Employment figures rise... with property prices!

With 73.7% of young people aged between 16-24 in employment between July 2015 and September 2015, there is more pressure on the housing market that ever to provide properties suitable for low incomes, both renters and first-time buyers.

This more buoyant job market is theoretically working in the favour of young people who want to get on the property ladder. With the interest rate set to remain at 0.5% throughout 2016, and the Bank of England pledging that rises will be small and graduated when they happen, it is an attractive time to take the plunge, and it seems more and more people are doing so - the Bank of England announced that 4% more mortgages were approved in September 2015 than the same period in 2014.

However, even with all of these other aspects seemingly working in their favour, happily employed young people are still likely to find it very hard to get on to the property ladder in 2016. The latest statistics released by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ show that there is very little new property being released onto the market for sale, causing a severe case of demand outstripping supply. This lull of new stock has been ongoing for nearly a year, resulting in a build-up of buyers fighting hard for very few properties – thus forcing the overall price up, and out of the range of many first-time buyers.

Any tired workers who prefer to come home to a rented property may also find it quite a challenge, with rental rates rising as landlords capitalise on people being priced out of the buying market and being forced to rent.

It is no surprise that when the average rent comes in at £751 a month (£960 in London), that the average monthly salary of just over £1800 a month makes renting a squeeze.