ONS report - home ownership and finances

"Renters are in a real Catch-22. Most people paying market rents could comfortably afford mortgage payments if they bought given rock bottom interest rates but many have no real prospect of saving the minimum 5% deposit generally needed to buy with all their wages being spent on rent. We need some joined-up thinking as an industry because the reality is that, with no real social housing safety net, if these people don't buy we are condemning them to a retirement of poverty where they will not be able to afford market rents on a pension income. "There are 0% deposit schemes out there but they tend to rely on the bank of mum and dad getting involved in some way but that is not possible for many would-be buyers."

"I'm not at all surprised that more renters now feel that owning a home is even more of a distant dream than ever. However, the situation, at least beyond the extremes in areas of the south of England, is not as bad as many think. A lot of the data we see reported, such as average house prices, bears no reality on the situation of buying a house in Telford or Leicester, for example. The data is a UK average, so is not actually the cost many will be buying at and certainly not as first-time buyers. "Given the scale of the issues faced by many sectors, without wanting to take away from the stress that being behind on bills causes to those in the situation, I'm actually a little surprised it's not more than 10%. I can only imagine that a combination of the furlough scheme and people's own savings have been the reason for such a comparatively low figure."

"For the first time in my lifetime, I’m feeling anxious about UK PLC and the rising costs of living (amongst many other nerve-wracking issues bubbling away). Plans to buy a family home have been scuppered by the vast increases in property prices along with reduced stock. Am I forever to be trapped in this pink-walled, red-carpeted, pine-doored 70’s rental?"

"I find it depressing that the dream of homeownership may remain just a dream for too many people. This is due to a combination of factors but fundamentally we don't build enough houses in the UK. The government needs to commit serious money to build hundreds of thousands of family homes for ordinary people, especially more council houses. It can't simply rely on the private sector, which naturally favours building more profitable 4 or 5 bed detached houses, to do this."

"For far too long the government has implemented policies which they think help people to buy a home when in fact what actually happens is they artificially inflate house prices and make it harder for renters to buy their first home."