It was unacceptable in the 80s
...and it's happening all over again. I was an estate agent in 87, and I watched farmworkers on £80 a week take out mortgages on 1 bed shitholes, when they were living in 3 bed tied cottages for nothing.

When we took out our first mortgage in 92, we didn't borrow on 2 incomes, we borrowed on one. We assumed interest rates could rise to 13%. We bought ex-council, cos they're bigger. We bought pre 1960, cos they used decent materials.

I've seen 3 friends hand their keys back or go bankrupt last year. Job in retail, sudden illness, unexpected pregnancy. All of them on 100% mortgages based on 2 incomes, both doing overtime.

Poor fuckers.
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 17:10, 1 reply)

So very true
My house was bought for £70k in 2000. Upon divorce, it was sold for £124k eighteen months later. Aside from a general tidying up, nothing had changed. Not the walls, doors, roof or garden.

What changed?

Lending. The banks loaned more to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. Everyone became wealthy on paper....

It happens so often you'd think the government would learn lessons and impose lending restrictions.

But they didn't. Instead we'd "beaten boom and bust".
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 23 Jan 2009, 22:16, closed)