Charlie - featured in the Telegraph - might just be (let's hope) London's youngest landlord. He's 12 weeks old. His mother bought him his Fulham flat while still in labour. The piece features other pint-sized homeowners, too... and offers useful advice to those in a fortunate enough position to be able to think about buying property for their kids... an investment in the future. But... hard-nosed and realistic as any good property feature should be... it goes on to warn, it's not just the value of your property that can go down as well as up:
The child whom you treat to a leg-up the property ladder might not grow into the adult you had hoped for. What if that sensible one-bedroom flat turns into a venue for riotous parties, or, instead of getting a job and taking up residence in the home you bought for him, your good-for-nothing 21-year-old announces he is going to bum around the world instead?
That's right. Your child could grow into a lazy shit with zero talent for landlording.
And on the subject of buying property for your kids... has anybody been watching The Tower... a moving (depressing) and remarkable BBC 1 documentary about the "regeneration" of the Pepys Estate? The wealth gap is back in the news, but nothing illustrates it better than the contrast between the worries and strains of those buying at the top of the refurbished tower and those struggling to create something like a life in the surrounding neighbourhood. It's compelling documentary-making.
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