Millennials spending quarter of their income on housing costs

THE GENERATIONAL shift in housing costs is laid bare in a new report today.

Research by the Resolution Foundation shows today’s 30-year-olds spend almost a quarter of their income on housing compared to seven per cent at the end of the Second World War.

Home ownership for those born in the early 1980s is now about half the rate of those born 30 years ago.

Young people also spend more time commuting and live in smaller homes than previous generations, the research suggests.

Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The shock election results of the last 15 months have shown that significant discontent exists about the direction that Britain is heading and housing is huge a part of this anxiety.

“Across the generations, many are worried about why today’s young adults have it so hard when finding a secure place to live.

“Britain’s housing catastrophe has been 50 years in the making but while its effects are widespread it is millennials who are truly at the sharp end.

“For older generations at least rising housing costs have been accompanied by improvements in the quality and security of housing, as more families have been able to own their home.

“The big danger today is that young people are having to settle for lower quality, longer commutes and less security in order to afford a place to live, despite spending a record share of their income of housing.”

The thinktank, which says its aims is to improve the standard of living of low- and middle-income families, is calling on all political parties to prioritise action on housing.