Over one in three people who rent or have mortgages spend around a third of their disposable income on paying them off, according to a new report.
Two housing charities have told a BBC Panorama investigation – which airs tonight (November 12th) that, for many families, the situation is becoming “unaffordable”.
Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation both said that if housing costs sap 35 per cent or more from a household’s income, then things like food and other basic needs become more of a struggle to pay for.
It is feared that mortgages will become even more expensive when the Bank of England’s base rate of interest inevitably rises – with returning confidence in the economy indicating that this could happen sooner rather than later.
However, housing minister Kris Hopkins told the programme: “We’ve seen nothing yet to suggest there is anything going anywhere near a bubble at this moment in time.”
Panorama’s research found that nearly half of the population though that the price of property in their area was too high, while 39 per cent would like to see house prices decrease.
