Gaby Hinsliff says that “most Britons now accept the case for more housebuilding” (Britain’s nimby homeowners: do you really want your children living with you for ever? 12 May). However, developers will not increase supply to the point where they have to drop prices. They might say they will, but that is a ploy to get more planning consents. “Sell one, build one” was always – and remains – the creed.
With average house prices now at around nine times average earnings, prices would need to roughly halve across the entire market to become affordable for unendowed adults forced to live with their parents.
Prices are where they are because of recently cheap money, the outrageous help-to-buy scheme, and inherited property wealth snowballing on the back of that. The equitable thing would be puncturing prices through the taxation of – and requiring planning permission for – the use of any dwelling other than as a main home. But until the political will accumulates, social housing – both developed and acquired in a now softening market – is the next best hope for separately housing the generations.
John Worrall
Cromer, Norfolk
I have two adult children at home and a housing estate being built on fields at the end of my road. My kids will never live in those houses. They are selling for between £450,000 and £650,000, and will be bought by people with a perfectly serviceable home already. At some point, a handful of “affordable” flats will be offered. Elsewhere, the same builder sells these for £235,000. The average salary for people in their 20s is about £25,000. The likely maximum mortgage available would be £135,000. It’s laughable. We need a complete reset on housing policy, and one thing is certain: it won’t be led by the private sector.
Alan Horne
Poynton, Cheshire
