Buying your first home these days feels like the worst game of musical chairs you’ll ever play. There are more people than ever joining in and the chairs get fewer and fewer.
So it’s little wonder that two million young people believe they won’t follow in their parents’ footsteps and buy a home.
That’s a number which should make us all sit up and think. Politicians spout promises, developers count profits and local councils are left trying to meet house building targets all the while dealing with objection after objection from residents.
Meanwhile, first-time buyers are left looking at property websites with very little hope of ever being able to afford one.
So, what could actually help? Here are five ideas that could just pull the property ladder out of the quicksand.
Five tips could help the housing market, according to a property pro
GETTY
1. Build, Baby, Build!
We’ve all heard the house building targets. These are ambitious numbers our ministers wheel out like my New Year’s resolutions I don’t intend to keep. The difficulty is that you don’t, except in the case of big infrastructure projects, grant planning permission from Whitehall.
The goal of 300,000 new homes a year is modest, though the last time we hit it, the late Queen was celebrating her Silver Jubilee, and flared trousers were the choice from my limited 1970’s teak wardrobe.
More homes, more often, might sound obvious if you want to increase home ownership, but we’re still stuck in a cycle where planning regulations, NIMBY protests, and endless red tape ensure houses remain scarce.
2. Maintain a Steady Population
Now, this is where things get awkward. We could build all the homes in the world, but if the population keeps rising by a million a year, there’s just no net gain. Balanced growth is what we need, alongside the infrastructure to catch up.
Some 300,000 homes equate to 822 houses being built every day of the year. So it’s not just about the houses which we need to build, but the local infrastructure to support them as well. This means school places, GP practices, hospital beds and places for people to work.
3. Make Renting Great Again
For many, renting is the endless waiting room before buying. A place of leaky taps, rent hikes, and landlords who “promise to look into it”.
But what if, hear me out, we made renting pleasant? Offer tax breaks to landlords who sign up for long-term lets, giving tenants stability and something approaching that elusive feeling of ‘home’?
Imagine not having to pack up your life every 12 months – it’s got to be better right? Prices would be naturally suppressed and landlords and tenants could make long-term plans – win/win.
The more landlords with homes to rent, the more affordable the prices and the greater the opportunity for people to save for that deposit to put down on their first home.
4. We Have the Homes… Just Not Where We Want Them
Most homes aren’t where the people want to be, because the jobs don’t pay enough. The cheapest two-bed in Richmond, Surrey? A casual £575,000. That means you need a £30,000 deposit before you’ve even considered stamp duty and fees.
Richmond, North Yorkshire? £195,000. Richmond, Rotherham? £65,000 – and that one probably comes with a friendly neighbour. But there aren’t jobs in the same variety or quantity as there are in the South East.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Incentives to move away from the South East could ease the pressure, which the government has attempted to do by moving civil service departments out of London, but until employers embrace remote work people will keep cramming into London like sardines with a latte and an overdraft.
5. Prioritise First-Timers on New Builds… But Don’t Overdo It
Political incentives such as prioritising the number of houses which can only be solved to first-time buyers are important, but it’s about balance. Local councils often apply rules called section 106s or a ‘developer contribution’ when plans are submitted.
This could include the number of houses available for social housing, for example, or a percentage of ‘affordable homes’ targeted at those wanting to get on the housing ladder.
But if you tip the scales too far, developers won’t bother building, and that means that neither the first-time buyer nor the cash buyer with their briefcase of notes don’t get the choice of buying a house.
Yes, let’s give first-time buyers a leg-up, but it needs to be done without making building projects unprofitable.
Poor old first-time buyers aren’t asking for much – just a chance to swap endless rent for a finite mortgage.
Building more homes, spreading out the population, making renting bearable, encouraging regional moves, and tilting the new-build scales (just enough) could turn the property ladder from a cruel joke into something climbable. Who knows, maybe we’ll even hit that 300,000-home target before the next Jubilee.
Jonathan Rolande is a property expert from the National Association of Property Buyers and the founder of House Buy Fast.
