OLD FASHIONED AND TOO MUCH WORK
Britons live, unfortunately, in a society where renting a home seems far less preferable than owning the building. The Germans, for example, have much more rented accommodation and seem to exist quite happily with the situation. Back in the days when we had a more thoughtful and compassionate social system in the UK, we had thousands of council houses. I know how much they were appreciated after the war. I lived in three of them. The more houses built by your local council,
Then came Margaret "there is no such thing as society" Thatcher. The very idea of allowing ordinary, low paid people to live in rented social housing was an anathema to the Iron Lady. It offended her everything-makes-profit grocer's spite. No more council house building; tenants could subscribe to Thatcher's theorem: renters = losers/scroungers, house owners = upright 'hard working' taxpayers. And so under the Tory scheme many people bought their rented home from their Council of Housing Association landlord, and I was one of the buyers. Why? Because we needed to move. My job required me to be near the M1 motorway; we had no choice; if I had a house to sell, then that put us on the 'chain'; we could buy a house.
That was 30 years ago, and I'm writing this in the house we bought back then. Now, with one of our children dead and the other living back in our home town of Hull, we're in our 70s, rattling around in our 4 bedroomed 'mansion', and want to return to our roots, downsizing to a smaller place in the City of Culture, close to family and friends at last. A 4 bedroomed detached 'period' house in a quiet avenue close to the centre of town? One might imagine an early sale, but fashion and the changing social scene appear to be dictating that my wife and I will live out our swan song right here in Mansfield.
The house went on the market in November last year. Since then 7 couples have made appointments to view. Three of these never bothered to turn up. One made an offer £40k below the asking price. The other three offered a mixed but similar range of negatives; "Too old-fashioned""Too much work to do""Garden too small""Parking a problem", etc. It has been suggested that we lower the price, but with problems such as those expressed I can't see that making any difference.
In the final analysis, one has to take a wider world view and remind one's self just how lucky we are. We live in a cosy, mortgage-free home. We have good neighbours. We are not suffering like refugees, not starving, and even allowing for all the strictures of nasty Tory politics, we're still better off than many similar couples throughout the world. All that said, I wish someone would appreciate the potential of this house as a family home. But that's me being old fashioned, and proposing 'too much work'.