ROOF Blog

Buying a home has become a pipe dream for millions of young Britons – with half believing they will have to wait up to a decade or more before getting a foot on the property ladder, and only then with the help of their parents, according to a new poll. The YouGov survey, commissioned by the National Housing Federation, revealed that 86% of 18-30 year-olds could not currently afford to buy a home if they wanted to, despite recent falls in house prices. Federation chief executive David Orr said: ‘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. The next government must view housing in the same terms as health, education and policing – and protect it from budget cuts, given the scale of the crisis’.

House prices fell in the North and the West Midlands in December as market activity dampened, exposing those regions where the recovery has been weakest. According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), last month’s figures showed five per cent more surveyors in the West Midlands reporting prices falling rather than rising, and seven per cent more in the North. The industry body added the East Midlands and Northern Ireland to its list of areas at risk of further immediate falls. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, said: ‘These regions have been among the weakest for months. The best we can say is that they have stabilised lately.’

More than 1 million householders have used credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent in the last 12 months, a new survey by ROOF reveals today. Despite restrictions on credit and reports of many people paying off personal debt, an exclusive YouGov poll for ROOF magazine reveals a disturbing picture of over a million people taking desperate measures with credit cards to keep a roof over their head. The highest proportion of those who pay their rent or mortgage through credit card were from working class professions (8% of those in the C2DE social grouping), but the poll also showed that middle/upper class (ABC1 category) are falling victim, with 4% of respondents saying they use credit cards in this way.

Shelter has launched new research showing how the lack of affordable homes in Britain is forcing couples who have split to remain living together. In our survey, nearly a quarter of people – the equivalent of 9.9 million adults - said they or someone they know have had to stay living with their partner because they cannot afford to live on their own. The figures come from new research undertaken by the charity to examine the way unaffordable housing is changing the way we live. Kay Boycott, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter said: ‘As a nation we have accepted the way housing costs have risen hugely over the last few years, but are we ready to accept the human cost this brings?’

Average household wealth in the south-east of England is almost twice that in Scotland, according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) first ‘Wealth in Great Britain’ report, which also found that London was not as wealthy as you might think.

The ONS painted a detailed picture of affluence and borrowing habits after collecting evidence from 31,000 households across Britain and estimating the value of their housing, pension investments and other possessions.

For many of the respondents to the survey, accumulating a healthy portfolio of assets was a distant dream: the least wealthy 10 per cent of households had negative total net wealth – owing more on their mortgages or other loans than their properties and other goods are worth.