Help With Paying The Rent

[iom_cb]

You're looking at £400pcm usually just for a room in a house-share, then your bills etc, never mind saving for a mortgage! I'd really like to just have my own modest flat in Douglas, but that seems very much out of my reach at the moment. Many of my friends, all in their early twenties, live at home still because of the cost of renting somewhere.

 

I think £100 p/w is quite cheap for something new build and reasonably well equipped. You would pay that in Manchester for an equivalent Dandara built apartment.

 

I second that I was paying pretty much that amount for a shite 1 bedroom flat and that was over 15 years ago, you should think yerself quite fortunate to only have to pay £100 per week.

 

£100p/w is for a ROOM, not a flat. You're looking at £600pcm for a flat these days. I will also point out, that 15 years ago you could get 100% mortgages!!!!!

[SJR]

As a young single person on the island I find rents prohibitively expensive to the point that I'm going to have to move back home.

 

You're looking at £400pcm usually just for a room in a house-share, then your bills etc, never mind saving for a mortgage! I'd really like to just have my own modest flat in Douglas, but that seems very much out of my reach at the moment. Many of my friends, all in their early twenties, live at home still because of the cost of renting somewhere.

 

I'd like to see "rent-to-buy" schemes encouraged on the island, I think it would help considerably.

Your mates could afford to move out from home, they just don't want to because of the hit on their disposable income (flash car/holidays/whatever). 7k maximum including bills, is possible even on minimum wage (~12k/year). OK you may not be able to save, but that's on minimum wage - I'm guessing they're not. Whilst it might be that they're living at home to save for a mortgage, it's a lifestyle choice - they aren't priced out of the market.

Agreed.Too much whinging these days.When I was renting 25 years ago flats were few and far between and when I found one it cost 45% of income.Of course we didn't have to have the latest I-Phone every six months.However no-one helped you onto the housing ladder.Young Manx people today have a golden window of opportunity.House prices have to fall at least 30% in the next couple of years even without the effects of inflation (running at 5% plus)Rents today are at the most affordable EVER as there are masses of empty flats.Save and get a second job and in a few years you will have a sizable deposit.ANYONE who wants to be a First-Time Buyer in the current economic climate is stark staring mad.And remember any such Government sponsored scheme is aimed at creating a demand to keep the market moving.

[hboy]

As a young single person on the island I find rents prohibitively expensive to the point that I'm going to have to move back home.

 

You're looking at £400pcm usually just for a room in a house-share, then your bills etc, never mind saving for a mortgage! I'd really like to just have my own modest flat in Douglas, but that seems very much out of my reach at the moment. Many of my friends, all in their early twenties, live at home still because of the cost of renting somewhere.

 

I'd like to see "rent-to-buy" schemes encouraged on the island, I think it would help considerably.

Your mates could afford to move out from home, they just don't want to because of the hit on their disposable income (flash car/holidays/whatever). 7k maximum including bills, is possible even on minimum wage (~12k/year). OK you may not be able to save, but that's on minimum wage - I'm guessing they're not. Whilst it might be that they're living at home to save for a mortgage, it's a lifestyle choice - they aren't priced out of the market.

Agreed.Too much whinging these days.When I was renting 25 years ago flats were few and far between and when I found one it cost 45% of income.Of course we didn't have to have the latest I-Phone every six months.However no-one helped you onto the housing ladder.Young Manx people today have a golden window of opportunity.House prices have to fall at least 30% in the next couple of years even without the effects of inflation (running at 5% plus)Rents today are at the most affordable EVER as there are masses of empty flats.Save and get a second job and in a few years you will have a sizable deposit.ANYONE who wants to be a First-Time Buyer in the current economic climate is stark staring mad.And remember any such Government sponsored scheme is aimed at creating a demand to keep the market moving.

 

I can't see where IOM CB is going as I think £100 a week is cheap even if it's for shared living. I can guess which block your in with a layout like that and to be fair I think your stupid not to be re-negotiating if your not happy. They are finding it hard to fill units there and I'm sure if you threatened to bugger off they'd cut you a deal. But I still don't think you are paying too much for new build reasonably well fitted accommodation.

[Blade Runner]

Bottom line is that it has always been hard to take that first step onto the ladder, I remember when Dandara first built here in Farmhill and 3 bed semis were £50k, seemed a very high price at the time but when you actually cut down on all your luxuries you can and will afford to get a house.

 

SJR is quite right, do not buy ATM and probably not for about 3-4 years until things pan out with the Vat loss but at the end of the day you will have to make massive sacrifices to get on.

 

No holidays for 9 years in my case and a mobile phone?, Sky? dont be daft..............

[Merkin]

This thread is verging on retarded. How much do you think it costs to buy or build a house? On top of this, they have to be completely redecorated every few years at the landlords expense. There must be a minimum of 5% return on your investment = high rents.

 

Stop jazzing so much cash on sky TV, smoking, mobile phones and holidays.

[Lost Login]

£100p/w is for a ROOM, not a flat. You're looking at £600pcm for a flat these days. I will also point out, that 15 years ago you could get 100% mortgages!!!!!

 

£100 a room is what I roughly paid a month for a bedsit room 30 years ago when I started work on a touch over £3,000.

 

To me is seems prices have inflated but probably less than at wage inflation. The difference being when I was young we were happy to rent and did not expect to buy a house as soon as we started earning. We were also not so materialistic so did not expect to also have a car as soon as we past our test, if we got a car we bought old banger, we did not expect to have the latest gizmos.

 

It was tough saving for a deposit whilst renting but then having bought a house it still remained tough as the mortgage was in excess of the rent but I also had to now pay the maintenance costs. I would almost say if you can not afford to rent and save you can not really afford to buy a house especially as I expect that many who complain that thet presently can not buy will complain if they do and are then hit by negative equity or interest rate rises in the future

[gazza]

£100p/w is for a ROOM, not a flat. You're looking at £600pcm for a flat these days. I will also point out, that 15 years ago you could get 100% mortgages!!!!!

 

In 1990 I took out my first mortgage - it was for £50,000 and the interest rate was 12% which meant I was paying about £9,000 a year in repayments when I was earning about £18,000 a year in income. £100 p/w is nothing compared to current earnings. I reckon that with mortgage rates at base plus around 3% to be generous you are borrowing at maximum interest rates of around 4% making the repayments 3 times less than I was making 20 years ago. Which makes a £150,000 mortgage about the same proportionate cost. £100 a week is absolutely nothing in comparison to average income in the Isle of Man.

 

The problem is you have never had to give up things to work towards what you really want. I had 5 years of no holidays and all the extra cash I had being spent on essential plastering and building work and renovations. Not on flatscreen TVs, £10,000 bathrooms and expensive holidays.

 

heard many many storys of what you have just said.

Thing is when did we suddanly decide that we all had to own a house, but did not want to work to get there, when did we all become so greedy that we wanted everything,

 

The problem we have no is getting people to understand that they cant have everything.

To be honest even if the cuts are made and people have reduced income, will we be really that worse off, yes no nice car, no brand new TV and no Hol in the sun 2 times a year. Its not going to kill them

People have just got to relises that there proitys are in life i guess. But to take away something they have nealy allways had is not easy,

but i think the sooner people step back and understand what is really needed.

[Fulltide]

£100p/w is for a ROOM, not a flat. You're looking at £600pcm for a flat these days. I will also point out, that 15 years ago you could get 100% mortgages!!!!!

 

£100 a room is what I roughly paid for a bedsit room 30 years ago when I started work on a touch over £3,000.

 

To me is seems prices have inflated but probably less than at wage inflation. The difference being when I was young we were happy to rent and did not expect to buy a house as soon as we started earning. We were also not so materialistic so did not expect to also have a car as soon as we past our test, if we got a car we bought old banger, we did not expect to have the latest gizmos.

 

It was tough saving for a deposit whilst renting but then having bought a house it still remained tough as the mortgage was in excess of the rent but I also had to now pay the maintenance costs. I would almost say if you can not afford to rent and save you can not really afford to buy a house especially as I expect that many who complain that thet presently can not buy will complain if they do and are then hit by negative equity or interest rate rises in the future

 

Good Evening

 

If the above includes full board and all washing etc then perhaps but still appears steep however -

 

I am a little confused - £100 per week in 1981 for a room or £100 per month (even £100 per month in 81 is very much on the steep side - if so I feel you were rather unlucky) for said room? At £100 per week it must have been one hell of a room infact it must have been the top floor/suite of some bolshy hotel on the Island in 1981. If (and I stress if) rent at around £5k a year and you were only earning £3k per year and still managed to save a deposit - I am astonished - you should start selling e-books on ebay - and if true you should be the next chief minister.

 

I was poor at sums at school but I was reasonable at math - apologies if you have made a mistake and no harm meant.

 

Wow!Please tell

[Non-Believer]

I can well remember 1981 on the IoM......With the possible exception of Douglas, the Great Capital, You could have rented a town for £100 per week, much less a room.........I remember most people at the time saw £100 a week as something that could only be worked towards or dreamed of, I was certainly one of them.....ah, days in squalor, eh......? Welcome back......

[VinnieK]

Thing is when did we suddanly decide that we all had to own a house, but did not want to work to get there, when did we all become so greedy that we wanted everything,

 

The problem we have no is getting people to understand that they cant have everything.

To be honest even if the cuts are made and people have reduced income, will we be really that worse off, yes no nice car, no brand new TV and no Hol in the sun 2 times a year. Its not going to kill them

People have just got to relises that there proitys are in life i guess. But to take away something they have nealy allways had is not easy,

 

I know that it can't be relied on too far, but the 2006/07 Household Income and Expenditure Survey makes interesting reading. On average the weekly household expenditure is £600. About £100, or 17% of that goes on consumables which could be easily curtailed: Booze, Fags, Restaurants/catering services, Leisure club subscriptions, holidays, mobile phones, satellite TV, games consoles and games, chocolate and confectionary, jewellery, hairdressing/salons, cakes and puddings, and so on. In fact, the single biggest expenditure is listed under the category 'recreation and culture'.

 

Over a third of respondants had more than one car, over a third had a games console, two thirds had a satellite dish, and 90% had a mobile phone.

 

Overall, 72.2% owned a home or were buying one with a mortgage, and a further 15.9% of people in local authority housing (leaving just over 10% in the rental sector). Interestingly, there's not that big a gap between the different income brackets: 68% in the second quartile of income owned their homes or were buying one with a mortgage, compared with 78% in the third quartile and 55% in the lowest.

 

Okay, such surveys are subject to distortion and depend heavily on the sampling it's based on, but I think it does go someway to emphasising the point you're making, which I do think is important: namely, that although wages have increased, so has the range of crap we can spend it on, and that we've ended up expecting these things to the point where going without is nearly considered a genuine sacrifice (and I'm as guilty of it as anyone!).

 

Such is the problem with a consumer society, where so much is measured by the consumption of goods and services and in particular non-essentials. We've come to measure ourselves and the quality of our lives, at least in part, by the amount of crap we can consume, and progress is viewed as spending an ever increasing amount of money on ever less essential tat. The idea of even acknowledging that you might not be able to afford the standard array of non-essential goods, or might not be able to afford a house and should stick with what you can pay for is anathema - hence the number of absurd 100% mortgages doled out in the 90's and the fact that the average UK resident has a credit card debt of about three and a half grand.

 

To go without is, in our minds, to accept that we're somehow less of a success or leading a less fulfilling life than the next guy who owns the Knight Rider themed ice cream maker and whichever mobile phone which has the most stylish advertising campaign. In effect we've become the bratty kids who know that they desperately want a particular pair of trainers, and who are prepared to sulk until we get them, but can't for the life of us say why. So it is with houses. Today the perception is that it's near unthinkable to be renting beyond the age of thirty, and that if you so much as think of having a child in rented accomodation then they will probably grow up to be serial killers or end up dying whilst playing weird sexual games by themselves.

[Lost Login]

£100p/w is for a ROOM, not a flat. You're looking at £600pcm for a flat these days. I will also point out, that 15 years ago you could get 100% mortgages!!!!!

 

£100 a room is what I roughly paid for a bedsit room 30 years ago when I started work on a touch over £3,000.

 

To me is seems prices have inflated but probably less than at wage inflation. The difference being when I was young we were happy to rent and did not expect to buy a house as soon as we started earning. We were also not so materialistic so did not expect to also have a car as soon as we past our test, if we got a car we bought old banger, we did not expect to have the latest gizmos.

 

It was tough saving for a deposit whilst renting but then having bought a house it still remained tough as the mortgage was in excess of the rent but I also had to now pay the maintenance costs. I would almost say if you can not afford to rent and save you can not really afford to buy a house especially as I expect that many who complain that thet presently can not buy will complain if they do and are then hit by negative equity or interest rate rises in the future

 

Good Evening

 

If the above includes full board and all washing etc then perhaps but still appears steep however -

 

I am a little confused - £100 per week in 1981 for a room or £100 per month (even £100 per month in 81 is very much on the steep side - if so I feel you were rather unlucky) for said room? At £100 per week it must have been one hell of a room infact it must have been the top floor/suite of some bolshy hotel on the Island in 1981. If (and I stress if) rent at around £5k a year and you were only earning £3k per year and still managed to save a deposit - I am astonished - you should start selling e-books on ebay - and if true you should be the next chief minister.

 

I was poor at sums at school but I was reasonable at math - apologies if you have made a mistake and no harm meant.

 

Wow!Please tell

 

Sorry it was £100 a month. I have edited the above post. 5 Years later it was £130 a month and by then it was a one bedroom "flat". Had my own kitchen but had to share bathroom and gas and electric was via the 50p meter. Heating was gas fire in the living room only.

 

This was across and was the going rate at the time. It was several years later before I started saving. At that time it was very much hand to mouth existence

[asitis]

We recently tried to help our son onto the housing ladder by helping him with mortgage security. We tried to buy a new build appt in Douglas. When we got to the contract stages we found that the appt he had chosen was owned by an Irish property speculator and the deal was drawn up where we had to pay the agreed purchase price in two pieces, a lump sum to Dandara and £25,000 to the property speculator who had purchased 17 appts off plan but had not yet paid for them and the 25k was his premium. We pulled out and told them where to go !

 

This is just one of the hurdles first time buyers face and something which Govt should address !! whilst letting Dandara build all over the island.

[Grianane]

Rented in the early 80's and bought my first 2 bedroom home for £18000 in 1983 deposit financed by working all the hours god gave in the Cave, MGM and anywhere else needing bar staff. Even then it was 10 years before I left the rock on any kind of holiday, only ever bought second-hand cars (and then only when forced if last car was beyond economic repair) and the mortgage was almost half of our total joint income.

 

Merkin is right - dump the unnecessary electronic crap, cancel sky, switch off your iPhone, stop pissing your money against the wall and get a life. Your have to work to achieve your own home, its not a god given right and it shouldn't be given to you by the state.

[Lost Login]

Rented in the early 80's and bought my first 2 bedroom home for £18000 in 1983 deposit financed by working all the hours god gave in the Cave, MGM and anywhere else needing bar staff. Even then it was 10 years before I left the rock on any kind of holiday, only ever bought second-hand cars (and then only when forced if last car was beyond economic repair) and the mortgage was almost half of our total joint income.

 

Merkin is right - dump the unnecessary electronic crap, cancel sky, switch off your iPhone, stop pissing your money against the wall and get a life. Your have to work to achieve your own home, its not a god given right and it shouldn't be given to you by the state.

 

I got my first car I think when I was 26, first house at 28 and first foreign holiday again late 20's and only then because we were given free accomodation from a friend. Deposit for the house was roughly six months gross salary.

 

OK I accept now that I have been fairly lucky with low interest rates and house prices had not increased too badly but equally like many others I appreciated that I had to work to save up to buy a house and it would take time. That seems to no longer be the mindset of many and it now appears to be the mindset of many that you should expect to be able to buy as soon as you start work. Some of our politicians are bad for peddling this basically sugessting it is a human right to be able to afford to buy your own house. I agree there should be a right to expect housing but whether that is rented or bought is irrelevent as long as you can afford even if that means for going Sky, foreign holidays, twice weekly nights on the booze etc

[hboy]

Some of our politicians are bad for peddling this basically sugessting it is a human right to be able to afford to buy your own house.

 

It's not that - they just really love handing our money out like sweeties so that voters think that they are great blokes and so that people will flock around them and kiss their idiot arses when they go out in public and so that they can pretend to be real big men in front of their property developer mates. This is why our economy is totally shagged because they can't simply leave it all alone and stop tinkering with it in order to keep themselves in their stupid jobs and keep their already colossally wealthy developer friends even more colossally wealthy.

 

The housing market is dead and I have not heard one person actually able to explain why it still seems to be superficially holding up despite the completely obvious fact that nothing is shifting, that lots of apartments are empty and that very few transactions are going through. The only logical explanation is government intervention like this and like the DHSS renting tons of empty new builds in Douglas to house their claimants in order to give certain developers the means of covering costs, and stupid first time buyer schemes. Government also owns a big chunk of commercial property in Douglas that just sits there housing businesses on preferential rates.

 

It's all bullshit and they should stop tinkering around with our money keeping this festering bubble from bursting as it should have around 3 years ago.