Press
Mortgage Solutions 15th Aug 2005
Party politics
The Government plans to develop shared ownership schemes to aid the plight of first-time buyers (Mortgage solutions 08/08/2005), but this does not address the problem of supply and demand that we are seeing, particularly in the South East.
The Government needs to build new houses and address the paradox, as the article suggests, of us having one of the most densely populated areas of Europe with high housing demand and yet some of the lowest housing densities.
Young people cannot afford to get on the housing ladder in the South East because it is just too expensive. But if more people are renting, coupled with their mistrust of pensions, you have to wonder who will pick up the burden of them not planning for the future.
The problems faced by first-time buyers are nothing new. The difference now, however, is we have this party-over-property culture where many young people appear to have no intention of ever getting on the property ladder.
James Carter
Independent financial adviser
Virtue Financial