Published at 14:06, Friday, 27 April 2012

Young people wanting to get onto the property ladder are expecting to be 37 years old before they can make the bottom rung – and many others aren’t planning to buy at all.

MoneySupermarket.com asked adults who don’t own their own home at what age they believe they will be ready to buy one. The average estimate of 37 is substantially higher than in past surveys, where many expected to buy before they turned 30.

And more than two out of every five people asked say they don’t plan to buy a property at all – equating to eight million Britons who would be permanent renters.

The researchers have been taken aback by the findings. “Home ownership is a really big thing here in the UK,” says MoneySupermarket’s mortgage spokeswoman Clare Francis.

“For years it has been something millions of people aspire to, so it’s surprising to see that this may be changing and that some people are giving up on the hope of ever owning their own home.”

The increased popularity of renting has been noticed by Kyle Blue, consultant with Penrith estate agents PF&K.

“I would agree that first-time buyers seem to be getting older,” he notes. “But the availability of property to rent is far greater now than it was a few years ago.

“It could be that at the low end of the market there will be a culture change, with people more inclined to rent rather than buy.”

Mr Blue puts it down not just to high house prices and deposits, but less job security. “Renting doesn’t commit anyone to the same extent. With job certainty not what it was, it offers a greater degree of flexibility.”

But he doubts whether the culture change will be permanent. “The love affair that British people have with housing seems to know no bounds,” he adds.

Steve Hardaker, director of Allan estate agents in Carlisle, says there are still plenty of first-time buyers in Carlisle in their mid-20s, as property in the city remains more reasonably priced than in other parts of Britain.

And like Mr Blue he doubts whether the culture has change for good.

“Renting in the last three years has been phenomenal,” he said. “But it is deposit-driven. People are still wanting to get into property and it’s those who haven’t got the deposit together who are renting.

“If 100 per cent mortgages came back tomorrow a lot of those people would buy.”

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk