North Norfolk had the 4th lowest proportion of first time buyers in the UK last year
It was level with Chichester - which jointly scored lowest out of all areas, outside of London
Last updated 20th Jun 2022
North Norfolk had the joint 4th lowest proportion of first time buyers, out of anywhere in the UK last year, according to research from life-advice business Stipendium.
The findings mean it was level with Chichester, who jointly scored lowest out of all areas, outside of London.
"There has got to be more social housing that can be brought and rented"
Jan Sheldon from the Norwich housing trust, St. Martins says there's only one way to change this: "We know that we need to build 90,000 homes every year for the next ten years to address the housing crisis.
"There is a difference between a social house and an affordable ones- but we don't have enough of either of them, so that will have a knock-on impact in terms of the way and where first time buyers can actually buy a property."
Duncan Baker, who's the MP for the area agrees and says Parliament's taking action: "There has got to be more social housing that can be brought and rented.
"We saw some of those reforms last week starting to come through, we've got the levelling up and regeneration bill that's just had it's second reading through Parliament.
"From a national perspective, it's worth noting that the annual number of first time buyers is actually at an all time high."
"That's only made things worse I'm afraid"
Ms Sheldon says this hasn't happened over-night either: "You've seen a gradual shift towards different politics and thinking around home-ownership.
"A lack of investment is critical and if you look back over the last few decades there has been a year on year decrease in the amount of funding for housing, and that's only made things worse I'm afraid."
While Mr Baker says there's ways to tackle all this quickly: "In many cases the private rental market is disappearing as people start to just rent out to holiday makers, and you make triple the amount of money.
"I think it would be a good idea to have a planning class there, that you have to get a change of use planning permission to be able to do that. I think that would dampen down the level of holiday accommodation in the area."