Partner Article

Deposit still the biggest barrier to home ownership

New research commissioned by Home Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of homes for sale and affordable rent, has revealed that saving for a deposit is still the biggest barrier to home ownership.

The research, carried out by YouGov Plc, represented 1667 adults from across the UK and explored the various barriers and attitudes to home ownership.

The polling found that, of all respondents who didn’t currently own their own home, 61% aspired to become homeowners. This increased to 88% in the 18-24 age bracket.

Further headlines include:

• 62% of all respondents were not confident that owning their own home could become a reality in the next 5 years.

• 58% of all respondents felt that it was particularly hard to buy a home in their local area – rising to 83% in London

• 51% felt that raising a deposit was the biggest barrier to home ownership

• In fact, 63% of respondents said that they would struggle to raise £5000 in one year, and over half of these said they would struggle to raise just £1000 in one year.

• 48% of respondents also felt that social tenants do not have the same opportunities as others to buy their own homes, and of these, 67% felt that it was unfair that social housing tenants were not afforded the same opportunities to become homeowners.

These findings show that it could take decades for a significant proportion of respondents to raise the £33,000 needed for the average first time buyer deposit (source: Halifax First Time Buyer review).

Mark Henderson, chief executive, Home Group said: “We already know that 87% of our customers aspire to own their own homes, so, as a housing provider, we need to respond to these results to enable our customers to achieve their aspirations.

“As raising a deposit and being a social housing tenant are clear concerns for the majority of those surveyed, and with voluntary right to buy currently on hold, we have created a new product to enable our social housing tenants to more easily save for a deposit.

“Our deposit builder product will allow customers to save up to £7000 in just five years through a combination of rent reduction, access to the Government’s Help to Buy ISA and match funding from Home Group.”

Home Group’s product, therefore, allows some social housing tenants to save at a faster rate, and to access home ownership opportunities that were previously unavailable to them.

Mark added: “Our role as an organisation goes beyond building the homes that Britain needs. We also have a responsibility to enable independence and support aspirations, which is precisely why we continually look at new and innovative ways in which to do this.

“Not only does this provide new opportunities for our customers, it also frees up much needed funds for Home Group as an organisation to invest in building more homes and providing more services for the people who need them the most.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Home Group .