13-02-2025
The ugly truth behind baby boomers and Britain's housing crisis
Boomer homeowners have at least two rooms to spare while younger people are forced to live in cramped rentals, analysis has revealed.
Nearly 10 million homes in England had at least two unused bedrooms last year and were therefore considered under-occupied, according to the latest English Housing Survey.
Pensioners made up the largest share of these homeowners, with around 36pc of Britain's 16 million properties owned by retirees.
The issue is amplifying generational rifts. While pensioners enjoy ever more breathing space, the young are being squeezed into expensive rentals.
It comes as a separate analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) research by the Intergenerational Foundation found that the number of young people with no housing wealth is at record highs.
It has become harder for renters to find bigger properties, with the proportion of those with extra bedrooms on the private market falling from 16pc in 2022-2023 to 13pc last year.
The proportion of rental homes with less than 50 square meters of floor space has increased to 18.6pc from 15.3pc a decade ago. This is equivalent to the minimum gross internal floor and storage area by law for a new-build single-bedroom flat for two people – with the absolute minimum for one being 37 square metres.
However, owner-occupied homes are ballooning, with the share of those stretching over 110 square metres increasing from 34.7 to 38pc during this time.
Not only are renters having to live in smaller homes, but the route to becoming a homeowner is getting harder as prices continue to rise.
In 2008-2010, the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds who have no housing wealth was 35pc. The latest data, which covers 2020-2022, found that 44pc now have no housing wealth.
The average age of a first-time buyer hit nearly 34 last year, according to major lender Barclays, two years higher than at the turn of the century.
The average price of a home in the UK was £289,707 in November 2024, according to the Land Registry – 10 times the average wage for those aged between 22 and 29.
Baby boomers were eyeing up property worth an average of £58,000 at a similar age back in 1990, roughly five times their £12,500 pay packets at the time, meaning their money went about twice as far.
Meanwhile, over-65s are the only group which has not seen an increase in the number of those without property wealth. The proportion of pensioners sitting on property wealth of more than £500,000 has jumped from 5pc in 2008-2010 to 18pc.
'The continued widening of the gulf of housing wealth between generations is deeply concerning,' Toby Whelton, from the Intergenerational Foundation, said.
'If these trends of low homeownership continue for younger generations, it will mean that when younger generations reach state pension age, the majority will not enjoy the same security of owning their own home and will be forced into renting into very old age.'
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