Adding fuel to the fire of the ‘London Housing Crisis’, new figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that in 2011 nearly 3 milllion adults aged between 20 and 34 were still living with Mum and Dad. An increase of almost half a million, since 1997. Aged 20 years the proportions were 64% of men and 46% of women, but at the other end of the scale (34 years) it was still 7% of men and 2% of women.
An article in Mortgage Strategy hypothesised that this increase coincided with the increase in average house prices paid by first time buyers, which have risen by 40% between 2002 and 2011. Another reason could be the huge increase in the cost of renting. Especially in London, where another large proportion of this demographic also flat-share in a bid to afford the high rents and also attempt to save the high levels of deposit required to buy their own property. Despite all these attempts to save, the average age someone would be in a position to buy is now 39 years old.
In my blog of May 14, I talked about the ‘nine factors’ highlighted in the IPPR report entitled ‘Affordable Capital-Housing in London’, which focused largely on housing supply. Prior to that, I talked about the pressure that change in the demography of London is bringing to bear on Londons resources. If not already clear, the evidence is growing from multiple sources that the traditional housing models are not solving the issues of today and a step change in thinking is required. A chinese philosopher coined the phrase ‘every journey begins with a single step’….at Mill Group we are not philosophers but we are building practical solutions that we believe will help in taking that step, in the hope that others will follow.
