Estate agents fear that poor people will soon be able to buy their own homes
The National Association of Estate Agents has warned that house prices are reaching dangerously affordable levels and unless the government acts quickly, property ownership could soon be within reach of ordinary working class people. Chris Brown, president of the NAEA, said “The government just doesn’t seem to care. If swift and decisive action is not taken, it looks likely that within the next twelve to eighteen months people like teachers and shop workers will be able to buy their own homes.”
Experts fear that first time buyers are at risk of being able to purchase modest starter homes without taking on a lifetime of crippling debt. Some homeowners who have already climbed onto the property ladder are calling foul, like Lucy Wyatt, a chartered accountant who bought a 40% share in her newbuild studio flat in Croydon early last year “It feels very unfair to me. I took out a huge personal loan, maxed out three credit cards and talked my parents into remortgaging their house just so I could afford the deposit on my first home, and the mortgage repayments take up over half of my take home pay. But now you’re telling me that some young couple can just waltz into a two bedroom-semi with a 10% deposit and a mortgage of only three times their joint income? That’s a disgusting state of affairs, why doesn’t the government do something about it?”
A spokesman for the Treasury told us that the government is looking into the problem as a matter of urgency, and will soon unveil plans to put the property market permanently out of reach for all working class people.