Some Dorset adults fear they’ll never own their home
Nearly 60% of 35 to 54-year-olds 'lost hope' of getting on property ladder
Nearly 60% of 35 to 54-year-olds who aren’t on the property ladder in Dorset have told a survey they've lost faith in ever owning their own home.
Two-fifths said the cost of living was the main factor preventing them from buying their first home, while 43% had delayed purchasing due to high prices.
Tom Lund from Citizens Advice Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole told us: “We've got particularly high property prices across the whole of Dorset.
“When property prices go up and the affordability of mortgages is unattainable, the price of rent also goes up, so we’re in a rent crisis at the moment whereby people just can't afford it.”
However, a key motivation for people buying their own home was not "wasting" money on rent, 55% of all respondents.
But according to the research, two in ten 18 to 34-year-olds 54 are unsure if they will ever own a home or are not planning to buy one at all.
The survey asked would-be first-time buyers about the barriers preventing them from buying a home and over half said they felt “overwhelmed” by the complexity of the current market they had given up.
Tom Lund puts forward another reason: “The cost of living for a single person can often be unaffordable. You’ve got utilities to pay for, TV subscriptions, broadband perhaps, food shops and all those other additional costs.”
In Dorset, the number of 30 to 40-year-olds moving back in with their parents has risen over recent years.
Tom tells us: “Multigenerational living is becoming more common now as it makes it easier to deal with all those costs.
“For so long now we've been talking about the decline in property conditions, especially in rented accommodation, and people are starting to think, ‘well, where's the benefit to me?’
“There's less of an incentive for people to go out and get their own property.”