I'm a Gen Zer living and working in England. Getting on the housing ladder feels impossible here, and not buying Starbucks won't help.
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images
- Adam England is a full-time freelance writer who has two degrees and makes decent money.
- Economic headwinds and rising house prices have left Gen Zers in an especially difficult situation.
- England can't imagine the security of buying a house or growing his savings.
I've been working since I was barely in my teens, first with a morning paper route then part-time in retail during my studies.
I'm three years older than my parents were when they bought their first house in 1995 at the age of 21.
I make on average £3,000 a month as a freelance writer, roughly £500 above the monthly median wage in my area, according to PayScale, and still, the prospect of buying a house with my partner feels completely unachievable.
Gen Z people living in Britain are suffering a unique set of economic challenges
I was the first in my family to go to university and consequently racked up almost £65,000, or around $80,000, in student-loan debt.
To attend university, I took out both tuition fees and maintenance loans — the maintenance loan paid for my accommodation but little else. I worked part-time in retail and as a freelance writer during my studies.
After graduating in 2020, I freelanced full time while living on my own. England was in and out of lockdown and I managed to save £5,000 thanks to a lack of expenses aside from rent and utilities.
I started my master's degree in 2021 and took out another student loan. It covered my tuition fees but not all of my accommodation, so I had to dip into the money I'd saved the previous year.
I owe nearly $80,000 in student debt
Between both degrees, as of September 11, I owe £64,834.46 in student loans, with an interest rate of 7.3%. Before June, the interest rate was 12%, but the government has reduced it due to the cost-of-living crisis.
For British students in the UK, tuition fees are currently capped at £9,250 a year. In 2006, tuition at a UK university cost an average of £3,000 a year, according to the House of Commons Library. In 1998, when tuition fees were first introduced, I'd have been paying £1,000.
The UK's cost-of-living crisis has a greater impact on younger generations
The UK has been in a cost-of-living crisis since 2021. The crisis is the fall of disposable incomes in the UK as a result of the national and global rise in inflation, COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the war in Ukraine.
While everyone will be affected to some degree, young people — who are more likely to have lower incomes and less savings — are among the most affected.
As a freelancer, the money I make each month can fluctuate, but I always make enough to look after my rent, bills, and other expenses.
Generally, I can expect to make around £3,000 a month, before taxes. I currently pay around £1,000, or about $1,250, in rent and utilities a month.
I'm fortunate to be in a relatively decent financial situation, but I still find it impossible to imagine a real future for myself — one in which I own a house and a car, have a comfortable standard of living, and the thought of retiring before the age of 75 isn't a pipe dream.
My parents acknowledge my generation is worse off
When my parents had me in 1999 they were able to raise a family in a house they already owned.
My parents said they never had it easy, but they've acknowledged they wouldn't have had the same security or be able to get on the property ladder now.
They've had to work hard over the years, but it feels as though their hard work has been rewarded in a way that the hard work of my generation isn't.
In 2022, nearly half of young people in the UK spent their entire monthly salary on living costs, The Guardian reported. This makes saving money for retirement or for a home seem nearly impossible.
Rising house prices make getting on the property ladder nearly impossible
As of June 2023, the average house price in Bath and North East Somerset, where I live, was £435,313, up 2.8% from last year, according to the UK House Price Index.
Homes are only getting more expensive — and quickly. Go back a decade, to 2013, and the average house price in this area was £250,911. In 2003, the average price was £180,278.
The average house price in 1995, when my parents moved in together, was around £56,000. According to the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, something that cost £10 in 1995 would cost £19.48 in July 2023, an increase of 94.8%.
However, if you compare the average house price in 1995 to the average house price in the UK in June 2023 — £287,456 — it's increased by more than 413%.
Meanwhile, median weekly earnings are roughly £575 according to PayScale, so I'm earning over the average for my area.
When my girlfriend and I talk about moving in together in a couple of years, we find the thought of buying a property almost hilarious.
My friends and I are resigned to long-term renting, even those of us who have the degrees and qualifications our parents didn't.
Saving can't save us
I chose to go to university and rack up student debt, and I could stop going out to socialize to save more money — but it's not feasible to expect all young people to stop living their lives to save.
Young people are struggling financially not because they get a latte on their way to work – the British equivalent of avocado toast – or meet their friends for a drink on the weekend. They're struggling because it's simply more difficult to get started as an adult in life now.
It's more difficult to get onto the property ladder and to save and plan for the future, whether you buy the occasional small treat to help you through or not.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/SLPiIRo
No comments