30/08/11…South East housing market in crisis ?

THE housing market is in crisis as owner occupation rates fall and house prices and private rents soar in South East, study warns.

Home ownership in the South East will fall to under 70% over the next decade as an entire generation are effectively locked out of the housing market, according to a new study.

The number of owner occupiers will fall from its current rate of 72% in 2010 to 69.7% by 2021.

Huge deposits, combined with high house prices and strict lending criteria, have sent home ownership into decline in recent years and the downward trend will continue for the foreseeable future, the Nation Housing Federation?s independently-commissioned forecasts predict.

The Federation, which represents England?s housing associations, warned the housing market will be plunged into an unprecedented crisis as it forecast steep rises in the private rental sector, huge social housing waiting lists, and a house price boom ? all fuelled by a chronic under-supply of homes.

In England, the proportion of people living in owner occupied homes will fall from a peak of 72.5% in 2001 to 63.8% in 2021, the lowest level since the mid 1980s.

The average house price in the South East will meanwhile rise by 21.9% over the next five years from