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Financial crisis has spawned ‘generation rent’
Business digest: Deposit requirements are now so high that few believe they can buy their own home
A report by Halifax, one of the UK's largest lenders, has found that around two-thirds of 20- to 45-year-olds believe that they will never be able to buy their own home.
Dubbing these people "generation rent", the survey pointed to the 20 to 25 per cent deposit now needed to purchase a home - more than double the 5 to 10 per cent needed before the financial crisis.
"Britain is home to a generation of renters who are giving up on buying their own home," the report concluded. As a result, home ownership rates may fall dramatically unless help is given to first-time buyers.
On the other hand, a separate report by think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that lenient lending policies were responsible for driving house prices up, and that rules should be put in place to restrict the ratio between loans and a borrower's salary.
Read a full report at the Financial Times (subscription). ·
