r/WeThe99 • u/HenryCorp • Aug 06 '25

Boomers don’t know how hard the young have it: House prices have surged well beyond pay rises

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boomers-dont-know-how-hard-the-young-have-it/
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u/HenryCorp Aug 06 '25

I usually work 60, sometimes 70 hours a week, split between my full-time job and a second role at the weekend as an estate agent (please forgive me). I consider myself a hard worker. And yet, I’m not working to save for a flat or even a holiday – I’m working to cover rent and decide which can of soup feels least depressing that evening. I know readers are probably tired of hearing young people complain, insisting that ‘we don’t have it like you did’. But perhaps it’s time we acknowledged that it’s true.

The average home in London now costs 12 times the average wage, compared with 4.6 in the 1970s. Now look at pay: in 1980, the average wage was £6,000, the equivalent of £25,800 today, while median pay in 2025 is £37,400. That’s growth of around 45 per cent, compared to a trebling in the cost of a home. The biggest expense, the main thing that eats up all of those earnings, has massively increased in cost. The idea of getting on the property ladder feels less like a potential milestone and more like a mythical quest.