Where can I afford to live?

THIS is a question which haunts many people today as the realism sinks in that it is just becoming too expensive to find anywhere to live, whether that is looking for somewhere to rent or somewhere to buy.

If we go back 20 to 30 years young people would purchase their first flat in their early 20s.

This would typically be a one bedroom property at around £26,000 and prime examples would have included Dudbridge Meadow.

After some five years they would be looking to settle down and move to a house with gardens to the front and rear, your own parking space and gas central heating with double glazing up to £60,000 figure, which incidentally also used to be a stamp duty threshold.

This also provided an opportunity to start a family and as ones family expanded one could move onto a three bedroom semi-detached which were around the £72,000 price bracket and detached three bedroom houses were in at £85,000 to £95,000.

Mortgages were typically three times salary which at three x £15,000 = £45,000 and five per cent deposits meant that houses were affordable.

Average length of years per property were some six years and people tended to up-size or down size no more than 10 miles from their existing home.

How much things have changed?

Though not all for the better.

A lack of affordable property has forced many to rent which provide profits for investors who entered the market mainly seeking capital growth as we saw houses prices double and double again.

The BBC have a produced programme which can be found at bbc.co.uk/news/business-23234033 which enabled you to enter the amounts of rent you can afford to pay or the amount of mortgage with deposit to put down.

You can also enter the number of bedrooms you need and the type of property category whether this is the bottom, middle or upper market sector.

The results are somewhat concerning as you will notice a sea of red which represents not affordable in London and the south east which slowly moves west and north as the parameters are increased.

Many of you reading this article may already be home owners and feel that this is not applicable to you.

However I would ask you to also do the exercise entering figure which you can afford or that your sons and daughter can afford and see the results at first hand.

I think you would be very surprised at how unaffordable Britain is becoming.

What are the answers?

More affordable property is required especially at the lower end en masse or both rental and house prices need to fall.

There is no simple solution, however unless action is taken the results will not be beneficial for the overall economy of the country.