This is Home Front with Vicky Spratt, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.
Later, I’ll also stick my head above the parapet to say that I don’t think proposed amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill are quite the “climbdown” that Yimby’s argue they are.
But first, let’s talk about house prices!
If you bought a house reasonably cheaply in the 1980s, 90s or just after the 2008 financial crisis, it probably made you more money than your job.
House prices then went on to peak in 2022, with the average home costing £286,000.
This made owning a home a good investment and turned some homeowners into millionaires.
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Why? Because house prices seem to have stopped rising and are heading for another flat year. As I’ve written in this newsletter, the housing market has largely stalled with fewer people moving – either as buyers or sellers – than anyone would like or hope.
London has experienced a slight rise in prices, which might be explained by a rush to complete sales before the stamp duty cut ended in May or by the fact that London contains luxury markets that operate differently from the rest of the housing market.
Earlier this month, major building society Nationwide’s data appeared to confirm that prices were going down. They reported a drop of 0.8 per cent in average prices – that’s the biggest monthly fall recorded in two years.
According to the property listings site Rightmove, asking prices – which reflect how much sellers think their houses are worth – have just fallen by 1.2 per cent. This is the largest fall for 20 years.
We have entered a new era for the housing market. The boom looks to be over. And, instead of a bust, we might be experiencing a realignment. A heavy dose of realism has been delivered by the fact that inflation is back, and given that it just rose further away from the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, it may not be going anywhere soon. The era of cheap credit, which fuelled house price rises, is over.
The house price party has ended. In years to come, few people will buy homes as investments to make money on. Instead, they will pay eyewatering sums for somewhere they hope to live and, unless they have rich parents, plan to pay off well into old age.
Firstly, a group of self-defined “pro-growth” Labour MPs are very unhappy that the Government has made some tweaks to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to appease concerns about the environmental impact of new developments.
Some feel this will delay new development, but, honestly, I was chatting to The i Paper’s environment correspondent Lucie Heath about this earlier and we both agree… it is probably quite sensible.
Secondly, you’ll remember that last week the Government confirmed their plans to go ahead and extend the right to vote to 16- and 17 year olds. They will also be introducing automatic voter registration (AVR).
The lobby group Generation Rent have told me that they estimate that AVR could increase the registration rate of this country’s 4.7 million households of private renters from 65 per cent to 91 per cent.
“Research conducted by Generation Rent found that AVR could mean there are 2.3 million more private renters able to vote at the next election.”
Vicky’s pick
What if, Janan Ganesh writes, some people just don’t want to have children and all of the arguments to persuade them – such as we need more young workers to pay tax – are failing to convince them?
Personally, I love soft play. I think all adults should have padded rooms where we can lie down, scream, shout, play with our friends and hit things. Perhaps the pronatalists should consider that?
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