The Metropolis

London's housing market's changing. Your aspirations might have to change too

Mike Pollitt | Wednesday 28 August, 2013 14:19

If you’re a renter and you can’t imagine how you’ll ever buy, this post is about you.

The Greater London Authority has a report out today which uses information gathered in the 2011 census to show how Londoners’ relationship with their homes is changing over time. Above is the key chart.

The big story is the dotted green line – the rise of a class of private renters (and their hidden corollary, a class of private landlords).

In the last 15 years the proportion of private renters has increased dramatically (by 76% from 2001-2011), while the proportion of home owners and social renters has fallen. You could spend a long time explaining why that’s happened. Anyway, here we are.

One of the key realisations to come to is that this is not the 1980s. So the aspirations of the 1980s – which include the powerful idea of “getting a foot on the property ladder” – are no longer applicable to the reality of the housing market in London in the early 2010s.

What replaces these aspirations for young and/or immigrant Londoners is something worth thinking about.

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