Since
the 1960’s more people have owned their own home than rented but, for many
young Thanet people, the dream of buying their own home is dying...or is it? Since
the turn of the Millennium, in Thanet (as in the rest of the Country) there has
been a significant change in the proportion of people who own their own home in
Thanet. In 2001, 70.35% of homes in Thanet were owner occupied, today the
figure is 62.01%, a significant decline in such a short time. Buy to let landlords can find tenants because
young people say they cannot afford a deposit to buy unless they inherit money
or are given a loan from the Bank of Mum and Dad
In
Thanet, only 30.77% of 25 to 34 year olds have a mortgage. When you compare Thanet
against the national average of 35.93%, it just shows how different parts of
the country have different housing markets. However, the really interesting
fact is this ...Roll the clock back to
1991 and nationally, 67% of 25 to 34 year olds had a mortgage. After WW2, the
supply of properties being built kept up with demand as millions of council
homes were built (the most being built in 1950s, surprisingly under Tory
Governments!). Also private house building increased in the 1950’s, but
especially in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and as the Country got more prosperous it meant that by 1971,
there were more home owners than renters.
However,
since the 1970’s, the population has grown but the number of new properties
being built hasn’t kept up at the same rate, the result is that there have been
huge rises of property prices in the early ‘70s, the late 80s and more recently
between 1999 and 2004. Interestingly, since the early 1970’s, out of the 34 richest
countries in the world, the UK has seen highest property prices rises.
95%
mortgages have been available to first time buyers since late 2009, but with
property prices rising by 204.6% since the Summer of 1997 in Thanet, as property prices have been rising
and first time buyers have been saving, the amount they have to save is
continually rising at the same time. The stress on saving even for that kind of
deposit, coupled with the new stricter mortgage rules introduced in 2014, means
that most 20/30 something’s in Thanet are renting instead of buying.
The issue quite simply comes back
down to a lack of new homes being built. In Thanet, only 428 properties a year
are being built whilst the population is rising by 827 a year. The supply of
new homes has been limited by planning laws, local councils not having the
money to build council houses, hard hitting green belt limitations, and our old
friend NIMBY’ism. With a rising
population and net migration, especially from the EU, the mismatch between
demand and supply is why we have the problem. Until Politician’s have the
backbone to realise the Country needs a lot more decent homes built, the
problem will just get worse.
In
the meantime, demand for rental property will continue to grow because people
need a roof over their head at the end of the day ......fact.
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