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POSITIVE MONEY MOST HOMEOWNERS HAPPY FOR HOUSE PRICES NOT TO RISE ... New report debunks housing crisis being result of shortage of homes, calls for new approach Original article: https://positivemoney.org/2022/03/most-homeowners-happy-for-house-prices-not-to-rise/ Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
3 shocking stats about the housing crisis...and how to fix it
Mar 31, 2022
Positive Money 19.4K subscribers
We all know the UK housing system is broken and prices are too high. Which must mean there aren’t enough homes to go round, right?
Wrong. Here’s what’s really going on.
Today, you can earn more money by owning a house than by working. That’s because for decades, policies by governments and central banks have turned our homes into vehicles for accumulating wealth, by making house prices go up much faster than wages.
Over the last 50 years, housing policy has shifted dramatically. We've seen tax cuts, the scrapping of rent controls, the sell-off of social housing through ‘Right to Buy’ & changes to housing benefits. Property has been transformed into a more & more profitable investment.
At the same time, our governments ripped up the red tape that limits how much banks can lend to people to buy houses. That has meant much more money flowing into property, leading the wealthy to buy multiple homes and pushing prices up and up.
What does this mean?
We all need a safe, warm and comfortable home to live a healthy and fulfilled life. But the housing bubble has put safe, comfortable homes out of reach for a growing majority, especially young people, ethnic minority households & others on low incomes.
In the 1990s it took the average young family in the UK 4 years to save for a deposit. Today, it takes 22 years - 32 in London. And Black & ethnic minority households in London have 6 times less household wealth than White British households.
Banks and landlords gobble up more of people’s wages through rent and mortgage payments than ever before. That means less money for essentials like food and heating, adding huge pressure to the cost of living squeeze.
The last few governments have tried to help more people onto the ‘housing ladder’ with schemes like ‘Help to Buy’ & expanding access to mortgages. But these are sticking plaster solutions - and have actually fuelled demand and pushed up prices even more.
In new YouGov polling, we found:
-------------------------- Positive Money is a not-for-profit research and campaign group. We campaign for a fair, democratic and sustainable money system.
MOST HOMEOWNERS HAPPY FOR HOUSE PRICES NOT TO RISE New report debunks housing crisis being result of shortage of homes, calls for new approach by Chloe Musto London, 31 March 2022 – A majority (54%) of British homeowners would be happy if their own home did not rise in value in the next ten years if it meant houses were more affordable for those who don’t own property, according to YouGov polling commissioned for a new report on Britain’s housing crisis, published today by research and campaign group Positive Money. The report, ‘Banking on property’, debunks the dominant narrative that inflated house prices are primarily the result of a failure to build enough homes. Rather, the authors argue that the rapid house price growth of recent decades has been driven by the transformation of homes into financial assets, through a loosening of financial regulation and monetary policy, as well as wider policy changes such as tax incentives, right to buy and the deregulation of the private rental market. Positive Money’s YouGov polling indicates that the majority of the British public – including a majority of homeowners – are in favour of bold reform. As well as most homeowners being happy for house prices not to increase:
The report recommends that the UK government launches a new long-term housing affordability strategy to stabilise house prices and bring the house-price-to-income ratio down to more sustainable levels over time. A number of policies are proposed to implement this strategy, including:
“The prevalent narrative that house prices are out of reach for so many due to a shortage of homes fails to explain the explosive growth of recent decades. House price inflation has mainly been driven by successive governments and central bankers transforming homes into financial assets, through deregulation and other policies favouring investment in property. “Governments have failed to deal with the housing crisis because of a pervasive view that the public, who are majority homeowners, would be against policies that restrict house price growth. However, the evidence suggests that most people, including homeowners, support a fairer approach to housing which seeks to stabilise prices rather than letting them inflate endlessly. “The government needs a bold new strategy to slowly let the air out of the housing bubble and tackle this huge part of the cost of living crisis. A new housing affordability strategy should include increasing taxes on multiple property owners while simultaneously improving alternatives to home ownership, as well as a new mandate for the Bank of England to ensure our central bank is no longer throwing fuel on the fire.”Notes
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