Published on : Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:28GMT
by : Richard Byers

People, who take pride for earning incomes too high for any government help in rents, still look dejected and helpless at the thought of buying a house.

A recent survey revealed that the amount of young and working couples unable to get on to the housing ladder were increasing by the day, so much so that even the lowest priced properties in their vicinity fell beyond their financial reach.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation stated that even though about 1.25 million ‘younger’ couples staying in England, Wales and Scotland in social properties, reported incomes too high to avail any housing benefit, they were far behind the race that could afford a mortgage for even the most economical, two and three-bedroom homes.

It added further that around one-fifth to one-half of the couples facing this “intermediate housing market” crisis aged less than 40, while almost 60,000 newly-wed couples found themselves in this plight every year.

The Rowntree Foundation cautioned that the government had to intervene in order to bridge the wide gap between shared ownership accommodation and reasonable private rental housing. It said that even regional planners and estate managers could offer help to clear this obstacle.

The report clearly showed about 40 districts having more than 40% young couples struggling to get on to the property ladder, and not able to finance 10% of the most inexpensive two-three bedroom houses in their region.

The most unaffordable property was found in and Bournemouth areas of Dorset, with 55% young households from Weymouth & Portland and 52% from Bournemouth not having enough to own a house.
Likewise, South Buckinghamshire, Carrick in Cornwall, Kensington & Chelsea, Harrow and Restorable in Cornwall, had 49% young households still yearning to buy their first home.

In total, 14 local authorities enlisted were found to be in the South East region, with 13 in London and 12 in the South West. The North only had Ryedale in North Yorkshire with signs of unaffordability amongst the youth.