Grim news today, as a housing charity and a tax advisory firm have found that in a generation's time, the property market will be so screwed up that 50 per cent of young people will live with their parents.
With the property market doing what it does in Britain (going up and up and up and up), the average house price in 2024 could double to £446,000, and then quadruple to £900,900 by 2034. This will essentially price young people even further out of the market, so more of them will be forced to live with their parents – unless something is done about it.
Shelter and KPMG teamed up to deliver the report to party leaders David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, explaining that something's got to give before home ownership evades millions. 'Our chronic shortage of affordable homes means that a generation face a future of living in their childhood bedrooms into their thirties,' Campbell Robb, Shelter's chief executive, told The Independent. 'But this report proves that the next government can turn the tide on the housing shortage within a single parliament.'[*
The report called for the Coalition to reconsider its attempts to re-jig the housing benefit bill as it will see young people forced to live at home and rely on the 'Bank of Mum and Dad', and home ownership will be decided by inheritance instead of individual hard work. 'For many people, particularly those in their twenties, the aspiration of owning their own ‘castle’ is fast becoming a fairy tale,' says Marianna Fallon, UK head of corporate affairs at KPMG. 'We also know, as an employer of 12,000 people, that an unstable housing market affects our ability to attract and retain talent. A Government which is prepared to roll up its sleeves and commit to a programme to tackle each element of the problem, over a parliament and beyond, has the chance to make home ownership a realistic dream again.'
Kris Hopkins, the housing minister says the report is 'alarmist' but, looking atthe prospects of ever being able to afford to buy a home (warning – don't read if easily depressed), the outlook is pretty bleak. In the meantime, there are the struggles living with Mum and Dad when you're grown up enough to have moved out months, if not years, ago – or trying to negotiate sex in a shitty single bed. JOY.
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Picture: Ada Hamza
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.