One in five young people ‘have no desire to own a home’

Applegate can report that according to a survey, a significant number of younger Britons have no desire to own their home and much prefer to rent. This demonstrates that the property market is changing.

A survey of 23 to 27-year-olds in the UK carried out by the National Centre for Social Research on Halifax’s behalf found 48 per cent believe the UK will soon become a generation of renters. A similar number said they think the country is becoming more like Europe, where renting is seen as the norm.

The survey also revealed many young people are unwilling to make the financial commitments needed to get on the property ladder. Some 86 per cent of respondents said they would not move to a lower-quality rental home in order to save enough for a deposit, while 54 per claimed they are unwilling to make financial sacrifices in general.

Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, stated: “With attitudes softening towards the social implications of renting and the number of people who say they will never own a property increasing, we may be heading towards the point where the aspiration to own a nice home will be replaced by the aspiration simply to live in one.”

He added that if people are willing to rent throughout their life this could radically change the appearance of the property ladder and for some people it may not exist at all.

The results from the survey also found that fewer people think renting stops them from fully settling in an area – down from 58 per cent last year to 53 per cent. Meanwhile, a similar drop occurred in the number of individuals who believe they cannot make a rental property feel like their own home.

These findings demonstrate that there is change ahead for rental and property market. Here at Applegate we offer both a sales and lettings service to cater for any property needs.