UK Housing Review autumn briefing paper shows more than half of “first-time” buyers are actually previous owners

Published against the backdrop of political turmoil and an increasing cost of living crisis, the UK Housing Review autumn briefing paper provides updated analysis of key housing issues across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland since the UK Housing Review publication in spring 2022. The briefing paper, published on 1 November 2022, provides analysis on the pressing housing topics of the moment including an assessment of how the state of the economy affects the housing sector, the implications for the housing market and how recent developments affect the ability of first-time buyers to enter it.

A key article in the briefing paper focuses on the first-time buyer market and shows that more than half of “first-time” buyers are actually previous owners and are in a much stronger market position than “real” first-timers.

The paper also examines the impact of inflation and whether a fall in house prices is required to restore affordability lost over the past quarter of a century, debating how monetary policy has privileged existing owners over first-time buyers, and as real earnings have stagnated.

The briefing paper, the 13th in the series, includes sector leading analysis and headlines on a range of other key housing issues including:

• The impact of the cost of living crisis on decisions about social rent increases
• Private rented sector reform and the levelling up agenda
• Decarbonising the housing stock and progress in addressing building safety issues
• Temporary accommodation, adapted housing and mobility issues
• How the problems of accommodating refugees expose current housing shortages
• Key issues in regulating the management of social housing stock
• Recent developments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

The autumn briefing paper has been co-authored by the UK Housing Review’s team of authors, Mark Stephens, John Perry, Peter Williams and Gillian Young, with contributions from Sarah Davis, Matt Kennedy, Annie Owens, and Heather Wilson of CIH, Francesca Albanese of Crisis, Roger Jarman and Bob Pannell who are independent consultants and Brian Robson of the Northern Housing Consortium. The UK Housing Review series is published by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).

After the Autumn briefing paper launch CIH chief executive Gavin Smart commented:

“When we released the 2022 UK Housing Review earlier this year, we highlighted the impact of worsening affordability gaps, the critical need to tackle energy inefficient homes and the urgent need to address fuel poverty. The autumn briefing paper has been written at a time of political flux and through the lens of the deepening cost of living crisis. It gives us further evidence of the critical role housing policy ought to play in protecting households from the wide-reaching effects of current economic turmoil.”

Mark Stephens, professor of urban studies at the university of Glasgow and the Review’s editor, said:

“The reemergence of inflation, the end of low interest rates, and the likelihood of a new era of austerity mean that the context of housing policy will change. There are big challenges ahead and these include allowing the housing market to adjust in as orderly way as is possible, and to end the self-defeating addiction to ever rising house prices.”

The UK Housing Review autumn briefing paper is a free resource published by the Chartered Institute of Housing, made possible with the support of Campbell Tickell, Clarion, Crisis, Grand Union Housing Group, Guinness Partnership, the Housing Studies Charitable Trust, London & Quadrant, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Paradigm Housing, the Scottish Government, Settle Group, The Housing Finance Corporation, and the Welsh Government.

Please click here to download the UK Housing Review 2022 autumn briefing paper.