More Houses Needed

The Government has been told that unless it increases house building first time buyers may never get the chance to get a foot on the property ladder.

An independent advisory body has warned that 270,000 homes are needed per year by 2016 not the 240,000 that are official targets.

The backlog in demand and more immigrants would lessen the number of owner occupied properties. Also first time buyers were waiting longer before buying and there had been a smaller amount of mortgages taken out by this sector of the market.

Part of the problem also came from the fact there is a shortage of larger properties so those wishing to move to larger premises are unable therefore those who would normally be moving up the ladder cannot. This means the properties that first time buyers would be purchasing are not becoming available either. This of course adds to the price increase again hitting the first time buyer.

The National Housing Federation said the Government needs to increase the amount of homes for social rent and shared ownership but feel even this will still leave many unable to gain a conventional mortgage, putting more strain on the rental market.

As long as demand is greater than supply houses will always be out of range of those on moderate incomes.