A Housing Crisis

There is a housing crisis.

But what do we mean by ‘housing’? What is the stock of housing in the UK, and how close is it to meeting population needs?

There is an almost hidden part of the ‘housing stock’. It is the underused and decaying portion, much-hated by the population at large according to YouGov polls. It is dealt with here as well.

In 2021 the Guardian pointed out that house prices appear to have defied economic gravity over the past years. 

The lockdowns triggered by the pandemic led to a 10% fall in GDP, the largest fall in 300 years since the Great Frost of 1709. Yet the latest data show house prices have grown at the fastest annual rate – 13.4% – in 17 years. Are we in the midst of another housing bubble?

One might add ‘or is this a market response reflecting the dearth of houses’. So, how many houses are there?

How many homes?

To house 67 million people, there were 24.7 million dwellings in March 2022, but 0.9% were empty. Some are plain grotty . Many are just too expensive to live in. Many leasehold flats have maintenance charges of £1,200 a year - more than double in 2007.

As of 2019, more than 3.12 million owner-occupied houses were built before 1919. By contrast, approximately 1.5 million owner-occupied dwellings were produced from 2003 onwards.

Most houses are not Climate Change ready. What can we do?

For more see Climate Change House available from Amazon.