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Morning Briefing: homeownership rate halves among young adults
Homeownership among young adults has fallen by a half in the past 20 years, new research shows, and other housing news
Nationally the rate of ownership among 26 to 28-year-olds has fallen from 33.5% to 17.2%, research from thinktank the Nuffield Foundation has revealed.
London saw the biggest fall, with just 8% in that age bracket owning their own property, compared with 20% in 1997, The Guardian reports.
The study also found that young adults in the East Midlands had experienced their living standards fall the furthest in that period.
Elsewhere, plans announced yesterday by the government to change the shared ownership model were generally welcome by the social housing sector. However in wider property circles this was not the case.
Tamara Hooper, policy manager at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, told Estate Agent Today: “Changes to shared ownership may make a difference to some, but it is a complex legal process and the purchase of 1% may be more complicated and ultimately more expensive than if the 1% had not been brought.”
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Meanwhile, the BBC reports on a council house resident who slept on a mattress in her living room for more than 10 years because her property was too small for her and her five children.
The grandmother was originally told by Lancashire County Council that her three-bedroom house would be extended after she began fostering her two grandchildren in 2004, the BBC reports.
The council, which is paying out £24,000 in compensation to the woman, said it was “very sorry for the distress our failings have caused”.
And away from the hurly burly of Brexit, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appears to have reaffirmed his party’s plans to introduce a levy on second homes. In a Hackney Gazette story on London’s empty homes Mr Corbyn is quoted as saying: “Houses are homes, not assets. We need to clamp down on buy-to-leave by charging a levy on second homes and strengthening councils’ powers over empty properties, as well as building one million genuinely affordable homes.”
In a column, Hackney Gazette’s editor thunders that sitting on empty homes should be illegal. The paper reports that the capital has more than 67,000 homes with no permanent residents.
On social media
New housing minister Esther McVey was on message trumpeting the government’s latest efforts to get more people owning their own home:
💥 We’re expanding home ownership opportunities for working people
— Esther McVey (@EstherMcVe
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🏡 making shared ownership more accessible
🏡 discounts when buying in your own community
🏡 making it easier for young people to take out a mortgage#socialmobility\uD83D\uDCA5 We’re expanding home ownership opportunities for working people \uD83D\uDCA5
— Esther McVey (@EstherMcVey1) August 28, 2019
\uD83C\uDFE1 making shared ownership more accessible
\uD83C\uDFE1 discounts when buying in your own community
\uD83C\uDFE1 making it easier for young people to take out a mortgage#socialmobility
