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An end to ‘generation rent’ moaning? Government reveals home-owning boom among young

Figures from the latest English Housing Survey reveal that the number of homeowners now matches those renting among 25 to 34 year olds.

Nigel Lewis

home owning

More young people are ditching their takeaway coffee habit and spurning gym membership to save for a deposit on their first home, the latest English Housing Survey reveals.

Help to Buy, record-low mortgage rates and the Bank of Mum and Dad have all evidently helped to boost numbers getting on the property ladder. New government figures show there are now as many 25 to 34-year-old home-owners as there are renters.

After more than a decade of decline, the proportion of this age group in owner occupation has risen to 41%, while the proportion in the private rented sector has dropped from its peak of 48% in 2013-14 to 41% in 2018-19.

Funding sources

According to the latest English Housing Survey, the average first-time buyer was 33, unchanged from the previous year. Most (85%) funded the purchase with savings, while 34% got help from family or friends, and a lucky 6% used an inheritance as a deposit.

home owningJoseph Daniels (left), founder of modular developer Project Etopia, says Help to Buy, both the equity loan and the ISA, and Stamp Duty relief are behind the march of the younger first-time buyers powering a recovery in home ownership.

However, he warns that falling home ownership among the young still threatens to become a national crisis, rooted in high property prices and stretched affordability.

“House building will need to keep pace with growing demand and buyers face very different propositions across the country with prices still unaffordable in many parts of the UK, particularly in the south of England,” says Daniels.

The new survey shows that of the estimated 23.5 million households in England, 64% are owner occupiers while the proportion of households in the private rented sector remains unchanged for the sixth year in a row; in 2018-19, the private rented sector accounted for 19% of households.

Read the English Housing Survey report in full.

January 24, 2020

2 comments

  1. Certainly don’t want more people being sucked into the black hole that is leasehold, especially shared ownership leasehold with Housing Associations. Too many are trapped with housing costs they cannot control, or cannot sell their property. Commonhold gives every resident a stake in the building, rather than being subject to the demands of a remote freeholder and their appointed managing agent. The whole concept of shared ownership needs careful thought, and the main stakeholder, the home buyer, needs to know they will not lose a lot of money on their investment. Far too many are at the moment and are in many ways better off being a shorthold tenant.

  2. Getting on the housing ladder is difficult, lending criteria and crippling student loan debt are barriers as well as high capital value of property. Cutting the takeaway to save may for some be the answer, but, maybe a tokenisation approach to property purchase might be a better route.

    In that many feel in 10 years people may not own cars, instead share them and perhaps even own a part of the car, or the car supplier business.

    Why not then have a system in housing, where A buyer puts down their deposit, mortgages a percentage and the rest of the purchase price is covered by other stakeholders owning fractions of the property.

    A bit like shared ownership only the council does not own the share and you do not pay rent to the council or the stakeholders who hold a fractional part of your home.

    Then in time, the stakeholders can cash in their interest in the property, yes property goes up goes down, but I sold terraces for 30k twenty five years ago now they sell for 260k, yes there is inflation, but if I owned 10% of the original 30k property, Cost of investment 3k, I would cash in at 26k, a good return.

    This would get people out of generation rent, and people could invest in property globally as well. Yes the lenders and the legal industry will throw up their arms, but it can be done. If the first buyer moves fine, the investment in the property stays with the investors who can cash in.

    Just a thought, but with the power of computers and tech, new solutions to problems can be solved as it is all about big problems which need to be boiled down to simple ideas- how do we fix housing for our people. Yes they can rent for life or live in property and build up their and other investors equity. Just a thought but better than missing out on your just eat delivery. Thoughts anyone?

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