UK Household composition

Le_Chuck

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/famhh0411.pdf

Interesting stuff, and thanks to Mr Mumble for the link.

56% of households are a couple, with or without children.

29% of households are a single person, and roughly half of those are over 65.

The release doesn't say anything about household formation past 2010, but the trend reported elsewhere is accelerating.

Population growth of 408,000 (252,000 households*) in 2009, and 470,000 (286,000 households*) in 2010

*nationwide report july 2009, 2010 households not released but assuming same percentage.

Anyway..... with a need for 286,000 houses last year, and the building of something just over 100,000, it really does seem like the housing shortage must be getting a tad severe.....

We don't have a don't have a housing shortage. Its population where the problem lies.

Also isn't there something like 900,000 houses lying empty?

Generali

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

That may put downward rather than upward pressure on prices.

Here I'm a bit lost!

Can't see any logic in that. Unless you are saying that this can't last, and one day the number of households must 'peak' and then reduce - which would reduce prices.

Isn't it reasonably predicatable? What we have seen is a vastly increasing wish by '20-somethings' to be independent and want to move out, live on their own. Pull a few girls easier? Then there is the massive increase in single parent families, causing extra housing needs. [unfilled by government building].

Hence the demand for small properties/apartments continues - whether [for some] to buy, or [for others] to rent from a BTL merchant.

I assume this trend is still upwards, and is currently tending to burst the rental market rather than owner occupier market, but it must eventually spill back into increased house prices.

The theory (and it is only that) is that demand isn't just the number of people that fancy buying something, it's the number of people that are willing and able to pay a particular price for it.

A single person (for example) would generally be unlikely to be able to pay as much for a house as they would if they got together with another wage owner and bought between them.

The question that can only be answered by time is which pressure would be stronger: more household formation leading people to want to pay more for housing or smaller households making them unable to pay more.

Really2

Le_Chuck wrote: »

We don't have a don't have a housing shortage.

I agree, we do have a shortage.

It would be disingenuous to say their is not a shortage based on empty properties where no one wants to live and their are no jobs.

Indicators would be places around work and how prices have increased due to a lack of property.
If there was not a shortage of property say in london there would be no reason why prices go up so high.

Le_Chuck

Really2 wrote: »

I agree, we do have a shortage.

It would be disingenuous to say their is not a shortage based on empty properties where no one wants to live and their are no jobs.

Indicators would be places around work and how prices have increased due to a lack of property.
If there was not a shortage of property say in london there would be no reason why prices go up so high.

didn't really say that, the empty properties was purely a secondary point. My argument is that there's too many people, not to few houses.