Home ownership levels highlight need for more affordable homes

According to analysis by think tank, home ownership continues to fall in major cities, showing need for affordable homes.

According to analysis, major English cities, in particular, Manchester, have seen the sharpest falls in home ownership since the early 2000s.

Home ownership is becoming increasingly unaffordable for potential buyers, with the proportion of home owners dropping from 72% in April 2003 to 58% this year in Greater Manchester, according to the Resolution Foundation.

The data was taken from the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey (LFS), with showed that home ownership peaked in 2003 and has now dropped to under 64%.

The survey also recorded reduction in the proportion of people owning a home in other parts of the UK.

Northern Ireland fell from its peak of 73% in 2006, to 63% now, with Scotland reaching its peak in 2004 with 69% down to 63% currently. In Wales, in 2006, 75% owned their own home, which now stands at 70%.

Double-digit falls were also recorded in west Yorkshire, the metropolitan area of the West Midlands and outer London.

Research from the Resolution Foundation said that individual incomes have failed to keep up with the growing house prices, with less accessibility to credit in comparison to earlier years.

The average first time buyer paid just under £30,000 for their new home in the 1980s compared with more than £150,000 now, the think tank said.

The research showed that the struggle to finance a new home was no longer just a “London-centric issue”.

In Manchester, Polly Steiner, 33, who volunteers for the Greater Manchester Housing Action Network, said: “I am a graduate, I have lived in Manchester for 10 years now and I am not someone who is silly with money, but there is no way that this market is friendly for someone like me who works for a charity.

“It is not possible for me to buy. Buying a property would help me to plan and settle down.”

Research by the equality Trust Charity revealed than nine out of ten people renting property in Britain cannot afford to save enough to cover even a quarter of the deposit needed to buy the average house.

The policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, Stephen Clarke, said: “London has a well-known and fully blown housing crisis, but the struggle to buy a home is just as big a problem in cities across the North of England,” said Stephen Clarke, the foundation’s policy analyst.

“The chances of owning a home have fallen fastest in Greater Manchester over the last decade, though the Leeds and Sheffield city areas have also experienced sharp drops.”

The metropolitan area of the West Midlands saw ownership fall from 70% in April 2005, to 59% now.

Mark, who lives in Dudley, said: “We’ve been renting for six years. We have paid almost £60,000 in rent.

“As much as I would love to buy my own house, it grieves me to rent, but we just can’t get on the ladder due to the deposit. Instead of doing the Help to Buy scheme, the government should bring back 100% mortgages, and maybe help us with the deposit.

“If the government was to pay the deposit, we could go out tomorrow and buy a house.”

With the deposits too great for high house prices, the need for more affordable homes is continuing to rise.

Although government schemes like Help to Buy have helped  a proportion of individuals get onto the property market, the struggle is still very much there for many in the UK.

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