When I bought my first house three years ago, I thought things were bonkers then. Boy was I wrong. They have got so, so, so much worse during the last year, thanks to the pandemic changing people's living and working habits.
In a market where demand was already outstripping supply, that market is now pretty much at boiling point and threatening to bubble over. In the last year, house prices have risen by 10%, while many people's incomes were slashed by 20% by being put on furlough.
I strongly feel that the personal is political, and that we have to talk about how these things affect us, because they are more often than not also being felt by others who do not have as much of a platform or a voice to speak out.
I know some will say, well that's how the free market works. Demand and supply. Demand goes up, supply is low (or at least not adequate enough to meet demand) therefore prices go up. What ya gonna do about it? Well, surely that's what we have government for? To ensure that unfettered capitalism isn't left to run amok, leaving casualties in its wake? Disaster capitalism, some might call it. Although that's probably more relevant to the Tories bunging their mates cash through dodgy Covid-19 contracts.
And yes, I am complicit. My ex and I have sold our house for 45k more than what we bought it for just THREE years ago. A part of me feels very guilty about that, and I would have preferred not to accept 10k over the asking price, but I need the money to be financially independent so...I have to be complicit in a broken system.
Even then, I'm still struggling to compete with others who are buying as couples, because even though I have two sources of income, they don't equate to two people's salaries. The whole system is predicated largely on people coupling up and settling down, leaving those who don't want to, or haven't been able to, feeling like second class citizens. Not to mention the very many people who've gone through break ups as a result of the pandemic. Just saying.
I am an extremely privileged person. I have a well above average salary and an extremely decent deposit. And yet I am struggling to afford property in the area I represent, and have lived in almost my entire life. This fact makes me realise how perverse this 'game of life' has become. If I am struggling, then what does that say about others worse off than me?
This kind of growth is unsustainable. I'm regularly seeing properties go for 10k + over the asking prices (which are already ridiculous and I can barely compete with). One estate agent told me they fully expect the bubble to burst once the current crisis is over. Which presumably means lots of people will end up in negative equity but that might actually be good for the great many people who can't get on the property ladder because of obscene house price growth which outpaces the growth of wages.
What hope is there for people on below average incomes, and with significantly smaller deposits? None, so far as I can see. The old adage of 'what goes up, must come down' doesn't seem to ring true when it comes to the property market. And then governments have the nerve to wonder why fertility rates are falling. To borrow another well worn phrase, it's not rocket science. If people can't secure a roof over their heads, they will be much less inclined to bring children into the world. Go figure.
I don't know what the answer is, but it definitely isn't 'eat less avocado on toast'. You'd have to be eating a whole lot of brunch to be able to save up to an extent where you can keep up with the price growth of the housing market. And even in a year where we've been unable to eat out as much, it still won't be enough.
So for now I'm just going to keep banging my head against brick walls I can't afford, until I am inevitably forced to move out of the area, and then get castigated for doing so because local elections next year. Wouldn't that look funny on a Focus leaflet? Forced to move out of the area because house prices are too damn high.
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