Rescuing student son from a dive
MANY parents are attracted to buy-to-let as a way of helping their children keep rents to a minimum, or simply offering them a step on to the homeownership ladder.
Today’s fiftysomethings, who always aspired to home ownership and found it comparatively easy to achieve, are now realising that their children, even if they have a good job, may never be able to own a property.
‘It’s a huge social problem,’ says mother-of-four Judy Fishel. ‘The housing situation in this country is a mess. The Government needs to act.’
Last year Judy, 56, a former nurse, and her husband Simon, 59, a doctor specialising in IVF, bought a two-bedroom flat for £260,000 in the upmarket One Park West development on Liverpool’s waterfront.
This was primarily because when their third child, Bobby, 19, started his business and law degree at Liverpool University last year the only accommodation available was costly and poor. Judy says: ‘Because of the rush to get into university ahead of the £149 a week for private accommodation. That money got him a box-room with no natural light and corridors that stank. It was a horrible dive.’
The family, who live in Nottingham, decided to buy the One Park West flat as an alternative, and Bobby moved in around Christmas. Judy says: ‘We got a good mortgage rate of under three per cent and in future we can let it out. It is central and I think it will hold its value.’
The flat will play a part in Judy and Simon’s aim to help all their four children eventually to buy their own homes. ‘Our eldest two are in good jobs but even so, they would struggle to get a deposit together,’ says Judy.
‘And how much more difficult will that be for our youngest, Savannah, who is 15? She will have to go through university paying the full tuition fees.
‘Today’s youngsters start out with so much debt, and the prices of properties are that much higher. Simon and I have grown up thinking that owning is better than renting and that’s what we want for our children, too – it’s our priority. After that, they’re on their own.’