"With the upcoming election a key issue will be how the parties plan to build more homes and provide much needed support to first-time buyers."
- Chief executive of the HomeOwners Alliance, Paula Higgins
1.9 million aspiring homeowners do not think they will follow in the footsteps of their home owning parents, according to new research by the HomeOwners Alliance.
Three quarters (73%) of aspiring homeowners say their parents owned their home, but only 48% expect to own themselves (a drop of 25%).
The research found that the majority (71%) of Brits who do not own their home aspire to do so in the future. But more than half (52%) of these 7.5 million aspiring homeowners - 3.9 million - do not think they will ever be able to.
Top reasons for not owning include high house prices (60%), saving for a deposit (44%), ability to afford monthly mortgage repayments (33%) and the ability to get approved for a mortgage (31%).
28% of younger homeowners rely on government schemes in order to afford a home, more than three times then UK homeowners overall (9%), while 20% aged 18-34 rely on the Bank of Mum and Dad, making it one of the biggest lenders.
In addition, 30+ year mortgage terms are becoming the norm. More than 1 in 3 (38%) homeowners aged 18-34 have a term of 30 years or more vs 15% of UK homeowners overall.
Chief executive of the HomeOwners Alliance, Paula Higgins, said: "Brits are giving up on their dream of homeownership, our damning survey reveals. The government has failed aspiring homeowners, and continues to degrade the life chances of young people by continually not building enough homes.
"This shortage of new homes has led to rocketing house prices, leaving aspiring homeowners dependent on Mum and Dad to bolster savings or by locking themselves into longer term mortgages which cost them more in the long run. While over a decade of low mortgage rates helped the over 35s to buy a place, in today’s broken Britain, homeowners rely on government schemes to get them out of this mess and bridge the affordability gap - except the government’s flagship Help to Buy programme has ended with nothing to fill the void.
"So here we are, at a tipping point. 4 million of the 7.5 million aspiring homeowners in the UK don’t think they will ever be able to own their home. And almost 2 million don’t think they will follow in the footsteps of their home owning parents. We know that the fewer people that own, the worse the prospects of homeownership are for their children.
"With the upcoming election a key issue will be how the parties plan to build more homes and provide much needed support to first-time buyers."
