Want to save for a deposit? Then move back to Mum and...

Hamptons International says single first time buyers and couples can significantly cut the time it takes to save for a deposit by moving back in with parents, or not moving out in the first place.

The agency says a single first time buyer in England and Wales could reduce the time to save for a deposit from 13 years to just four years, while a couple could reduce the time taken from three and a half years to one year and nine months.

More young adults are now moving back in to, or remaining in, their family homes to save up than in previous years.

The Office for National Statistics says there were 6.6m young adults aged 15 to 34 living rent-free with family or friends in 2015 compared to 5.6m in 2000.

Higher rent relative to income in London means that buyers in the capital benefit most from staying with parents. The average London couple could cut almost five years off saving up time reducing it to less than three years, while a single buyer could cut it by - wait for it - a remarkable 33 years.

“In 2015, the government estimated that around a quarter of people aged 21 to 34 now live with their parents” says Fionnuala Earley, residential research director at Hamptons International.

“The Chancellor further improved the prospects for those saving a deposit when he announced the Lifetime ISA in March’s Budget. Available from 2017, together with the Help to Buy schemes and the increasing availability of higher loan to value lending, this eases the pain for would-be first-time buyers and cuts the time it takes to save up to purchase a property” she says.

Rob Davies
18 April 2016 11:37 AM

Nothing like stereotyping the young there, eh Richard?

Where are all these young people going on 2 holidays a year? I have one a year, if I'm lucky, and I'm sure many other people of my generation (I'm a 90s baby) would be the same.

You also seem to be painting all young people as gadget obsessed and materialistic, when that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm sure some people are keen to have a new iPhone and a new car and the biggest telly, but far from all. And are young people not allowed to have a car and an iPhone and not also expect house prices and rents to be reasonable.

You say that interest rates are almost zero and it's never been cheaper to borrow money, but it's not that simple, is it? It really isn't. I work in the industry, I know how bloomin difficult it is for young people to get on the property ladder. Deposits of £20,000+. £80,000+ in London. Despite what you might think, very few people are on salaries of £50k plus and can afford to save for such ludicrously high deposits.

Plus, of course, rents are so expensive that it's almost impossible to rent and save at the same time.

And it just ain't that easy to get mortgage lenders to lend to you, even if you can cobble the deposit together by living off cereal for three years. Because the competition is so intense, and sellers want to get as much as possible for their home, and because the BTL and Buy to Leave Brigade come sweeping in to hoover up all the stock.

It's easy for you to sit there and sneer at young people and say they should live like paupers in order to save for their own home. Truth is, it really ain't that easy. Young people are being screwed over by this government with house prices and rents. The fact you can't see that says it all.

It's not about champagne lifestyles. Most young people just want to know that they might one day own their own home even if there wages are nothing to write home about.

Your stereotyping does you no favours, Richard. It's like me saying all baby boomers are greedy, in it for themselves money hoarders. It just doesn't ring true.

Jon Tarrey
18 April 2016 11:56 AM

Breathtaking ignorance, Rich. If you think young people have it easy, I suggest you come and have a talk with my nephew and niece. Or the children of friends of mine.

They certainly aren't going on 2 holidays a year. Many of them have to scrape by every month because their wages are so rubbish and the rents they pay so high. With most of the jobs concentrated around London, young people who live elsewhere have to move to the capital, pay extortionate rents and then have no hope in hell of saving enough money for a massive deposit because most of their income is going straight back out again.

Have you not seen the news about how much deposits are these days, Rich? Have you not seen how high house prices currently are?

If you think buying a home in this day and age is simple and straightforward, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself. It's far from easy. Competition is fierce, stumbling blocks many and varied and the associated costs of buying a home - conveyancing, surveys, solicitor fees - incredibly high. You need a small fortune - or very rich parents - to get on the property ladder these days. Failing that, you'll need a big helping hand from the Bank of Mum and Dad or a hefty inheritance. It shouldn't be this way.

You and I both remember when it was possible to get a home on a fairly modest wage. Then Thatcher came along - a hero to you, I imagine - sold off all the social/council housing and never replaced it. Subsequent governments have had a similarly appalling record on housing, including this current mob (who have been the worst of the lot), and we now have a situation where the average price of a home in the UK is over £250,000. Where the average price of a home in London is over £500,000. What's that if it's not absurd?

Young people are probably buying iPhones, new cars and bigger tellies because they've given up hope of ever owning their own home. It takes a long old time to save up £20,000 for a deposit (at least), especially if you're not part of a couple. Not every young person is rolling around in money on £60k a year. Very, very few are. I thought a man of the world like yourself might know that.

The solution, of course, is simple. Regulate rents, end Buy to Leave, bring all empty properties back into use, build thousands of new homes - genuinely affordable ones at that - and stop gimmicky nonsense like Help to Buy, Lifetime ISAs and shared ownership, which do nothing to solve the issue. The current situation, where house prices are rising ten times faster than wages - with rents not far behind - is not sustainable in the long run.

You can blame young people all you want, Rich, but you need to be targeting your ire towards the government instead. Young people didn't cause this housing crisis, but they are the ones who are having to stay at home until their early forties because of it!