Generation Rent is fleeing London as housing costs soar
Is London bracing for a mass exodus of millennials?
The capital’s exorbitant housing costs are hardly news, but a new survey suggests that the situation is getting so bad that more than 80 per cent of London’s twenty-somethings may be sent packing to other parts of the UK.
At £1,507, the average monthly rent for a Londoner is more than double the UK average – and not something everyone can comfortably, or for that matter uncomfortably, afford.
Some 82 per cent of twenty-somethings polled by campaign group Fifty Thousand Homes admitted they’ve considered moving out of London specifically because of the high housing costs.
For many, this is more than just idle chat. More than half of those polled are “seriously considering” a move, and almost half of the twenty-somethings now living in London think they’ll move once they start raising a family.
“This is young Londoners at the start of their career telling the next mayor very clearly what needs fixing. London's housing supply is simply not keeping up with our growing population as a city and they are feeling the pinch,” said campaign director Will Higham.
Baroness Jo Valentine, chief exec of lobby group London First, said that london business would be struck by the housing crisis too:
This is unfair on the young but is going to end up hurting us all if generation rent becomes generation went.