Situation worsening for first time buyers
The gulf between house prices and what first time buyers can afford is widening every year, according to the head of a housing charity. Research conducted by Shelter has found that in ten years the average cost of a first home has increased by 200 per cent from £52,674 to £159,494. In the same time frame, however, the average income for a family has grown by just 53 per cent. This disparity has placed an increasing burden on first time buyers, who now find it 78 times more difficult to buy a home than they did in 1997, the charity claims. Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: "Salaries throughout the UK may be rising, but ordinary people are still being priced out of the housing market. "Buying a home has now become a distant, unaffordable dream for millions of first-time buyers, while thousands of others are facing repossession and homelessness." The gap between first time buyers' income and house prices is even more marked in London where the cost of a first home was risen by 250 per cent in a decade.
Share this..
Related stories
Life insurance urged for soldiers
Soldiers have been urged to take out life insurance policies even when they are young because at this time of life people are "very, very cheap to insure", it has been claimed.William McCartney of Apple Insurance Brokers explained: "When you're 18 years old you're very, very cheap to insure so for anybody considering joining the army I would advise taking out a nice life insurance policy there and...
Read MoreRoyal Bank of Scotland to announce further job cuts
Sources close to the Royal Bank of Scotland are today making media companies aware of an impending further 500 job cuts at the stricken banking operation. Only two years ago Royal Bank of Scotland was seen by many as the largest bank in the world, with exposure everywhere from the Americas to the Far East, although how the situation has changed! It is believed that the 500 job losses in questio...
Read MoreMPC maintains UK base rates at 0.5%
As expected, the MPC today confirmed that UK base rates will remain at 0.5% for the foreseeable future amid concerns about the strength of the ongoing UK economic upturn and the ever-growing reduction in the public sector budget. Despite the fact that recent figures showed UK GDP increased by 1.1% between April and June this year it seems as though the MPC is more concerned with the potential slow...
Read MoreOver 50s jargon buster
It’s easy to get bogged down by technical terms and abbreviations when trying to research what type of insurance is best for you. Here at financialadvice.co.uk, we have asked our insurance experts to put together a handy jargon buster which focuses on over 50s life insurance, but also talks about what other types of insurance options are open to you. Don’t forget, if you have a financial quest...
Read MoreDiscounted mortgages are a cheaper option
Discounted mortgages may now be a cheaper option than fixed rate, new research from Mform shows. The average annual cost of a two-year discounted mortgage, including fees, is around £1,700 pounds lower than a two-year fixed rate deal - a saving of around £70 a month. Many borrowers have been choosing fixed rate mortgages, bearing in mind the recent interest rate rises, in an effort to keep the...
Read More