Has Brexit made any difference to the shortage of affordable housing the the UK, Is there really a housing shortage? Many prefer to rent as this enables rapid relocation for work. Many elderly occupy social housing with more rooms than they need. View any estate agents window there are many houses for sale. Back in the 70s and 80s mortgages were based upon 3x the salary of the main wage earner, and often limited to married couples only. Social structure, equality, co-habiting, buy to let...... Has had an impact on the cost of housing. That's progress. Housing is over priced by a factor of 2 or 3. A housing price collapse (readjustment) is long over due.

Whats your thoughts ?

There's not really a shortage of housing. There is however a surplus of people. What did they expect when they let in over a million people in a very short space of time. Rentals are incredibly expensive, and are driven by multi occupancy by immigrants. That is why people are renting sheds and garages to live in. How can elected politicians be so BL**DY stupid. Everyone with half a brain knows why we are in this terrible state. Even where I lived in the uk, the average price of a 3 bed terraced house is over £290,000, so how on earth is anyone going to afford the deposit on that? They want a deposit of nearly £30,000. So if you are already paying to rent, you have no chance of saving up that much. Plus, you need an income of £60,000 per annum to get the mortgage. Madness, and all from our Liberal approach to immigration over the past three decades. It really has bitten us in the butt this time, I don't think Brexit has anything to do with it? although the situation may get worse.

The damage is done now. An influx of migrants and an ageing population, as well as our generation being encouraged to go to university on the premise that we would get better jobs when they came out, we are encouraged to travel and see the world, buy expensive phones, tablets. There are so many reasons that the property crisis has got out of control. The primary one is money though and the overpopulation of GB. Not sure what the answer is, but stopping immigration with immediate effect would be the first practical thing to do!

Why did they stop building council housing altogether , was it for financial reasons , was it snobbery, was it to enable the banks to make more loans? They stopped council house building in the early 90s transferring some over to housing associations and the rest to private landlords. Council housing was apparently very expensive perhaps it was when councils took out mortgages when interest rates were higher but now they are cheap as interest rates are .5 for 8 years. But instead the government pays out expensive housing benefit to private landlords which seems to only benefit them, the banks and continues to push up house prices meaning the tenants/youngsters face a triple whammy something just doesn't seem to make sense. Also why did councils at one point have huge amount of cash on deposit which half of them almost lost in eg ice save why weren't they unsung that money to build some council houses what was all that money set aside for?

Two people to blame here M Thatcher giving council house resident's permission to buy council owned houses causing housing shortage and greedy buy to let owners taking affordable houses from young couples who now find there is no starter homes to buy!

Well I blame successive governments (particularly Gordon Brown) who have continually told employers to not give above inflationary pay increases to their staff over the past 20 years!!! When I bought my first house I paid £17,995 and was earning £9,200 per year. I bought this on my own. Then I used to get pay rises of around 10-11% per annum - i.e. based on true inflation figures not the manufactured ones we have now!!!! It never ceases to amaze me how our so called leaders create situations and then want to blame others. The problem has arisen solely due to them meddling with people's incomes. The only people who have benefited are the fat cats because they've been able to keep more of their profits instead of passing them on to their employees - same old, same old....the rich get richer at the expense of the poor!!

Ever since Brexit, the news just gets more and more depressing each day. I've just read the construction industry last suffered its biggest slump in sevens. No doubt Brexit to blame. Suddenly it is a crisis, it has been a crisis for at least 20 years, politicians buried their heads hoping it would sort itself out, it hasn't. it has got far worse. Stop selling council houses, bring in a fair rent & control policy, introduce capital gains tax on all property, and most importantly a massive house building program. If the crisis is not averted you might as well go buy a tent.

It's a complicated matter. Big companies keep wages down; buy-to-let middle class greedies snap up affordable properties; banks won't give mortgages despite renting history; people buy to sell for a profit. It all keeps people out of the housing market. Like many others - I have in the past been renting and paying all other utilities yet can barely get a mortgage for £100,000.

I suppose we all do what we think is right for us at the time however, as the year go by we realised our mistakes. For instance what was the big issue in buying a property when you could rent a council property and get all the help you need from the council and from benefits for the rest of your life, whereas you buy a property, worked hard, saved your money and put it into a property then continue to scrimp and scrape, pay huge maintenance charges etc etc and then one day you have to go to a retirement home and the property you worked half your life for is taken and sold to pay for your rent. And of course people who rent from councils will automatically be given a warden controlled flat. Just does not seem fair, you try to do the best you can, but it is hard when you have to spend out £2000 odd say on a boiler and next door gets it free all because they rent or are on some kind of benefit and that is another thing, you cannot get any kind of help if you fall down on your luck unless you are on a benefit. They seem to penelise those who work all their life to get on. So if I knew back than what I know now I would never have bought property.

Perhaps you feel this is a negative post, sorry but right now this is what my friend is going thought and I must say I do feel she is right.