Renting will be the only option for most
15/03/2010 - Lack of housing stock set to worsen
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The future of mortgage lending is not looking too good according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The CML says that in future the number of home owners will be a lot less compared to those renting properties as the post credit crunch’s long term effects come in to play. The amount of debt incurred by would be home owners will play a significant part in whether people can afford to purchase their first property or not. The average amount of deposit required by a first time buyer today is around £34,000, the amount required just 3 years ago was £12,700 and this is causing many first time buyers to continue renting.
A chronic lack of housing looks to persist with private and public sector housing finance to show huge shortfalls. During the period from 1999 to 2009, the number of homes built a year has not exceeded 170,000 but there is a need for more than 280,000 new homes per year to meet the current housing need and within this number there needs to be more than 40% allocated to affordable housing sold at below the market price or sold at a subsidised price.
The result of this under funding is that around 1.8 million people are currently on housing waiting lists with more than a million children living in over crowded conditions with many landlords unable or unwilling to carry out necessary maintenance of their properties, often due to a lack of funds themselves.
