UK Still Has Third Highest Housing Costs In Europe

UK residents are still paying more than 40% of their net income on housing costs, keeping the UK as the third most expensive place to live in the EU behind Denmark and Greece

UK families are still among the worst off in Europe when it comes to housing costs, spending more than 42% of their household income on rent, mortgage payments and other living costs, according to data from homeless charity, Shelter.

The successive failure of UK Governments to prioritise housing investment has led to one in six people being overburdened with rent, mortgage payments and costs such as utility bills, service charges and tax.

The report used data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Standards to calculate the percentage of people living in a household where total housing costs (net of housing allowances) exceed 40% of a family’s total disposable household income.

In France, just 5.2% of the population face such unaffordable costs compared to three times as many in the UK.

Of the 29 countries analysed, only families in Denmark and Greece are worse off, making the UK the third most expensive place to live in terms of property and housing costs.

UK families are still worse off than many countries with ailing economies, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal. Cyprus is the cheapest country, with just 2.5% of the population facing unaffordable housing costs, equivalent to one in 40 people.

Shelter stated that the lack of affordable homes in the UK means the situation is set to get worse. Just 121,200 homes were built in England in 2010-11, according to government figures. This compares to 132,000 in 2000-01 and around 260,000 in the late-1960s

The housing shortage and tighter lending criteria set by banks have kept UK property prices up, with the knock-on effect forcing those struggling with finances into the more expensive private rental sector.

Landlords have experienced unprecedented demand for rental properties and PRS rents have continued to increase.

Landlords concerned with ensuring that rental income remains constant have turned to specialist insurance products to safeguard the rent. This eases the financial burden on both tenants and landlords and has the result of extending the length of time that tenants stay in rental properties. A Win – Win situation all round.