| Topic: | Re:Re:Don't blame foreigners, developers, the government | |
| Posted by: | Ken Munn | |
| Date/Time: | 06/01/15 16:26:00 |
| Adam, Last time I researched this was probably five years back or so. The number of people looking for a home of their own was something like 2.5 million. The number of annual housing starts was a smidgin over 100,000 pa. One reason land values are so high is because so little of it is zoned for residential development. There are other factors in the housing shortage apart from 'foreigners'. People are living longer, thus stay in their houses longer. Many more young people go into further education - those living off-campus need housing, almost always rentals. More marriages end in divorce - what was one household becomes two. And the population keeps increasing. New housing starts, from BBC Feb 2014... "In total, 122,590 homes were started, the largest number since 2007, and a rise of 23% on the previous year. However the number of homes completed, 109,370, was the lowest since 2010, and a fall of 5% on 2012. Of those built, nearly 13,000 were sold under the government's Help to Buy equity loan scheme, which began in April 2013. The figures were published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The number of homes being built in the UK is still well below its all-time high, which was 425,000 in 1968. Housing charity Shelter welcomed what it called the "uptick" in house-building, but said the country was still building less than half of the 250,000 homes a year it needs." |