Meanwhile, those in their 40s own £860 billion; in their 30s, £536 billion; and under 30s, £130 billion. This works out at £1.526 trillion in total, just 22 per cent of the market.
People in their 50s own £1.139 trillion, making up 23 per cent of the market.”
g1umo on
end the WFA, cap the pension, and make anyone with a wealth above £1.5m be liable for their own social care
Abject-Language7527 on
In another ten years nobody will be buying and the whole market collapses.
Personally, I can’t wait for the fall of capitalism.
TheFergPunk on
> Over 65s make up an increasing percentage of UK households who own their homes outright
Isn’t that to be expected as mortgages tend to get paid off over time?
ChesterKobe on
People who’ve had more time to accumulate wealth and assets have more wealth and assets, shocking news
OldPulteney on
Does this not just get inherited at some point? Massive problem is who will buy all of this housing stock
SqouzeTheSqueeze on
The same demographic that expects to pay young people minimum wage for their elderly care. I say take them for what they have.
Pandita666 on
So? People live longer, 30-60 is the same as 60-90 but the second bunch generally paid off mortgages by then. I thought the argument was with the “billionaires” – now that seems to be hard, so let’s get the middle class again.
Ok-Store-9297 on
Thank deregulation and neoliberalism for this inflation of an asset bubble that has done untold structural damage to our economy. Everyone suffers as a result of this in the end.
markeymark1971 on
Surely this doesn’t come as a shock? Most will have mortgages paid off by their late 50’s/early 60’s anyway.
Valuable-Tap-6191 on
The social care industry is going to eat most of that before it ever reaches the younger generation
Wonderful-Medium7777 on
They already are…Lloyds bank is one of the largest rental property owners.
Articles like these are ambiguous to create further division in society.
Aggravating-Day-2864 on
Its not all million pound houses….there’s a lot in the north east up to 150k….a lot around 60/80k so its not all about old people owning half the country….people drive around in 50k lease cars these days….you can buy a house for that type of money in this area
Wild_Court268 on
Or, 45% of property in the UK is owned by people under 60
Optimal-Teaching7527 on
This is because the last time a house was halfway affordable to normal people was about 20 years ago.
Born_Fee_840 on
Intetesting. Out of my group of friends – largely in our mid 30’s – like 90% of us own houses. Noones on mega money either. Is this data skewed by London? Which is pretty irrelevant to most of the country. There are 3 bedroom houses by me for just over 100k
tankiolegend on
A quick Google shows that’s just under 25% of the population. Given how a lot of elderly struggle and are also renting that’s a tiny ammount of the elderly owning more than half our houses. That’s just fucked. Only reason I fit into the 10% of under 40 owning property is my granddad didnt invest in property but put money aside for his grandkids. Im willing to bet a good percentage of those home owners haven’t done the same for their families.
achillea4 on
Surely that’s to be expected as many people don’t pay off their mortgage before hitting late 50s/60s?
systemos on
Probably doesn’t help that when most of these people bought the houses all they needed was 3k and a high five.
One_Complex6429 on
Theres a few articles out there about ownership. Whikst the average age has gone up, its only 3 years or so in the past 20 years. No where near as bad as the headline, woukd have us believe.
[how jome ownership amongst young adults has recovered since 2010
Give every young person who does not own property equity in private companies that care for elderly on the stipulation that money goes into deposits for their first home.
gogul1980 on
I’m 45. Me and wife are trying to get our mortgage paid off by 50 but we have no kids so it’s easier for us. I’ve see a lot of people building second houses in the spaces of garden that were more generous back in the 60’s and 70’s. They then sell those to pay off their houses. Quite lucrative if you have the space but newer builds are getting very mean with garden space now and so it’s harder to do. I wish we could do that but don’t have the space.
Automatic-Hope2429 on
This bias will self correct in another decade, the properties will either move through their family tree or be sold to pay for care.
NafariousJabberWooki on
(A) Older people have paid their Mortgage. That’s just obvious.
(B) how many under 60’s own 35 houses? The I wanna be a landlord movement isn’t so old.
One_Complex6429 on
In that case, there are a lot of young people due to inherit their wealth in the next few years..why are they whining?
jeanclaudebrowncloud on
I’ll never be able to tell my parents I own my own home. Because the only way I’ll ever own a home is if they die and I get their house.
Prudent-Pool5474 on
I get both sides of this but people usually only argue one.
They bought the house. Paid it off over decades. Maintained it, it’s legally and morally theirs. You can’t just turn around at 70 and say right off you go, downsize now, that’s basically punishing people for doing everything right. There’s also the emotional side thaaat it’s their home, memories, stability etc.
*BUT* at the same time there’s a practical reality that’s hard to ignore. You’ve got single/alone people in 4 bed houses while families are squeezed into smaller places or can’t get on the ladder at all. At some point it does become inefficient use of housing stock especially in areas with shortages. On my street I have 4 old people above 65 who live alone in 4 bed houses with giant gardens that they can’t even maintain and deffo do not use even half the rooms whilst on my same street there are young couples in shared accommodation and families of four squeezed into 2 beds. So my street is a whole mix.
The real issue isn’t force old people out as that’s obvi extreme and unfair, it’s theirs. It’s more that there’s no incentive or system that makes downsizing actually appealing or easy. Moving is expensive, stressful, feels like a downgrade so people just stay put even if they don’t need the space, because they don’t. So they absolutely have the right to keep their homes. But it’s also fair to question whether the current setup makes sense long term and whether there should be better ways to encourage people to move into housing that actually fits their stage of life.
It’s honestly a tough thing to even think about as it’s unfair to both sides.
UmAhkchuallySweaty on
‘Older people have more assets’,
Well I am shooketh
zippyzebra1 on
Millennials on course to be the richest generation ever and not having had to lift a finger.
Ok-Inflation4310 on
You young ones can just hang on for 20 odd years and we’ll all be dead so you can have the pick of houses.
Due_Two_2 on
If the government removed stamp duty for those downsizing it would unlock a chunk of the property market. Currently there’s a swathe of 60+ empty nesters who can’t afford to move down give the cost of stamp duty taken out of their capital sale. Why move when the government take a big %. There has to be a change here to get things moving at both ends.
fordesc16883 on
Saw headline, thought comments would be calling for the elderly to be punished/stripped of assets.Â
Read comments – did not disappoint.Â
Ok-Cellist7629 on
So about 30% of the population are less than 20 years old. We can probably assume that no one is complaining that people who are mostly still in education are not homeowners.
Of the remaining 70%, just under half are over 60.
Those are the people who have worked for longest.
So what’s the actual issue here? That some people over 20 haven’t yet earned enough to buy a house?
jasonbirder on
This doesn’t seem particularly outlandish –
55 million over 18’s, a quarter of them are over 65
If they own 50% of property…that seems about right given property ownership scales with age…
(You’re obviously more likely to own a house at 65 than 18 aren’t you)
34 Comments
“Baby boomers now own the majority of the country’s housing wealth, new analysis shows, as younger generations are[ waiting increasingly longer to get on the property ladder.](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/interest-rates-housing-mortgages-iran-b2947027.html)
Data from Savills shows that those aged 60 and over own 55 per cent of the UK’s [housing wealth](https://www.independent.co.uk/money/uk-housing-market-prices-mortgage-rents-ons-iran-b2945980.html), while those aged 40 and under own only 10 per cent – demonstrating a widening generational gap.
The over-60s own a record £3.84 trillion [without mortgages](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/house-prices-uk-london-change-b2896637.html), including main and buy-to-let. On main homes alone, they own £2.925 trillion outright. This is up £35 billion on just the year prior, as the figure continues to hit new highs.
Meanwhile, those in their 40s own £860 billion; in their 30s, £536 billion; and under 30s, £130 billion. This works out at £1.526 trillion in total, just 22 per cent of the market.
People in their 50s own £1.139 trillion, making up 23 per cent of the market.”
end the WFA, cap the pension, and make anyone with a wealth above £1.5m be liable for their own social care
In another ten years nobody will be buying and the whole market collapses.
Personally, I can’t wait for the fall of capitalism.
> Over 65s make up an increasing percentage of UK households who own their homes outright
Isn’t that to be expected as mortgages tend to get paid off over time?
People who’ve had more time to accumulate wealth and assets have more wealth and assets, shocking news
Does this not just get inherited at some point? Massive problem is who will buy all of this housing stock
The same demographic that expects to pay young people minimum wage for their elderly care. I say take them for what they have.
So? People live longer, 30-60 is the same as 60-90 but the second bunch generally paid off mortgages by then. I thought the argument was with the “billionaires” – now that seems to be hard, so let’s get the middle class again.
Thank deregulation and neoliberalism for this inflation of an asset bubble that has done untold structural damage to our economy. Everyone suffers as a result of this in the end.
Surely this doesn’t come as a shock? Most will have mortgages paid off by their late 50’s/early 60’s anyway.
The social care industry is going to eat most of that before it ever reaches the younger generation
They already are…Lloyds bank is one of the largest rental property owners.
Articles like these are ambiguous to create further division in society.
Its not all million pound houses….there’s a lot in the north east up to 150k….a lot around 60/80k so its not all about old people owning half the country….people drive around in 50k lease cars these days….you can buy a house for that type of money in this area
Or, 45% of property in the UK is owned by people under 60
This is because the last time a house was halfway affordable to normal people was about 20 years ago.
Intetesting. Out of my group of friends – largely in our mid 30’s – like 90% of us own houses. Noones on mega money either. Is this data skewed by London? Which is pretty irrelevant to most of the country. There are 3 bedroom houses by me for just over 100k
A quick Google shows that’s just under 25% of the population. Given how a lot of elderly struggle and are also renting that’s a tiny ammount of the elderly owning more than half our houses. That’s just fucked. Only reason I fit into the 10% of under 40 owning property is my granddad didnt invest in property but put money aside for his grandkids. Im willing to bet a good percentage of those home owners haven’t done the same for their families.
Surely that’s to be expected as many people don’t pay off their mortgage before hitting late 50s/60s?
Probably doesn’t help that when most of these people bought the houses all they needed was 3k and a high five.
Theres a few articles out there about ownership. Whikst the average age has gone up, its only 3 years or so in the past 20 years. No where near as bad as the headline, woukd have us believe.
[how jome ownership amongst young adults has recovered since 2010
(https://ifs.org.uk/articles/homeownership-young-adults-has-recovered-its-2010-level)
Give every young person who does not own property equity in private companies that care for elderly on the stipulation that money goes into deposits for their first home.
I’m 45. Me and wife are trying to get our mortgage paid off by 50 but we have no kids so it’s easier for us. I’ve see a lot of people building second houses in the spaces of garden that were more generous back in the 60’s and 70’s. They then sell those to pay off their houses. Quite lucrative if you have the space but newer builds are getting very mean with garden space now and so it’s harder to do. I wish we could do that but don’t have the space.
This bias will self correct in another decade, the properties will either move through their family tree or be sold to pay for care.
(A) Older people have paid their Mortgage. That’s just obvious.
(B) how many under 60’s own 35 houses? The I wanna be a landlord movement isn’t so old.
In that case, there are a lot of young people due to inherit their wealth in the next few years..why are they whining?
I’ll never be able to tell my parents I own my own home. Because the only way I’ll ever own a home is if they die and I get their house.
I get both sides of this but people usually only argue one.
They bought the house. Paid it off over decades. Maintained it, it’s legally and morally theirs. You can’t just turn around at 70 and say right off you go, downsize now, that’s basically punishing people for doing everything right. There’s also the emotional side thaaat it’s their home, memories, stability etc.
*BUT* at the same time there’s a practical reality that’s hard to ignore. You’ve got single/alone people in 4 bed houses while families are squeezed into smaller places or can’t get on the ladder at all. At some point it does become inefficient use of housing stock especially in areas with shortages. On my street I have 4 old people above 65 who live alone in 4 bed houses with giant gardens that they can’t even maintain and deffo do not use even half the rooms whilst on my same street there are young couples in shared accommodation and families of four squeezed into 2 beds. So my street is a whole mix.
The real issue isn’t force old people out as that’s obvi extreme and unfair, it’s theirs. It’s more that there’s no incentive or system that makes downsizing actually appealing or easy. Moving is expensive, stressful, feels like a downgrade so people just stay put even if they don’t need the space, because they don’t. So they absolutely have the right to keep their homes. But it’s also fair to question whether the current setup makes sense long term and whether there should be better ways to encourage people to move into housing that actually fits their stage of life.
It’s honestly a tough thing to even think about as it’s unfair to both sides.
‘Older people have more assets’,
Well I am shooketh
Millennials on course to be the richest generation ever and not having had to lift a finger.
You young ones can just hang on for 20 odd years and we’ll all be dead so you can have the pick of houses.
If the government removed stamp duty for those downsizing it would unlock a chunk of the property market. Currently there’s a swathe of 60+ empty nesters who can’t afford to move down give the cost of stamp duty taken out of their capital sale. Why move when the government take a big %. There has to be a change here to get things moving at both ends.
Saw headline, thought comments would be calling for the elderly to be punished/stripped of assets.Â
Read comments – did not disappoint.Â
So about 30% of the population are less than 20 years old. We can probably assume that no one is complaining that people who are mostly still in education are not homeowners.
Of the remaining 70%, just under half are over 60.
Those are the people who have worked for longest.
So what’s the actual issue here? That some people over 20 haven’t yet earned enough to buy a house?
This doesn’t seem particularly outlandish –
55 million over 18’s, a quarter of them are over 65
If they own 50% of property…that seems about right given property ownership scales with age…
(You’re obviously more likely to own a house at 65 than 18 aren’t you)