Snakes and Property Ladders

It was a different era.

We think today that we are in austerity measures but imagine how we would have coped in the immediate Post War period when rationing of staples and essentials persisted  and was only ended in the early part of 1950.

The TV documentary, broadcast  in more recent years, where a family volunteered to be subject to a wartime lifestyle in all its authenticity showed that the generation of the time was made of more sturdy stuff  or was it just down to low expectations and modest, within means living? 

It was then a minority who were fortunate enough or wealthy enough to own their own home outright with the main population residing in private rented or the growing council house sectors. My parents' first matrimonial home was occupied as local authority tenants.This was all that was available to them and within a sustainable and affordable budget. 

It was a long term project and investment to save up a deposit for the outright purchase of a house, and very much determined by whether the local Bank Manager or Building Society Chief Executive either liked the look of you or was acquainted with your family, on or off the Golf course.

This contrasts sharply and soberly with the ability in the 2000's, in particular, to secure a mortgage to the extent of 120% of the purchase price with very little verification of ability to meet such a long term commitment. There were Media stories of fantastical income multipliers being used to magically summon up the full monies for a purchase and for loosely associated groups ,associates or casual acquaintances to pool their notional gross incomes if such an amalgamated co-operative was the only way to get a foot on the rapidly extending, beyond reach, property ladder.

An old school friend taking his first permanent job after University got together and formed a financial alliance with two fellow graduates. This allowed them to acquire a rather abused and sorry former council house in a reasonable district of Ashford, Kent. I remember him describing how the back door had  the largest dog-flap ever that made a mockery of any other domestic security arrangements- unless of course the largest ever dog flap was a tight fit for the largest ever Doberman or Rottweiler.

My friend and his fellow owner occupier mortgagees were thrilled with their move on the market. The female and other male in his household got on with being grown ups with weekends spent travelling around and returning from the DIY Megastores and garden centres. The house slowly turned from derelict hovel to a comfortable home. One third ownership of any equity after the debt was a scary but altogether good feeling.

The almost 1970's TV sit com reality of the co-habitation went extremely well. That was until my friend and the lady of the house became a romantic item. Technical common law status came into play and the now 60% majority holding of any equity after the debt began to open up fissures in the relationship with the now sole male. There may have been an underlying and festering situation anyway given the mantra that three is always a crowd. The triumvirate fractured and it was agreed, without recourse to lawyers that the couple would buy out the share of the lone party. A Valuer was called in to advise and within a few weeks the deed was done and the transfer deed was signed and sealed.

Within a few short years even the new romantics foundered but by then the property market had accelerated so much that the initial investment was now very, very enhanced. With a reluctant but inevitable outcome both left with, for a broken heart and a boxful of sentimental mix-tapes , a nice pocketful of cash. This was the foundation for my friend to be able to afford that once thought out of reach house, a thatched former roadside coaching house in the evocatively named Nomansland in deepest rural Devon. Ah, such were the realities of ascending the property ladder.

The current situation could be no more different.The credit crisis of 2008 persists and mortgages are very hard to come by if you need to borrow more than 75% of the purchase price and impossible if there is any blemish on your credit score which is becoming as crucial to life as your blood group. It is now a fact that one in six of the UK households are in rented housing and owner occupation may become a trend of the past and not at all aspirational in any way.