Number of young home owners have dropped significantly, new research shows

Over a quarter fewer young people are home owners in Britain now than in 1991 while renting has increased over the last 20 years, new research shows.

With house prices having steadily increased since the financial crisis in 2008, properties are more expensive now than any time in living memory, says the study from MoneySuperMarket

But with salaries increasing at a much slower rate, buying a property has become significantly harder over time, it adds.

The fall is largest among those aged 16 to 34 where the proportion of home owners has dropped from 51% in 1991 to only 24% in 2016.

Meanwhile, there has been a 30% increase in renters in the same age group from 56% to 73% which the research report says suggests that fewer people are able to pay for homes on their own at all.

In order to combat the rising costs and lowering possibilities of home ownership, many are turning towards relying on a relationship to access the property market.

While between 1994 and 2006 individual home owners made up 31% of the market, by 2016 it had dropped to 20% with the difference being made up in couples, which went from 64% of the market to 77% in the same time. Those buying in other arrangements also dropped from 5% to 3%.

The report points out that the change comes as a result of the dropping values of salaries. While in 1999, the average annual salary was equivalent to 23% of the average house price, in 2012 to 2017 it dropped to only 11%, meaning houses are that much more expensive proportionally than they were 15 years ago.

Kindly shared by Property Wire