Young people 'giving up on the property dream'

Published 15th Jun 2009

Young people are increasingly falling out of love with the idea of owning their own home, new research shows, as prices remain too high for most to afford.

A study of 2,000 people by the Chartered Institute for Housing, to be released tomorrow, shows that only a third of 18-to-24-year-olds now think owning a home is right for them.

Over the past 12 months an estimated 2.4 million people, most of them young, have changed their opinion about home ownership, when asked their ideal living situation before the credit crunch compared with their ideal living situation now.

The biggest change in attitudes has come in the 25-to-34 age range, with a fall from 83% to 69% of respondents wanting to own their home.

CIH chief executive Sarah Webb said: "A generation has grown up believing it has to own at any cost - in part because we haven't provided them with decent information about the alternatives. We can't repeat this mistake with future young people."

Webb believes Britain not only needs to build many more flats and houses, but to come up with more viable and affordable forms of tenure such as shared equity. She also wants the government to consider using the tax system to prevent house prices from booming again.

Source: ' Observer '

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