Homeownership: the preserve of the rich?
Joe Coward
This post originally appeared on Mortgage Solutions
One of the most striking findings of our Squeezed Britain report, which sets out the economic position of the squeezed middle in forensic detail, is that home ownership is now out of reach for many people on low to middle incomes (LMI).
On the basis of current incomes, house prices and the loan-to-value ratios now available, it would take a first-time buyer on a low to middle income 22 years to save for a deposit compared to three to five years in the 1980s and 1990s.
‘Generation rent’ needs a helping hand
Vidhya Alakeson
This blog originally appeared on Public Finance
Yesterday’s report from the National Housing Federation predicted that by 2021 home ownership in Britain will have fallen to its lowest levels since the mid 1980s. 64 per cent of people will own a home compared to a peak of 73 percent ten years ago.
The government’s response to these predictions was half right. The minister for housing, Grant Shapps, talked about the need to build more homes. This would of course help address the chronic undersupply of housing, with the number of new homes being built at a post-war low. But it was also half wrong by continuing to focus exclusively on meeting people’s aspiration to own and ignoring the potential for the private rented sector.
Making a Rented House a Home
Vidhya Alakeson
Published today, the Resolution Foundation’s Making a Rented House a Home outlines the shocking fact that the average low to middle income household buying a home today would have taken 31 years to save for a deposit , compared to 8 years in 1983. Last week a report by the estate agents, Savills, revealed that for the first time in Britain’s post-war history, more people are becoming tenants than home owners. We are witnessing a major transformation in our housing market that will see Britain become more like Germany and Switzerland where more than half the population rent rather than own a home.
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