A new report on the state of the housing market has prompted a call for greater efforts in building new homes to help young people get onto the property ladder.
The new English Housing Survey reveals that there are substantially fewer young people owning a home than before the start of the global downturn 10 years ago. It shows that 38% of 25 to 34-year-olds have their own property, down from the heights of 55% in 2007/08.
At the same time, the number of private renters in the same age bracket has risen from 28% to 44%. Overall, 64% of the population own a home, up by just a percentage point since last year’s survey and down from the peak of 71% in 2003.
‘People want, need and deserve their own homes’
It points to a dire need for more housing stock, and has prompted Robert Colvile, of the Centre for Policy Studies, to tell This Is Money: “Our failure to build enough houses – which stretches back decades – means that house prices have grown and grown.
“In the process, home ownership has become an increasingly distant prospect for an entire generation. People want, need and deserve homes of their own. The Government needs to strain every sinew to fix the housing market and revive home ownership.”
English Housing Survey
The government’s stated plan is for 300,000 new homes to built per year by the mid-2020s. However a recent study by business campaign group London First claimed that an extra £20 billion needs to be found from public and private coffers to help meet that national target.
But there are some innovative ways of adding new homes to the market out there. One radical solution to be rolled out in London involves modular homes being built in a factory, before being winched into place on the roof of existing properties. The Adam Smith Institute has also suggested that building modular homes under the current 37 square metre limit would add to the numbers in the capital.
Manchester city centre’s housing market could see much-needed new homes if a proposal to increase building on sites currently occupied by car parks is acted upon. It is also hoped that the Help To Buy scheme and the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers increase in influence to further boost numbers of younger people owning their own homes.
Proportion of young adults who own a home has fallen by a third – in just a decade. As I say in the Mail today, WE NEED TO FIX THIS NOW. https://t.co/2HlGaKq36z
— Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) February 1, 2019
