The National Statistics Housing Survey report shows that the number of homeowners aged 25 to 34 have gone up for the first time in over 10 years.
The government’s help-to-buy-scheme which was introduced in 2013 to assist homebuyers financially plus the Stamp Duty relief for some first-time homebuyers helped contribute to the growing number of young homeowners, according to housing analysts.
Help-to-Buy
The program is a government endeavor to provide financial support to first-time home buyers or those wanting to take the next step in home ownership.
Homebuyers are offered an up to 20% loan of the value of most new-build properties, free of interest for 5 years, with a deposit of only 5%.
Stamp Duty relief
This program is for first-time buyers where savings can amount to £5,000. For properties whose value are up to £500,000, no Stamp Duty shall be paid on the first £300,000.
On both schemes
From the founder of Project Etopia, a developer of modular homes, Joseph Daniels:
“Help-to-buy and stamp duty relief are behind the march of the first-time buyers, who will be powering a recovery in home ownership in this age bracket.
Falling home ownership among the young still threatens to become a national crisis rooted in high property prices and stretched affordability but the tide has finally started to turn.
It will take considerable time and momentum until owner occupancy among younger people returns to the 59% seen in 2003-04.”
Still in the same survey, figures are also showing an excessive rise in the social rented sector, “where people rent largely from councils or housing associations at a rate pegged to local incomes”. The problem here is overcrowding with 8% living in tight accommodations where measurement is based on the perceived number of bedrooms needed for the dwellers.
According to Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity:
“More and more families are crammed like sardines into homes that are too small for them because they can’t afford to rent anywhere bigger.
The odds are stacked against struggling families. What this country desperately needs is an alternative to private renting, which is why Shelter is urging the government to build a new generation of genuinely affordable social homes.”
