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People dream of getting on the property ladder so they can build families and grow their wealth. Many start off with a small home, then sell it later for a profit to get a nicer one. You may remember the show Property Ladder in the early 2000s that had home renovators improving houses for a profit just for this reason.
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But these days, it’s hard to even get on the first rung if you weren’t born into capital, especially if your goal is to live in London. The ladder has been pulled up so high that it’s really hard to reach it. And this rise in mortgage costs is also pushing up the rent prices.
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To get even a studio apartment in central London, the average rent is over £975. At the current national minimum wage, £1,396/month on average, it would cost just over 2/3rds of your monthly wage just to pay rent! How could you raise a family on that, even with both parents working?
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It’s completely unaffordable and unsustainable. A CBI survey last year showed that the cost of living in London is so high that workers are quitting their jobs because their wages don’t pay enough to allow them to live near it. Even those willing to commute or have flex time schedules are facing difficulties as rents rise.
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Where does this leave people who want to hop on the property ladder? They could wait for the market to crash, but that’s not very predictable. Not only that, but that is a poor excuse to enter the market. There are plenty of empty houses. As soon as the price starts dropping, we bet there will be a lot of foreign investors with ready money eager to snatch up a deal.
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We talked about the problems getting a loan last week. You could get a bunch of housemates and share the mortgage, which even older generations are doing to save costs on rent, but if you’re trying to start a family that’s not an ideal situation.
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It wasn’t easy for us either. It was a struggle to find a house that we thought would work well for this contest. It had to be in a good location, suitable for someone who wants to have kids, easy enough to renovate into a proper modern home, and at a price that we could feasibly sell enough tickets before our contest deadline to sell the home. We think we got a really good one!
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People need a place to live they can call their own. This isn’t just a matter of dignity. It’s a matter of survival and life satisfaction. It’s a matter of becoming the best people that we can be. It’s impossible to feel like you belong to a community or to raise a family if you cannot put down roots. The easiest way to do that is to own a home.
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It is our hope that these housing contests take off so that people do have a chance to get onto the property ladder while they still have an opportunity.
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And we hope to lead the way to make it happen. So, try your chances at our skill competition and see if you get lucky!
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