When I raise the prospect of home ownership, Catherine, a 26-year old charity worker, looks at me as though I have suggested she might bump into Taylor Swift in Tesco. “That’s a joke, right?” she laughs. “That will never happen for our generation. Never.” Hers is just one example of the fatalistic incredulity which greets me when I ask anyone from Gen Z if they think they will become homeowners.
Recent research conducted by property website Zoopla, shows that 4 in 10 under forties have given up entirely on this. It is no longer a goal, but a futile endeavour, compounded by mountains of depressing statistics. The same survey found that even among those earning £60k and over (well above the UK average salary of £33k), 38% said that buying anything in the next decade seemed out of reach. Data from Generation Rent makes the average time to save for a deposit in England 9.6 years (previously 6.8 years in 2012) and figures from Wayhome revealed the average property is now an eye-watering 10.6 times the average annual salary. It is little wonder that research by AllBrick’s ‘Generation Stuck’ initiative shows that 73% of renters say they will never save enough for a deposit, and 43% of 18-24-year olds say their biggest anxiety is that they will be ‘renting forever.’
“For the first time ever, renting in London is more expensive than owning,” says CEO and founder of AllBricks, Shahram Shaida. “This is only going to get worse with private renting as mortgage rates have gone way up and landlords are passing that cost on to tenants.”“My landlord put the rent up by 50%,” confirms Bella, a 24-year old PR executive from London. “I literally cannot afford that.” Her solution? “I’m moving to Barcelona. The rent is cheaper and I’m lucky enough to have a VISA and a job that allows me to work remotely.” Many other Gen Z will not be so fortunate — particularly post-Brexit. “I think it is so unfair,” she says. “I know that in many ways our lives are easier than older generations, but we also have no way of getting the things they had – like decent wages and a secure place to live. I literally have to move abroad to afford my life, and I’m lucky to have that option.”
The fact that home ownership is no longer a North Star, is worrying. What will happen to Gen Z pensioners when their landlords decide to sell or up the rent? “If home ownership is out of reach for this generation, what we mean is, security, stability and community are out of reach,” says Shaida, whose company, AllBricks, aims to make access to home ownership easier (more on which later) and who was inspired by his own experience of moving constantly as a child. “Having a stable home is so important, and what Gen Z won’t have, at this current rate, is the ability to provide that for a family.”
For as much as Bella tells me that Gen Z are, perhaps by default, prioritising “current happiness” over saving for an unreachable goal, she is keenly aware that this cannot last. “I do want to eventually have a family and that will mean being able to buy somewhere,” she says. “I just can’t imagine right now how that will happen so I’m spending my money on travel and experiences.” Catherine, meanwhile, has ruled out both: “I don’t want kids and I think part of that decision is knowing that life will be hard enough to afford even without them,” she says. “I would rather just enjoy life – travel and have fun- than waste it by saving for something that won’t happen.”
When Bella laughingly jokes that “marrying a millionaire” might be her one chance of having a family home one day, she is actually highlighting that property has increasingly become the preserve of the rich- even perhaps the mega rich — but nothing about society has adjusted to reflect that. We don’t, for example, have more affordable houses being built, nor do we have a stable renting market to provide for what will soon be the majority of the population without access to a permanent home.
“There is a stark disparity between those with assets and those without, and that is only getting bigger,” says Andrew Owen, COO of GenH, which aims to help anyone struggling – from Gen Z to those in their fifties — on to the property ladder. “The system is broken and two of the main issues are a lack of supply with housing and a lack of affordability. We as a company cannot force the former – that is political — but we can address the latter.”
GenH is, like AllBricks, a ‘new way’ to tackle the crisis. GenH puts everything about purchasing a property, as Owen cannily says “under one roof” and formalises the concept of the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ by making it so that friends and family can officially contribute to your deposit or mortgage application. AllBricks takes a slightly different approach, making your purchase of a property an affordable amount, by combining it with investors. Both are brilliant innovations in a marketplace which has otherwise remained solidly unchanged, despite a clearly desperate need.
But innovating and disrupting a society which no longer serves us… that sounds…very Gen Z, doesn’t it? From voting against parties who have facilitated this crisis, to creating new ways to buy, hopefully a change, as they say, is gonna come.
“I have faith in this generation,” says Shaida. “They see a problem and they will fix it. I don’t think they will stomach this housing crisis for much longer.”
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