Those who can get on ‘the housing ladder’ without significant parental help are few and far between. It’s not likely to get any easier. Nationwide plans to limit the help that first time buyers can get, taking us back to the 60’s and 70’s, when you needed a building society account with years of savings and a dad who played golf with the local manager to have the sniff of a loan to buy your £5,000 house. Yet my grandparents didn’t own their own home until they were both 65. And as previously rehearsed, I regret my own 1980s, Thatcherine (sic) rush to get a career and a mortgage which cut short my suntanned life as a holiday rep.. In the words of Paul Simon, ‘slow down, you move too fast’. Don’t be afraid to carry on Feelin’ Groovy for a few more years.
“John Lewis foray into BTR could result in losses of £57m”
I did predict a while ago that Waitrose Homes rather than Waitrose Home Deliveries could be the future. John Lewis were probably the most benign big business to decide to go into the housing rental market, a move which could swing things away from the unpredictability of the mass of private landlords who dominate the sector.
