Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years as housing crisis grows

Blue_Cardinal

From today's Guardian

Home ownership in England has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years as the growing gap between earnings and property prices has created a housing crisis that extends beyond London to cities including Manchester.

AlistairM

I can't say it's a shock. Low availability of housing, long life spans for older generations, lowest paid generation of young people in recent times, restrictive lending.


All contributes to locking younger people out of the market unless they have help.


I do wonder if the people making the decisions that build new houses have a vested interest in not wanting to devalue properties that they own by allowing more housing to be built.


Even regular home owners benefit from consistently rising house prices if they have a mortgage to pay off and want better LTV deals.

roddydogs

Why is this a "Crises"?, would young people swap all the benefits they have now for a House?, of course they will always say they will, but in reality.

Ithaca

There is an element of question-begging here... it assumes lower home ownership is negative, and that lower rates of ownership must therefore be a crisis.

Access to secure affordable housing is really the issue... in my late 20s I wasn't particularly bothered about renting vs owning, but I did want to know that I would be in the same house in 5-10yrs time if I chose without a landlord being able to give 6 months notice. I'm still not that fussed but now that I have a family I at least have the security of knowing that as long as I can cover the mortgage I'll have a roof over my head for as long as I need it.

After spending some time living in Germany where renting was the norm for families in cities and where people (certainly at that time) expected to spend less than a third of their income on rent I think that's where we've gone wrong.

TBagpuss

I think it is arguably a crisis in that there are not many good alternatives to home ownership - those who don't own ar estuck with short-term, insecure tenancies (save for the few who have Council or HA properties) and in many cases are stuck having to make frequent moves (which is exensive, particualrly when you factor in the fees which are charged for chekcing references etc.)

If people had the option of living in secure, long term rented accommodation as is the case in many other european countries then the issues with being able to buy would be much less relevant. Or indeed if the cost gap between owning and renting were smaller.

I feel very sorry for those who are stuck renting in the current cliamate.

Of cours,e an alternative way of addressing the issue would be to introdcuce rent controls and make it it possible for lanlords to grant longer tenancies (perhaos with some form of tax incentive to do so) to create a larger pool of longer term, more secure tenancies.
But i don't think there is any poliitical will to do so.

Cakeguts

What would be interesting to know is whether the number of repossessions has fallen. It makes me wonder if in the past a lot of people were forced to buy property when in fact their lifestyle would have been better if they had been able to rent instead. Now that there is more rental property available and people have a choice whether to buy or not they may be opting to rent because you then don't need to save.

Many people who buy find that they have to go without new cars new phones and holidays in order to be able to put the money into somewhere to live. Not everyone wants to have all their spare cash tied up in a property that they live in. Fashions change.

People assume that renters rent because the have to. This isn't the case. There are a lot of renters who choose to rent because it suits their lifestyle.

maninthestreet

Excessive levels of immigration have also contributed to the problem.

Chanes

Just to mention that my Nephews and Nieces don't want to give up lifestyles for a deposit and a mortgage. They simply are not prepared to save up and sacrifice for a house of their own yet. They are waiting until they reach 30 to start saving! That fact must have an impact on the data if they are not alone in that attitude?

mufi

Another big difference is that years ago, most lived at home with their parents whilst saving for a deposit. Now, most pay rent.

swishy87

I actually think a lot of this is down to the fact a lot of younger people don't want to own as soon these days. More young people study, travel, move around for work deciding where to settle etc. So it's quite normal these days to not consider owning for some time.

csgohan4

Chanes wrote: »

Just to mention that my Nephews and Nieces don't want to give up lifestyles for a deposit and a mortgage. They simply are not prepared to save up and sacrifice for a house of their own yet. They are waiting until they reach 30 to start saving! That fact must have an impact on the data if they are not alone in that attitude?

The spend now worry later mentality which all too common. instead of saving, they splash their cash on a Mitsubishi Evo