Rental costs in London soar as young adults opt to live with their parents
Over one million young adults are living at home with parents amid rising rental costs, according to a new housing report out today.
Just under half of all men aged 22-26 now at their parents’ home, as renters in London are on average spending 40 per cent of their income on rent, having risen from 15 per cent in the early 1980s.
The paper, published by a newly-formed conservative think tank called Onward, called on government to give councils the power to limit overseas purchases of new homes.
Further findings included the fact that France has built roughly twice the number of houses as Britain in every year since 1970.
Onward also argued that the growth of buy to let has prevented 2.2m families from owning a house, as the growth of privately-owned homes has fallen behind the rise in privately-rented property.
Read more: Number of private landlords leaving UK rental market soars
Such figures come in the wake of several housebuilding giants forecasting tough times ahead amid volatile political uncertainty. Last week London-focused house builder Berkeley Group said that its profits had “peaked”.
Will Tanner, director of Onward and a former deputy head of policy in Downing Street, said: “If the Government wants to regain the support of young people and win the next election, it must be unflinching in its pursuit of greater homeownership. That means hard choices, like ending tax breaks for new landlords and giving councils much stronger powers to assemble land for new towns and villages.”
Read more: London rent growth below zero for 17 months straight
Neil O’Brien, the MP who wrote the report and has also previously worked in Downing Street, said: “We can’t solve the housing problem with one hand tied behind our backs. As well as building more homes, we need to change the balance between the rented sector and home ownership. We should protect existing landlords but discourage more people from investing in rental property, because the buy to let boom has bid up prices and reduced homeownership among younger people.”