Seems I’m not the only one fed up with the whole ‘don’t build on the green belt because you’ll destroy our lovely countryside’ spiel.
Last week’s analysis, Homing in on the green belt, has struck a chord with a host of senior industry figures fed up to the back teeth with the bucolic bull being propagated about vast tracts of land that are green in name only.
Two have taken to the letters page to vent their frustration, and if you are in any doubt as to the depth of the feeling in the industry as a whole, look no further than page four: three quarters of those polled in a Property Week survey ahead of our RESI Conference think planning restrictions on the green belt should be relaxed to enable the development of new homes.
The issue is set to be hotly debated at RESI (if you are reading this on Tuesday or Wednesday and are not at Celtic Manor in Wales, you’re missing out - granted I am biased, but the content and speaker line-up are top notch). Another contentious issue likely to dominate debate is the growing unaffordability of housing, with Generation X the last cohort probably able to afford to buy, while Generation Y and Z are destined to a life of renting without the help of the Bank of Mum and Dad.
Our survey reveals 72% of us do not think our children will be able to afford to buy a home before they are 40. Yet only 26% believe those kids would prefer to rent, torpedoing the myth that ‘rentysomethings’ crave a lifetime of flexibility over the security of home ownership.
Delivering what will no doubt be his usual thought-provoking presentation at RESI, Savills residential research director Lucian Cook will reveal data showing the extent of the paradigm shift in home ownership as the age of homeowners creeps inexorably upwards - and with it the age of renters who can no longer afford to buy.
The hope is that government gets the message that stimulating demand at the bottom of the housing ladder is not the answer - not the only one, anyway - and that more needs to be done to stimulate supply, particularly at the top, with maturists (careful with the spelling there, folks) and baby boomers offered housing options attractive enough to persuade them to move out of homes too big for them and allow younger generations to move in.
As Cook points out: “Initiatives such as the Starter Homes policy can only go so far. More market-led solutions need to be developed both to meet the needs of a growing pool of private renters and actively encourage the recycling of housing wealth to help younger households get on the housing ladder.”
Equally, we need a planning system that helps rather than hinders development - and, of course, the land to develop on. To that end, we must do a far better job as an industry communicating the fact that the green belt has been buckled too tightly and needs to be let out a notch or two. Or before we know it, the home ownership divide will be insurmountable.
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