Is the UK turning into a rental economy?
Despite the fact that the first choice for many in the UK property market is to buy a property for the future, there are now signs that more and more people are looking to rent in the short to medium term. The Chartered Institute of Housing has today issued a report suggesting that those on incomes between £12,000 and £25,000 are stuck in between being eligible for social housing and been able to afford their own property.
In what has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, the fewer people who can afford to acquire their own property the more pressure this will place on the rental market and the more properties will come under the "buy to let" banner. This is despite the fact that many buy-to-let participants have fallen by the wayside after the credit crunch and the worldwide recession. However, there is also the UK phenomenon of a housing shortage which has been ongoing for decades and many people believe is one of the reasons why UK property is so expensive.
Despite the fact that the UK government recently announced a number of incentives for local authorities to build affordable housing this will take some time to kick in and more and more people will be forced to look at renting property before acquiring their own property in years to come.
Share this..
Related stories
When will first-time buyers be allowed back onto the property ladder?
Over the last couple of weeks it would appear that UK mortgage approval numbers have been rising, and are in fact at double the number seen in November/December 2008. This would appear to give something of a shine to the UK mortgage market when in reality there is still a lack of realistic deals available first-time buyers and indeed unless deals do appear many may well miss out again. In what...
Read MoreUK housing market decline 'worst since 1992'
The rate of decline in house prices across Britain is at its most severe since the property slump of the early Nineties, according to a gloomy report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).Surveying its member surveyors, Rics found that 49.1 per cent more reported house price declines than rises in December 2007, the most negative the price balance percentage has been since Novem...
Read MoreTenants warned of landlord scams
Tenants up-and-down the UK have this week been warned of potential landlord scams by the housing charity Shelter. It seems that up to a million people in the UK could already have fallen victim to landlord scams which could see deposits retained, excessive fees for work, unlimited guarantees given instead of deposits and one of the most alarming scams which involves crooks break into empty propert...
Read MoreNumber of homes for sale drops to seven year low
20/01/2014 The number of properties on the market in the UK has dropped to the lowest level since the recession ended, as prices continue to rise. February 2007 was the last time fewer homes were for sale, with an average of 58 available per estate agency in January, compared to 64 in the same period a year ago, according to Rightmove. House sales rose steadily throughout 2013 as people...
Read MorePersimmon Calls For Government Assistance NOW
Persimmon is the latest house builder to call on the government to intervene in the mortgage market as soon as possible after announcing pre-tax profits which were down two thirds on the same period last year. But what can the industry expect from the authorities?
As we have covered on this site over the last few months the UK government seemed to be on the verge of announcing a nu...