How have house prices performed since the millennium?
Information gleaned from the influential Nationwide property survey seems to suggest that the price of a house in the UK has increased by almost £90,000 since the turn of the century!
It is believed that the average property in the UK cost around £75,000 in the year 2000 and has since increased to around £162,000, even taking into account the recent downturn in property prices. This is an astounding increase in the cost of property in the UK and further confirms the difficulties that first-time buyers in the UK having today and are likely to face in the future.
The problem is further compounded by the fact that wages in the UK have increased at nowhere near the same rate as property thereby introducing a larger and larger gap between affordable mortgages and house prices. As a consequence, as we saw in the recent property downturn, many people have been forced to push themselves to the financial limit to gain a foot on the property ladder.
When the market turned, as we saw in 2007 after the credit crunch, a large number of people were left unprotected and exposed to financial hardship. This hardship is set to continue, at least for many people, into 2010 and possibly beyond.
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