This week our Star Letter goes to Dougie for his comment under the story: Parliament to consider using rent as mortgage evidence for FTBs
He writes: “I have clients in London paying average rents of over £2,000 pcm but who can’t get a mortgage costing £980pm even with a 10 to 15% deposit because the lenders say it’s unaffordable (under government guidance on affordability). If the tenants have paid this kind of rent for a few years and all the normal bills without any problem, it seems silly to say this.
“I accept interest rates will increase but not to allow the next generation to purchase a property if they wish to, seems stupid. This is just building up higher and higher debt on rent without end, student loans and more. At least in retirement a mortgage debt will have finished or built up an amount of equity in a property which could be used to downsize or help with care costs.
“If we do nothing our children in the future will have much reduced pensions and wealth than the older generation, many of whom had access to much better pensions and reasonable housing costs and free student education.
“We all hope our children will have a better, more rewarding life than ourselves but currently we are handing them a poisoned chalice of trillions of pounds of our debt and worse income (many more people are now self-employed or on zero-hours’ contracts), worthless pensions, and poor or shared housing.”
