GENERATION WHO WILL NEVER BUY THEIR OWN HOME

Thousands of young Scots struggle to get on housing ladder

A GENERATION of young Scots fear that they will never be able to buy their own homes. Two-fifths of people who are not already on the property ladder think they will never get a foot on the first rung, largely because of the decline i n house building and tougher mortgage rules.

Soaring house prices are an added problem, with the average deposit required by first-time buyers now hitting £21,000.

And the huge rise in the buy-to-let market has reduced the number of available smaller properties because these are being snapped up as investments by people who are already homeowners.

The figures, in a Bank of Scotland (BoS) report published yesterday, show that 40 per cent of current renters now believe they will never be able to buy.

While 26 per cent of them were confident they could afford to purchase a property one day, a further 8 per cent said they would only be able to buy a home after borrowing money from their family.

The remaining 26 per cent said that they did not know if they would ever own a property. The How Scotland Lives report

also found that a quarter of Scots believe this is a ‘normal situation’.

Critics pointed out that the Scottish Government last month scaled back its Help to Buy programme. The original SNP scheme saw £305million committed over three years, to help new buyers with up to 15 per cent of a property’s value.

Within weeks of launching each year, that fund ran out of money, however, leaving many disappointed. But the latest scheme will offer only £195million.

Meanwhile, the number of new homes built since the SNP came to power in 2007 has dropped by 40 per cent, with only 15,562 constructed in 2014.

Scottish Tory housing spokesman Alex Johnstone pointed to the SNP’s abolition of the right-to-buy. He said: ‘The Scottish Government has cruelly snatched away the opportunity for tens of thousands of Scots to take ownership of their home they have lived in, perhaps for decades. The onus is with the SNP Government to put in place measures to help people buy their own home.’

According to the BoS report, 38 per cent of people aged 25-34 believe that they could buy a home in the future without needing to borrow money other than a mortgage. For those aged 18-24, the figure was 45 per cent.

But only 4 per cent of people aged 50 and over were of the same mind-set.

In Scotland, the average deposit put down on a house by first-time buyers last year was £21,424 – 16 per cent of the cost of an average home, which stood at £133,178.

The Scottish Government has followed Westminster in trying to curb the booming buy-to-let market.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney last year introduced plans for an additional 3 per cent purchase tax on the value of second properties. However, this move was criticised by the Royal Institute of Chartered Survey- ors Scotland, which believes it could prompt an increase in the cost of rental properties.

Scottish Labour communities spokesman Ken Macintosh said: ‘The age of austerity means that aspiration has stalled for a generation of first-time buyers. This report shows that the SNP Government’s plan to reduce support for first-time buyers through cuts to the Help to Buy scheme will make it so much harder for young people to get onto the housing ladder. So many young people in Scotland are stuck in a cycle from which they can’t escape. They end up renting to save for a deposit but the rent is so high they simply can’t put enough money away.’

Nicola Noble, BoS mortgage director, said: ‘It’s concerning that two-fifths of Scots don’t feel they’ll ever be able to buy a home.’

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said: ‘We recently announced more than £160million of new funding for 2016-17 to support home ownership schemes that will help 5,000 households to buy their own home.

‘Importantly, this new funding is specifically targeted to support low income individuals and families across Scotland to get on or up the housing ladder.

‘Since 2007, the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme has helped over 6,000 firsttime buyers who would not otherwise be able to afford to buy their first home and this year we will help another 2,000.

‘A further 7,500 households were able to buy a new build home through Help to Buy and over the next three years the successor scheme will help another 7,500.’

More than 3,000 people took part in the BoS survey in December.

‘Aspiration has stalled for a generation’