UK housing: Generation Rent faces 'a life in expensive renting', says Shelter

Generation Rent – those born in the 1980s and unlikely to own a home – face "a life in expensive, unstable private renting", the housing charity Shelter has claimed.

Shelter calculates that by 2020 the typical first-time buyer will need to earn £64,000 ($90,578) a year and have saved a £46,000 deposit to be able to get onto the property ladder. That is a fifth higher than the £52,000 salary needed in 2015.

This conclusion is based on a projection by Paul Cheshire, professor emeritus of economic geography at the London School of Economics, that the average UK house price will rise by 23% to £270,000 over the same period.

"When house prices are increasing six times faster than the average wage, it's no wonder people on ordinary incomes are being locked out of a home of their own," said Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter.

"With the situation only set to get worse, Generation Rent will be forced to resign themselves to a life in expensive, unstable private renting, and wave goodbye to their dreams of a home to put down roots in."

Shelter's research follows a protest in March against the government's Housing and Planning Bill which is being debated in parliament. The government says measures in the bill, including discounted "starter homes" for first-time buyers, will "turn Generation Rent into Generation Buy". But campaigners against the bill say it will result in less affordable housing.