The high price of housing, the capital’s rising population and Brexit jitters are combining to shut first-time buyers out of the property market, according to Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics.
A slow-down in new homes completions is adding to young buyers’ woes, confirmed by a report from the Office of National Statistics, which shows a 10 per cent plunge in under-40s home ownership.
“London’s population was 6.6 million in the Eighties and is now near nine million, adding two Birminghams and a Leeds. Yet we are building homes at half the rate needed,” Travers says.
He adds that tighter migration policy post-Brexit could exclude foreign construction workers from the industry, further slowing housebuilding.
At the recent Conservative Party conference, Prime Minister Theresa May scrapped a cap on council borrowing to allow them to build more low-cost homes and suggested a levy could be imposed on foreign buyers purchasing property in the UK.
However, these policies alone won’t get young Londoners on the property ladder, say experts.
Many renters are now turning to online investment funds, relying on charitable housing schemes or sharing with strangers to boost their saving capacity in a bid to overcome their first hurdle to home ownership — the need for a hefty deposit.
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