20,000 people who are searching for a new house believe that property prices in their area are too high, a study has found.1
The survey, of 40,000 people looking to buy a home, revealed that half do not think current prices are fair.1
However, house prices still exceed earnings in lots of places.1
Property prices sit at around five times the average salary, causing a great struggle for many people to break into the market.1 After the crash of 2007, mortgage lending has become stricter for those without a large deposit; pushing many first time buyers off the property ladder.
The last few years have seen house prices steady out, although some experts expect drops in the next couple of years.1 As such a large amount of people cannot join the housing market, and with home building at such low levels, the market is predicted to continue declining in order to lower the house price to income ratio.1
The private rental sector has seen a large increase in the last few years as less people are buying and cannot live in social housing. This movement is likely to continue in the next ten years, particularly in London and the South East, where house prices surpass earnings by about seven times.1
A study by Cambridge University found that if the UK economy does not improve significantly, then just a quarter of adults will have mortgages by 2025. It is currently at one third.1
The rental sector does, however, have a new market in the form of young families who would have bought in the past, now unable to buy.
1 http://www.justlandlords.co.uk/news/Public-Believe-Property-Prices-are-Unfair-1358.html