Housing shortage

If it's a local authority or housing association property, maybe but that would be their fault rather than yours in not utilising their housing stock to best advantage. If it's your own home then no. In my area new developments have often been advertised as affordable housing only to find very few of them are available to those needing them. The remainder are for sale at the market value.

They are building plenty of housing in our small market town where I used to walk across the fields has been replaced by two huge housing estates plus another two on opposite sides of the town. Unfortunately amenities and services have not grown to service this very large influx of people.
We have a reasonably large 3 bedroom for my husband and myself I don’t feel in the least guilty

No cabbie, you shouldn’t feel guilty. I’m assuming you’ve worked hard to own your home. If it was HA or council you’d probably be found smaller accommodation but -one beds as rare as hens teeth and often in tower blocks.
We need to build affordable housing, including social housing.
I’m still living on our family home. 4 beds garden, near a bus stop/library/supermarket and my children live nearby. I’ve looked at bungalows and smaller houses. Losing my husband was enough thankyou; I don’t want to lose our home.
2 grandchildren staying this weekend. That’s the two ‘spare’ beds used. The 4th box room is my office- paperwork there all filed and ready in case I don’t wake one morning
My adult children still talk about ‘coming home’ when they stay over

Another factor, aside from population increase and affordable housing. AirBBs, I read recently that Whitstable, popular sea side place in Kent recently had a staggering 500 Air BBs as opposed to just 8 private rentals. I believe this is one of the problems that pertains to holiday destinations in Europe. The proliferation of them are causing massive shortages for locals.

Our house is far too big for just two but I have no intention of downsizing as we have lots of visitors and the ground floor apartment is perfect should one of us have mobility problems. It would be of no interest to someone requiring an affordable home but we can afford it. If we're still here when we die, there'll be quite a bit of inheritance tax to pay. That will be our contribution to society.

I believe it was a Tory from a few years ago who coined the term "bedroom blockers" referring to us "olds" presumably, and it was the private housing market he was referring to, it didn't go down well at the time, still wouldn't.

We have a lot of weekend overnighters from children and grandchildren, we need our spare bedrooms for those visits.

And - these are our homes, our families grew up here and walk in feeling safe and cared for. Thst spills onto our grandchildren - I’m sleeping in mummy’s old bedroom they’ll say.
My house is future proofed with the old garage converted into downstairs walk in shower, toilet etc.

No Cabbie absolutely no reason to feel guilty.

I have lived in my large detached home with extensions and massive gardens since we married in 1967 and this is my home.

My husband has sadly died so I am alone but I still have three spare bedrooms for when our sons (married) meet up with their old schoolfriends every so often so they stay at my house, our grandchildren also have their own bedrooms if and when the want to stay over.

I love my home, it is full of wonderful memories and the only way I will leave my home is if they carry me out, feet first.

Our sons said to me a few weeks ago, they love coming to visit me because this is where they were born and if anything had to happen to me it would be absolutely heartbreaking as they would not only lose their mum but also lose the house they still treat as home. Once our sons visit me and set foot over my threshold, they turn into 17 year olds again. It is wonderful that they still treat my home as if they still lived here and feel so happy and comfortable when they stay over.

No don't feel guilty. There are nearly one thousand lovely, purpose built flats standing empty here in Birmingham due to cock ups by Birmingham City Council. They were built for the athletes at the Commonwealth Games and, typically, not finished in time. So there they stand. Empty.

TerriBull

Another factor, aside from population increase and affordable housing. AirBBs, I read recently that Whitstable, popular sea side place in Kent recently had a staggering 500 Air BBs as opposed to just 8 private rentals. I believe this is one of the problems that pertains to holiday destinations in Europe. The proliferation of them are causing massive shortages for locals.

Yes, controls are being put place in popular cities such as Amsterdam and now Barcelona I hear.

Cabbie of course you shouldn't feel guilty. You shared your home with your darling husband. And is full off memories of your life together. Never make anyone make you feel that way.

I lived in my 3 bedroomed house alone from 2006 when my children left home like I wanted . I didn't move until 2019. To live closer to them. I never felt guilty living in my house but after my husband died in 2004 it was just a house not my home . Home was my husband.

Up here they are building houses and apartments all over the place most of them affordable for first time buyers . I think it depends where you live what housing is available and what you call affordable?

Cabbie if you love your home stay there . I didn't want to be in my house as I rattled round it and having both parents and mother in law to look after I had to be on alert 24/7 I existed I didn't have a life . But since my move I do.

Nobody but successive governments should feel guilty.

Social housing has been sold off with the proceeds not reinvested into new stock, as was the promise. Housing association properties are almost impossible to obtain and often badly managed.

Joint ownership schemes are few and far between, ridiculously complicated and come with expensive service charges. They are also very difficult to sell should you wish to move.

Vast swathes of hard working young people struggling to get a roof over their heads (and often with no realistic hope at all) serves nobody any good, least of all the economy and society as a whole.

HousePlantQueen

TerriBull

Another factor, aside from population increase and affordable housing. AirBBs, I read recently that Whitstable, popular sea side place in Kent recently had a staggering 500 Air BBs as opposed to just 8 private rentals. I believe this is one of the problems that pertains to holiday destinations in Europe. The proliferation of them are causing massive shortages for locals.

Yes, controls are being put place in popular cities such as Amsterdam and now Barcelona I hear.

and there have been restrictions in London since 2017

No of course you shouldn’t feel guilty, it’s your home! My home is a HA property. We have two single people living in three bed houses but there is no alternative accommodation for them. Certainly no one bedroom properties here. And precious few two beds.

Cabbie21

I am just on TV seeing the parties’ proposals on housing, given the dire shortage of affordable housing.
I live alone now in a 3- bedroomed house. Should I feel guilty?

No, Cabbie, no guilt!

If people are going to be expected to give up their homes when they find there is more space than they used to have they will wonder what the point is of buying them in the first place. On the whole, people in the UK buy houses so that they aren't paying rent into old age. A home represents security.

Yes, we need to build more houses, and we need to do something about prices so that young people can afford to buy and geographical injustices are levelled out, but the answer is not to make people feel guilty about staying in their own homes - particularly when it is still legal for people to have more than one. Stop that first, and yes, stop housing stock being sold for AirB&Bs. Maybe look at reducing the cost of moving, too. I suppose much depends on local markets, but often downsizing doesn't leave a lot after estate agents, stamp duty, conveyancing, removals, new carpets and curtains etc are taken into account.

Our house is a family house, but we are still a family, even though the children have moved out. We have four bedrooms, but need at least three (a bedroom, a spare room and a study), so downsizing isn't going to save us a lot of money, and where our house is located is ideal for older age, as it's on the flat and near all local amenities. Deliberately moving away from that would have to be very cost-effective to be a remotely attractive proposition, and it just isn't.

It’s criminal there are so many empty homes in a housing crisis. There are 2 in my road alone. One is a lovely detached on market for £1.8 m but would need £500k spent on it as it’s been untouched for years - could be a lovely family home. London is full of empty apartments owned by foreign buyers who treat them as investments. There should be some mechanism to compulsory purchase empty homes if they have been unlived in for more than 5 years.

If I lived in a 3 bedroom LA house on my own I would definitely feel guilty myself, but not if I owned it.

Our house is far too big for us now that the kids have left, but suits us due to the location, neighbours and parking space.
If I was on my own I would move to a smaller place in a town.

If someone is living alone in a 3 bedroom LA house, but paying the full rent, then no.

If their rent is being paid for them, yes.

If you own your own property, then no.

I blame the government of the time , yes the conservatives under Margaret thatcher encouraging tenants and or their families to buy council housing at huge discounts.
These properties were lost for all time to future generations and the practice still continues, a scandal which is hardly mentioned.

Think of the massive amounts of money being made from mortgages. This is why governments want everyone to buy houses, not rent.
We need more council houses, not private houses. We also need older houses to be renovated. Where I live there are a lot of terraced houses boarded up and empty. Money should be used to make them habitable.
Apparently it is easier and cheaper to build houses on virgin land, and this is part of the reason why our countryside is being destroyed.

TerriBulld, I live in a seaside town quite near to Whitstable and you are correct in saying that the massive rise in the Air B&B market contributes to the problem.
It is significantly more profitable for the landlord, but takes out housing stock for renters and brings it's own problems with bins not put out etc. I think that there are also some advantages to the owner regarding council tax, but I'm not sure about that.
A friend lives in a small terrace at the end of a row of six. The other five are, now, all Air B & B's.

Where I live there are a lot of terraced houses boarded up and empty. Money should be used to make them habitable.

One LA was selling such properties for a nominal sum and offering loans to enable the householders to renovate them. I think that was an excellent idea. It may have been Stoke-on-Trent.

Labour does not have an altogether good track record on housing either. They advocate building on green belt land.Labour and Green Council here has earmarked yet more Green Belt land for building. Do they understand the necessity for farming at all?

I'm trying to remember the disastrous scheme of John Prescott and Yvette Cooper when they were in Government, when older homes were compulsarily purchased and people relocated against their will.

I'm still pondering.
"Neither of the above"