Seven in 10 renters ‘say they would need lottery win to get on housing ladder’

Seven in 10 renters think they would need a lottery win to afford to buy their own home, a survey suggests.

Some 72% of people currently renting said that they would need a lottery win to buy their own home and four in 10 (39%) are pinning their hopes on a family inheritance in order to buy a property.

The survey was carried out across England and Wales to mark the launch of the Affordable Housing Commission.

The commission has been established by think-tank the Smith Institute with the support of charity the Nationwide Foundation.

It will be chaired by Lord Best, who is a past chief executive of the National Housing Federation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The commission will “examine the causes and effects of the affordability crisis and propose solutions”.

It will report final findings and recommendations in early 2020.

Nearly half (47%) of renters have been unable to save for long periods because of high housing costs in the last year and just over a quarter (28%) have used a credit card to meet basic expenses, the survey found.

Lord Best said: “The survey results hammer home the extent of our national affordable housing crisis. This is no longer a problem confined to a few housing hotspots, but is recognised as an issue by people of all ages and income levels across every region.

“The scale of this challenge demands we stop tinkering and build a consensus around some bold solutions.

“Over the coming months the Affordable Housing Commission will be speaking with the public and discussing with housing professionals what these big interventions to tackle the housing affordability crisis should be.”

More than 1,400 adults were surveyed across England and Wales.

The survey, which also included home owners, found nearly two-thirds (64%) of people surveyed across England and Wales think there is an affordable housing crisis.

It also found that as a result of housing costs, half of people (47%) have faced financial difficulties over the past year, such as borrowing to meet basic expenses, being unable to save or struggling to pay household bills.

Over half (52%) of people surveyed believe housing costs will become less affordable in the next 10 years and just over one in 10 (11%) think costs will become more affordable.

Housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “We want everyone to have a shot at home ownership and with Help to Buy and stamp duty cuts we are beginning to restore that dream for many. But we will only achieve this for everyone by getting more, better, faster homebuilding.

“This Government is committing big money to the task, including £9 billion for affordable homes, and my job is to galvanise everyone else involved to get us to 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s because that’s what young people deserve.”