{"id":4914,"date":"2015-07-22T16:32:18","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T15:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2015-07-23T15:40:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T14:40:36","slug":"the-impossible-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4914","title":{"rendered":"The impossible dream?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Find a job, marry, start a family, buy a home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even after rapid social and technological changes of the past century, traditional rites of passage have largely persisted to this day.<\/p>\n

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But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re under 40, one of these milestones will almost surely be out of reach \u00e2\u20ac\u201c your chances of ever owning a home in the UK have become increasingly slim.<\/p>\n

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Accountancy firm PwC found<\/a> that as house prices continue to rise by five per cent a year, coupled with a severe shortage of affordable homes, renting privately will be the norm for those under 40 over the next decade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The number of private tenants has skyrocketed over the past 15 years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in 2001, little more than 2m people rented privately, which has doubled to more than 5m today. The PwC report estimates that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGeneration Rent\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 will continue to multiply, with more than 7m renting privately by 2025.<\/p>\n

 
\nHomeownership has become all but an impossibility as rising house prices \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the average asking price for a house in England and Wales now stands at \u00c2\u0141294,542 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mean hefty deposits, now averaging \u00c2\u014130,000 for first-time buyers. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nThe housing charity Shelter<\/a> found that young families across many parts of the UK would have to save for more than a decade to put down a deposit for a home. Single people in London would have to save for almost 30 years, meaning you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to start saving before you even finish university if you want any hope of living in your own home before your 50th birthday.<\/p>\n

 
\nSaving is certainly easier if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got financial help from families \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Lloyd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bank estimated<\/a> that parents and grandparents are spending almost \u00c2\u014110bn a year helping their adult children pay deposits on their homes.<\/p>\n

 
\nRental<\/strong> <\/em>
\nBut for many young adults earning an average wage of less than \u00c2\u014125,000, with relatives earning not much more, the private rental sector is the only option \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s becoming just as alarmingly unaffordable as owning a home.<\/p>\n

 
\nAverage rent prices <\/a>in London have peaked at just under \u00c2\u01411500 per month, with rents going up throughout the rest of the country as well. Those living in North East, where average rents have traditionally been lowest, must now pay a monthly average of more than \u00c2\u0141500 a month \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a 5 per cent increase from last year.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Chartered Institute of Housing pointed<\/a> to the long-term effect of an entire generation not being able to escape the vicious high-rent cycle. With rents being so high that it becomes impossible to save for a house, in 35 years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, a third of people over 60 will still be renting.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bShould homeowners need it, they can release the equity to fund their retirement or top up their income,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a pensions firm managing director told the Guardian. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was once a given that by the time people retired many would own their own home. However, as levels of home ownership tail off, more and more people do not have the luxury of a property safety net.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said that the PwC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s report is only the latest in a raft of evidence pointing to a housing meltdown that requires immediate government intervention to resolve.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis report is only one of many indicators that the housing crisis is reaching breaking point \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and something must be done about it, not in a few years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, but now,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA serious housebuilding programme is absolutely essential. This will bring down extortionate prices and give hardworking young people, many of whom have entered the job market at a time of stagnating wages, a chance to get on the property ladder.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore than this, it will be a boon to the wider economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for every \u00c2\u01411 spent on construction, more than \u00c2\u01412 is generated in the economy as a whole, which represents one of the highest rates of return,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner turned his ire to the private rental sector, which he condemned as unsustainable if left to its own devices.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis must be regulated so that the millions of tenants who are at the mercy of profit-hungry, unscrupulous landlords are given stability and peace of mind. We must end the use of housing as an investment and introduce rent controls alongside landlord registration and new guaranteed tenant security rights.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHousing is a right for all regardless of your life circumstances, not a luxury for the few who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lucky enough to be born wealthy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Find a job, marry, start a family, buy a home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even after rapid social and technological changes of the past century, traditional rites of passage have largely persisted to this day.   But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re under 40, one of these milestones will almost surely be out of reach \u00e2\u20ac\u201c your chances of ever owning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[109],"wps_subtitle":"Will young people ever be able to buy their home?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4914"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4923,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions\/4923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}