
BUGGER!
(Last week I defended you. This week - sorry pal but you are on your own. Brace yourself for what will undoubtedly come your way...)
Back of an envelope calculations: Last Land Reg for October states that the average sold price for the City of Peterborough is slightly over £100k. Down 0.4% in the last month, so £400.
Inflation in October was around 5%, so 0.4% in a month - that's another £400 off an investment of £100,000.
£400 nominal fall + £400 real fall = £800 per property.
£800 x three properties = £2,400.
Rounded up given that the original value quoted was slightly over £100K = £2,500.
Chris may be renting out the most luxurious palaces Peterborough has to offer. Alternatively, he may be offering shed space to illegal immigrants. More likely, he's renting out something inbetween (and has posted about the families he rents to), so I think the average is a valid starting point.
rant: "I calculate that the value of those three properties you mentioned declined by a total of £2,500 in October."
As an EX-Agent with sixteen years of valuing experience, I would be fascinated to hear/see how you, with I believe NO Estate Agency or valuation experience whatsoever, can come up with this "calculation".
Please, PLEASE enlighten me.
I need input. IIIINNNNPPPUUUUUUTTTTTT!!! ;o)
Last week Chris you were boasting that the BTLs you bought in 2006 are not yet in negative equity. I calculate that the value of those three properties you mentioned declined by a total of £2,500 in October. You may well be content with those numbers for your investment. I certainly wouldn't want to be in such a position though.
Rant is your typical HPC member. He is in rented, saving his money where he can and waiting from property prices to bottom out before he blows his savings on buying a house of his own.
To him, prices must come down further as he is not quite ready to buy a house yet! He uses this site and probably any other public medium to talk down the market every chance he gets.
The more positive news that comes to light, the quicker he is to discredit this information, even doing large amounts of homework in order to undermine it where he can.
It is important to know his motivations in order to find balance in his stated opinions. To know when to take his views as credible or propaganda.
Don't worry though, one day he will buy a property and then watch the leopard change it's spots!
My personal view is that BTL property ownership is riskier when property prices are rising as rents tend to fall during this period and void periods can seriously damage profits. Landlords care little about what the property is actually worth, until it is time to sell. The dangerous period is just above the bottom of the market, while property values are still quite low, but tenants are leaving the rental sector behind in order to buy. Long void periods and force landlords to sell and then they will struggle with low property values. We are not at this stage yet so BTL investors need to enjoy these high rents while they last and thanks to people like Rant, pay down some equity if they can, just in case they need to sell later!
Cheers Rant, your a star. Lol
FBA - Rant is entitled to an opinion, as we all are.... and to post it here.
Except I said it wasn't my point of view ; )
Thank you Mr Rant.
Now please take your own advice and go away from this EA site until 2018.
Your point of view is noted.
You no longer need to comment further
Rick D: Favour to ask. PLEASE don't go all Tw@tter on me and insert '@' when referring to me. I will respond far better without it than with it! ;o) Thank you.
Anyways - back to what you said...
"...you either work for EAT of have way too much time on your hands."
Sorry - that would be because...?
Assuming you mean that I responded to you mid-afternoon; and seeing as you came right back at me within six minutes, it is also the ultimate example of kettle and pot, by the way... ;o)
"Please explain again why a First Time Buyer would buy in a falling market?"
WHY restrict your question to FTBs, Rick? Why not talk whole of market - ESPECIALLY seeing as FTBs currently count for such a small percentage of the whole market (...which we are told will be made up of some 840,000 purchases in 2011 so not a shabby number to discuss the merits or otherwise of...).
MY answer - same response as I would give to the age-old poser concerning dogs, their tongues and their danglies.
Because they can; and because they do.
It's really THAT simple.
"I know i'm being really thick but I really would appreciate and value your wealth of knowledge on why that would be beneficial for someone to thought their deposit money down the drain?"
Sorry - maybe I AM being really thick here also - but WHO says it is "beneficial"? Where did THAT euphemism pop up from?
Surely you are referring to an individual's free choice to buy something that THEY choose to buy, at any time, in any market. IF that individual DECIDES to buy there and then, then that is the decision made. It is, therefore deemed to be beneficial to THEM, else they would not do it.
And who am I, you - or anyone else for that matter - to stop them?
For MY part - I just happen to love being involved in the process...
"That was my question at the start, then the HPCers hijacked."
Nobody forced you to make over half a dozen replies to the HPCers...
I also see that today you're in favour of people being allowed to express their opinions, but yesterday wanted to dismiss people's views... ; )
Looking at the question of when and at what level the bottom of the market is - I'll just throw this out, not as my take on that question, but as one scenario for discussion (which will probably mean some meaningful comments from Pee Bee and lots of abuse from others).
In previous boom / bust cycles, the number of years down has roughly followed the number of years up. This time, the boom was fuelled as never before, with 125% mortgages, self-certification loans etc and ran for over a decade. In this case, the housing market is currently four years in to an 11 year bear cycle.
In previous cycles, the last third of the time the market is in bust, average prices dip below a trend of 3.5 times the average salary.
Given the length of these cycles, prices need to be considered in real terms. Putting this all together would see the average UK house price grinding out nominal falls of just £5K a year, to level out in nominal terms at around £130K in 2017 - 2018. This would nevertheless represent a 50% fall in real terms from their 2007 peak.
By that point, investors would have long since lost interest in the housing market. In reality, much of the benefit of lower prices would not go to those who have waited for the peak to pass though. They are unlikely to be able or willing to put their lives and family plans on hold for such a long scenario to play out. It is today's teenagers who would benefit from these lower house prices, as they battle to pay back their student debts.
And, for what it's worth, previous cycles also ALWAYS involve people saying "it's different this time!"
"The right time to buy anything is just before a 'faling' market bottoms out."
With the following caveat.
Unless you are not buying something as an investment
Also precisely because most people cannot call the bottom of a market they tend to wait and buy just after they see it picking up....which is why busts are shallower than booms.
Thanks Ray,
That was my question at the start, then the HPCers hijacked.
Pryor is a professional BUYING AGENT.
He would promote reduced house prices.
Its as good as a Man U fan saying put all your lolly on Man U winning the league. Do it at your peril matie.
He is privy to far less information than LSL group.
He is entitled to an opinion, as we all are. He may be wrong, he may be right, but unless you pay him, you cant sue him. Beware ole son, beware.
BUT HE DOES NOT PREACH GOSPEL. GET A GRIP.
The right time to buy anything is just before a 'faling' market bottoms out. Waiting until it actually does is usually too late, So, can any of the 'experts' on this site who constantly say wait (or words to that effect) please give just an indication of when they think it will happen?
I for one cannot.
@PeeBee you either work for EAT of have way too much time on your hands.
Please explain again why a First Time Buyer would buy in a falling market?
I know i'm being really thick but I really would appreciate and value your wealth of knowledge on why that would be beneficial for someone to thought their deposit money down the drain?
Rick Deckard: "When an industry leader like Henry Pryor advises..."
Industry leader, Rick? WHICH particular "industry" do you refer to Mr Pryor "leading"?
Oh, yeah - the BUYERS AGENT INDUSTRY! The ones who get paid TO KNOCK DOWN PRICES.
Get a grip, matey!
Swiss-cheese argument is not your forte. ;o)
When an industry leader like Henry Pryor advises:
"With prices falling there is no need for FTB's to rush to beat the end of SDLT exemption. Beware agents tempting you to buy now."
"1st Time Buyers - beware 'red riding hood' suggestion from agents to rush to beat end of Stamp Duty exemption"
...............think you need some more vendor education events (price reduction ring out evenings)
;)
A Timely Christmas Tale
I would like to share an experience with you all, about drinking and driving.
Some of us have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on our way home from the odd social session over the years.
A couple of nights ago, I was out for a few drinks with some friends and had a few too many beers.
Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I did something I've never done before - I took a bus home.
I arrived home safely and without incident, which was a real surprise, as I have never driven a bus before and am not sure where I got it from!
@No cred left
You don’t even understand what you’re mocking him for. It’s you who has it backwards. Every time you post you demonstrate again what a feeble minded little half wit you are.
Unless you can explain to us all how on earth you think the absence of leverage will not affect house prices then I suggest you simply appreciate that you do not grasp the basics of what your attacking someone over.
Not sure why anyone would reply to rant who posts.........
Added by rantnrave on 2011-12-07 12:30:56
100% deposits, not 100% loans. What would happen to UK house prices if it became illegal to buy a property with borrowed money?
Quality chap!
Ray - I couldnt agree more!
Sorry, early in the morning.
Correction..
..." The point of this site is to entertain people".....
In general IS IT not also to be adult, factual, informative and businesslike etc, ? Certainly not insulting and rude as it is sometimes.
@ rantnrave on 2011-12-12 17:13:03
..." The point of this site is to entertain people".....
In general it is not also to be adult, factual, informative and businesslike etc, ? Certainly not insulting and rude as it is sometimes.
Hawkeye: "This kind of attitude rubs off on people and if you are in the business I bet your figures are way down."
If only my attitude would rub off on people.
As for 'getting a life' - hmmm, what can one say. High house prices are, in a very real sense, robbing a generation of 'their lives'. It's almost surreal these days.
John is a buy to let investor. The banks like him - he has some equity in his portfolio. They lend him the money to buy a flat.
Pete is a well paid young man - but he cannot (easily) save enough money for a deposit to put down to buy a flat. The banks won't give him a mortgage - he has not got a big enough deposit.
So Pete rents the flat off John and pays so much rent that John can pay the mortgage with it.
So, Pete is buying John's flat for him. I bet Pete wishes he could 'get a life' - or at least be able to reasonably afford to buy his own flat - instead of buying one for someone else.
Greater love hath no man than that he buys a flat for his landlord.
RE Ashford Agent
"@puzzled of T.Wells
Very nicely put in your response to Brit. Couldn't have put it better myself. "
What response? This thread has that person opening the discussion and no more posts.
There is no response.
Rather than trying to alienate first time buyers with deposits maybe you try to support them instead.
@puzzled of T.Wells
Very nicely put in your response to Brit. Couldn't have put it better myself.
Less and less people are paying those higher rents Mike. See the story 'Big rise in court possession orders as tenants struggle' currenty on EAToday's sister site Letting Agent Today.
Reading between the lines of Fun Boy's posts:
The 'market' is not made up individuals with different circumstances, but is in fact a monolithic block.
Views from potential FTBs, who EAs are currently seeing in ever decreasing numbers, can be dismissed.
The point of this site is to entertain people.
For info we are LPA receivers-we deal with Buy to Let only and from the front line, not guess work, buy to let repos are not increasing but in sharp decline.
Rents are high, paying the loan, lowest voids ever, paying the loan.
Sorry guys, like rant and Brit, but thats the fact, those paying rent are protecting these loans and stopping sales, which in your minds would be good to lower prices. Sadly the reverse for you, you are actually helping support the system you seem determined to knock.
Sorry.
The Rant and Brit minutiae of their own views about their own circumstances.
Absolutely nothing to do with the market.
Their issues are in isolation and specific to themselves.
Absolutely no use or interest for readers of this forum.
Not even funny...
rant: "The same landlord who is losing money as his property is falling in price... "
Come on, mate - play fair. Your landlord is NOT 'losing' any money at all - is he?
It is fair to assume that you are paying at least all of his monthly outgoings on the property. He is not currently selling the property and it would be fair to assume also that he has no intention of doing so as long as you are happy to continue doing so.
You also fail to mention how much your landlord paid for the property when he bought it, and when.
Chances are he has owned it for some time, and therefore bought it at far less than it would sell for even today.
If - and ONLY if - he bought at '£x' and sells at '£x-y' will there be a 'loss' (and don't you give me any of your 'seasonal adjustment' palaver, young man...! ;o) ) as far as every man in the street is concerned.
yawn
I'm not skint either, I have plenty of cash, shares and precious metals. ;)
As for the landlords stealing my interest off my savings, I will get my own back. Buy to let repossessions are rising again. Looks like I will be able to buy one of their repossessed property at a cost far less than they originally paid for it.
2012 will be another year of price falls and low transactions. Can't wait for the flood of properties to come back to the market this Jan. Stamp duty going, they will have to be quick to sell. Otherwise they will have to drop their prices big time. How long can all these sellers put their lives on hold waiting for 2007 prices to return?
The same landlord who is losing money as his property is falling in price... I'm thankful to him though for taking the capital loss on my behalf and sparing me from any negative equity.
Bring back 100% deposits
Save our savers !
Mr Rant needs saving, he is giving the interest on his savings to his Landlord.
Save the savers savings.
For the record, Mr. Rant is most definitely not skint. The interest on my savings each month pays a decent proportion of my rent.
'Lost it' - plenty of people (or just ONE who posts under dozens of inane aliases - YOU decide...) having their chuckles over rant's post.
Instead of stirring the pond for any remnants of mirth, how about you instead answer the question.
What WOULD happen if it suddenly became "illegal", impossible - or any other word one feels to be more gramatically correct and care to insert - to borrow money in order to purchase a house?
What if you DID need a "100% deposit" to be able to purchase?
The floor is yours. I, for one, can't wait for your answer...
Mr Rant is skint, along with Mr Brit and Mr Sib.
Will this affect their opinions?
Your views are now about LSL. Absolute drivel mate.
Do you argue with your mirror, wife, dog and cat?
Just out of interest Ray, when you were younger, did you ever wake up two hours before you went to bed to lick the road clean?
; )
I'm surprised no-one's picked up on this from the article: "(e.surv) is part of LSL, parent company of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents." No vested interest there then.
From LSL's own website:
"The LSL Group HR department manages recruitment for chartered surveying brands e.surv Chartered Surveyors, and Barnwoods, also estate agents Your Move, Reed Rains, Intercounty, Frosts, JNP and Goodfellows, plus financial services companies, Linear, Pink Home Loans and First Complete."
I wonder if that client list affects the reports that LSL issues?
"First-time buyers 'roll up their sleeves' to get on housing ladder"
Really! Has no-one ever thought of doing that before?
BTW....
@ Monkey Tennis on 2011-12-12 11:43:16
"... seems strange that FTB's didnt know that they had wads of cash up their shirts unitl now. The average deposit of £40,000 is a lot of sleeve rolling for the average worker...."
FTB's do not usually buy 'average' they buy at far less.
P.S. Have some forgotten that an agents job is to get the highest legal price possible in a given market
Damm you FBA.
Its people like you, controlling supply/ demand ratios, pushing up rents, working for your clients and generally distorting both rental and sales markets for your own gain. You greedy b**stard.
I hope your BTL portfolio takes a 20% hit.
They are rushing before rantrave becomes PM and makes it illegal to borrow money to buy a house! Well he thinks he is good enough!!!
Now even that twerp may have an idea if it were EU countires......
Brit used to post as Brit123 now hes made it to 4, well done lad.
Brit1234: You are beginning to sound deranged. Sorry - I should have said MORE deranged than usual.
You clearly believe that an Agent, working for a client, should NOT give that client best advice and then do the best job for that said fee-paying client.
Thank you for providing conclusive proof that it's not just your ARGUMENT that is seriously flawed - but simply YOU full stop!
Embrace the fact, for it cannot be denied. Acceptance is always the hardest part... ;o)
Strange, perhaps the news of the Stamp Duty break has pushed some early fence-sitters into action?
Oh and FBA, remember that rents are a direct function of wages. There will be a natural ceiling at which point rental arrears/voids will cost LLs their precious yield. Given real-term negative wage inflation for much of the UK I don't think we're too far off finding that ceiling.
Dear Mr Brit,
As I mentioned earlier to all our readers, your 'view', if it can be called that, seems very misguided insular.
I am not a letting agent, I am a sales agent, my partner deals with our lettings business.
If our firm can achieve £1200pcm for a property that a Landlord has currently rented out for £1,000pcm do you not believe it is:
a) Our duty to advise him so.
b) Get more if we can.
It is a market. Agents do not create the supply and demand, we just work within its rises and falls. Rental figures are up because demand is high. You cannot stop this and neither can I. It is our duty to get the best rents for our Landlords and the best prices for our Vendors.
As a Tenant/Buyer I apologise sincerely if this does not meet with your expectations of an Estate Agents business model for you. Your hopes and aspirations for the property market to go in your favour are influenced by many things, but not Estate Agents, like you, we simply go where there market takes us, hence my rhetorical question!
Does anyone think this may be the bottom of the sales curve?
Unfortunately your opinion offers nothing whatsoever to that debate and is frankly meaningless.
Nice to hear from you though.
So its letting agents like you Fun boy encouraging landlords to increase rent during a recession and people are short of cash. Low interest rates were meant to stimulate the economy with low rents and mortgages so people could afford to buy other stuff. Might as well put them back up and stop stealing from savers if all it is going to do is increase letting agents coffers. :(
At least we have falling house prices and rising mortgage rates. See if you discourage people from saving banks have to instead borrow the cash from else where, that means far higher borrowing costs especially with the euro crisis.
I strongly doubt first time buyers are pooring back into the market. It all sounds like the pre spring bounce propaganda has started already.
seems strange that FTB's didnt know that they had wads of cash up their shirts unitl now. The average deposit of £40,000 is a lot of sleeve rolling for the average worker.
@PofTW.
Are you an agent? I doubt it and if you are do your clients (they are the ones that pay you wages) know that you think all the houses you have on your books are overpriced?
This kind of attitude rubs off on people and if you are in the business I bet your figures are way down.
Get a life and get on with doing your job.
Seems a case for (potential) FTBs of damned if you do and damned if you dont. Ray Boulger's being quoted this morning as saying the push the Eurozone crisis is currently giving to UK mortgage rates will gather pace in the new year.
The key here is rental demand. Brit, you are a lucky, lucky dude if you have a low rent property. Every rental we take on attracts 50 or more applicants, this allows us to push for higher and still higher rents. Up and up it goes. If I spoke to your landlord Brit, I believe you would be facing a juicy fat rent hike at your renewal date or we would be pleased to say 'ta ta' to you as you go on your merry misguided insular way.
If you are in rented and your contract ends, and if you find your contract is not to be renewed, you may well find yourself the 51st person applying for that new property fresh to the rental market. I can see exactly why people are turning their heads to buying again.
Is it possible the sales market will be pushed along on the back of the high rent market? Could this be the 'bottom' of the curve? Could 2012 be the start of a more level view over the question to young people buy or rent?
E'serv seem to be pointing to increased activity. This could be the moment... I don't know..
"E.surv is also predicting that more loans were made last month to borrowers with small deposits, including first-time buyers."
so are they counting buy to let investors together with first time buyers?
I am actually thinking of selling in the New Year as I suspect in another 12 months, it will be obvious that interest rates are going to soar and fewer cheap fixed deals will be available,
I'm happy with cheap renting and saving. No rush to buy whilst house prices are falling.
I don't see any big change why people should suddenly rushing onto the market.
“More first-time buyers are rolling up their sleeves and piecing together the bigger deposits required to access high loan-to-value mortgages."
I wonder why they didn't 'roll up their sleeves' before? Idiots eh? All they had to do was roll their sleeves up and, abracadabra, they CAN afford house prices which are truly, ludicrously high and which condemn people to wage/debt slavery for the rest of their lives. What about people who typically wear tee shirts? What are they supposed to do?
“No doubt they are sick of paying astronomically high rents and having their monthly budgets ransacked by the increasing cost of living.”
Yet the banks think it is okay to lend money to buy to let 'investors' - forcing young people (keen to get on with their lives) to pay other people's mortgages for them. I do wish young people would wake up.