Young Londoners face long wait for own home

Buying a home has become a distant dream for young Londoners according to a poll conducted for the National Housing Federation (NHF), with 54 per cent found to be expecting to wait at least 10 years.

The YouGov survey of the 18-30 age group, commissioned by the NHF, also showed that six per cent think they will have to wait 20 years – to 2030. Meanwhile a further 37 per cent of Londoners said they would delay starting a family if they could not buy a new home, and 22 per cent would put off getting married.

Belinda Porich, head of the London region at the NHF, said: “Young Londoners are giving up hope of ever being able to afford their own home and who can blame them. The three main parties must commit to building significant numbers of affordable homes for rent and sale to avoid locking an entire generation out of having their own home.”

Affordability is a particularly acute problem in London with house price to earnings ratio ranging from 8.5 in Barking & Dagenham to 29.5 in Kensington & Chelsea, the organisation said.

More than eight in 10 young people interviewed in the YouGov survey said their parents’ generation had it easier when it came to buying a home. With huge deposits needed to secure mortgages, 58 per cent admitted they would need financial help from relatives to buy a home. More than half thought they would need at least £10,000 to afford a home, and 11 per cent wanted more than £40,000.

In the same poll, only nine percent of young people living at home with their parents in London said they were paying rent, compared to 15 per cent in the North and 14 per cent in the South and Midlands. While 74 per cent of Londoners said they would rent from a private landlord until they could afford to buy their own place, with 69 per cent agreeing this was a waste of money in the long term.

Around 880,000 Londoners are on housing waiting lists and repossessions have further fuelled demand for affordable housing during the economic downturn.

Porich added: “The parties should tackle the crisis by granting housing the same ‘untouchable’ status as the health, education and crime-fighting budgets in order to address the growing problem. The simple truth is we, as a country, have failed to build anywhere like enough homes to meet demand. This has sent house prices rocketing over the last decade and well out of reach of most young people.”