So here’s the thing. Parents worry that their kids will never get on the housing ladder, unless:
The latter, of course, is great in theory as long as it’s not our house price which falls because they’re letting anyone who asks put up 500 new-builds in the field at the bottom of our garden. It’s a another dilemna.
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.
In the US (and, randomly, Denmark) it’s the norm to fix-rate your mortgage for the life of your mortgage. For us and most others, it’s now usual to fix your mortgage rate, but only for a couple or five years at most.
It’s not just spiralling interest rates which are affecting buy to lets. These have meant that many with mortgages are letting at a loss, as rents don’t cover their payments any more.