Home Ownership Out of Reach for Many

Interesting piece today from ARLA (The Association of Residential Letting Agents) today stating:

HOME OWNERSHIP OUT OF REACH FOR MANY AS LIFETIME COST OF RENT EXCEEDS £50,000

Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) have launched a ‘Cost of Renting’ report which looks into the lifetime cost of renting for current and future first time buyers.

The report analyses regional differences in the costs of renting and reveals that the average first time buyer in England this year will have already spent £52,900 on housing through rent. This figure varies drastically by region with the average first time buyer in the North West spending £37,900.

The report also reveals that a fifth (21 per cent) of those renting in the UK do not expect to afford to buy a home.

With changes to legislation and the UK average weekly rent in 2014 standing at £134, this report asks ‘Are we becoming a nation of forever renters?’

BASTION ESTATES COMMENT: The article and the actual report can be reflected upon and in some respects it is a sad reflection of the changing face of the UK housing market and more importantly the overall UK and global economy and how things have changed over the past few years. However, the UK is relatively unique in historically having such a high proportion of home owners and we do not reflect the home ownership statistics in most of our European neighbours. Times are changing whether we like it or not. Long term renting is here to stay and many will simply rent all their lives. The UK government is doing a number of headline grabbing things to tackle this but ultimately things are most unlikely to change for a very long time, if at all.

It is of course good news for the buy to let property market. New landlords are entering the market daily to simply try and make their savings and cash work more effectively for them. Many of these new landlords will only buy and own an additional one or two properties and will not become large portfolio owners but are taking note of a growing market with strong returns.

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