Don’t make renting a home a life sentence, say under 30’s

Don’t make renting a home a life sentence, say under 30’s

11:45 AM, 2nd February 2011, About 13 years ago

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The shameful state of Britain’s housing market is revealed in a new poll of attitudes to renting carried out by one of the country’s biggest housebuilders.

Young adults were asked for their views on housing – and some of the results were surprising as home ownership was ranked as a priority far above most other lifetime goals.

They also felt that buy to let landlords had contributed to problems in the housing market and that the government should kick-start new house building.

The strength of opinions runs deep, as the findings show:

–        65% of under 24s would sacrifice going to university if studying for a degree or owning a home was an “either/or” choice

–        Nearly half of under 30s (45%) are concerned that buying a home is beyond their financial reach

–        80% of young adults view owning a home as a key life priority – as much as job security (also 80%),  while owning a car (49%) and taking foreign holidays (31%) are ranked much lower

–        90% under 30’s do not want to live in rented accommodation for the rest of their working lives.

–        64% say that they would not be happy to start a family while they were renting

–        43% would not be happy to get married until they owned their own home.

The survey was carried out by a homebuyers’ panel put together by housebuilders Barrett Developments.

Chief executive Mark Clare said: “The findings illustrate the extent of the housing crisis  and the depth of the public policy challenges we have to tackle.”

“Signs of friction between the generations are starting to emerge as a direct consequence of relative housing wealth. Significant numbers of people – especially those under the age of 30 – appear to be delaying key life decisions such as starting a family because they cannot take that all-important first step on the housing ladder.

“There is no silver bullet which will solve the problem overnight but there are steps which can be taken.

“Without doubt, making mortgage finance more readily available to creditworthy first-time buyers should be top of the list. It cannot be right that people in their 30s with good jobs and good credit histories are having mortgage applications turned down.”


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