News & Updates | Page 17 of 34

  With the cost-of-living crisis beginning to hit, the 20 and 30-somethings of Rugeley urgently need the help and support of the Government to help them get on the property ladder. For the last few weeks, we have listened to the debates and hustings of Liz and Rishi. Between them, they have told us how they are going to stop building on the green belt, slash taxes, outbid each other on the number of refugees they are going to deport and push back against WOKE culture wars, but what are they doing for the 20 to 30-somethings of Rugeley?  

The predicament of the Rugeley 20 to 30 year olds who rent and their inability to get onto the housing ladder is often discussed in the press.   There are 4.43m properties in the UK that are still in the private rented sector (compared to 2.13m in 2002).   This group of people in their 20s and 30’s, who rent from a private landlord, are often called ‘Generation Rent’.   Yet would it surprise you that since 2017, the number of UK households in the private rented sector has reduced by 260,000 whilst the number of homeowners has increased by 1.1m?   In this article I want to talk about another set of people, not ‘Generation Rent’, but ‘Generation Stuck’.

How it works Shared Ownership is a government scheme, offering first-time buyers and those who do not currently own a home opportunity to purchase a share in a new build or a resales property. Designed to help those with small deposits and incomes get onto the property ladder, the premise is to buy a stake and pay rent on the leftover amount.   

The total value of homes owned by Baby Boomers in Rugeley alone is £1,085,453,568 - and two-thirds of the Rugeley Millennials are set to inherit all that in the next few decades! Could this be the answer to the housing crisis?

Rugeley property prices have increased by 23.1% over the last two years. Rugeley house prices have risen on the back of several things, including changes in how people see their homes and how they live and work (i.e. working from home), a lack of properties on the market and government tax incentives (the stamp duty holiday in 2020). Yet, the tide could be beginning to turn as the number of houses coming on the market is increasing as supply is starting to catch up with demand - in Q1 2022, 389,811 properties came onto the market in the UK compared to 425,295 in Q2 2022. One would typically expect Q1 to be larger than Q2 in average years. Yet some commentators are saying one thing that could stifle this growth is the cost-of-living crisis. I wanted to delve deeper into what was happening in Rugeley instead of reading headlines in the newspapers. Let me start with average incomes.

“Tell me what is happening to the Rugeley property market”, someone asked me last week  I always reply, “It depends if you are buying, selling or both”. The Rugeley property market is like a seesaw. For the last two years, it has been quite firmly in the realms of a 90% seller's/10% buyer's market. However, unless you are a Rugeley buy-to-let landlord, Rugeley first-time buyer, or executors selling a deceased person's estate, most home movers are both ( i.e. they are both sellers and buyers).