Project Peter Pan: The cost of housing
Project Peter Pan gives a voice to a “lost generation” unable to afford housing in the run-up to the general election.
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00:00The country is still in recovery from Covid and the cost of living crisis is spiralling
00:07out of control. Many young people think the dream of moving out or owning their own home
00:11is one that just simply won't come true. That's why National World has launched Project Peter
00:15Pan, a campaign for young people in their 20s and 30s to have a space to be heard.
00:21Thousands of young people are trapped in a vicious cycle. Forced to choose between being
00:25young and saving for a future, the reality for many people in their 20s and 30s is often
00:29a depressing one. With increasing house prices, inflating energy costs and the seemingly inescapable
00:36rental cycle, it's unsurprising that so many young people are ending up back in their childhood
00:40homes. For many, this can include working from their bedrooms, missing out on valuable
00:44life experiences and choosing between a car or a place of their own.
00:49First up, let's hear from 30-year-old Daniel Beatty from Sunderland. He was hoping to move
00:53to Newcastle after the pandemic but says he's been priced out of the market.
00:57I've lived with my family for a bit now and been wanting to move and go outside the world
01:11but kind of not an option with what income I'm getting in. It's basically, I'm just surviving
01:20basically. I'm told that the government schemes are lined up to people like me but at the
01:28end of the day it's going towards a house that I don't own and it just doesn't help
01:33me in the long run. Independence has always been very important to me and having my own
01:39place, my own living space that is mine that nobody else gets control of to do what with
01:47the space. I've always wanted to build myself a little extra room for a studio to animate.
01:54At the end of the day, my goal is to do animation but again, that would also include getting
02:05the way out. Once I do get into that, I'd have to also start paying off uni debts which
02:12would lead to even more of a problem of going into housing.
02:17The average house deposit in Newcastle for a 2-3 bedroom house is £16,000. What's your reaction to that?
02:30Unless you've got a really good job and I can tell you that if that's from 3-4 years
02:39ago it's going to be much higher now but it's just not substantial, especially for people
02:49starting out like myself and it's unbelievable. It's not just me, it's my friend also. I'm
03:00struggling, he'd never be able to afford that and he's on a better income than I am.
03:06As we head towards an inevitable general election, all eyes are on our politicians
03:10to see what can be done to help today's young people onto the property ladder. Next up,
03:14let's hear from the National Director for the MacTaggert Institute of Housing for Scotland
03:18about the housing situation in Edinburgh.
03:20So, I mean, we saw that Edinburgh is an incredibly desirable place to live. We all know that
03:26while a lot of us live and work here so there's always going to be demand but the fundamental
03:30solution is building more housing. It's as easy and as difficult as that. We need to
03:34be committed at a local and national level to build more housing because what happens
03:38if we build more supply? Then it depresses the price. It's a simple economics in that
03:42way. If we have more supply, we've got more choice. If we've got more choice, it'll mean
03:46that prices won't rise as quickly. We'll see more choice in the private rented market,
03:51we'll see more choice in the owner occupation, we build more social housing, more affordable
03:56homes for people. If they want to then buy a home, they can save up more money to then
04:00buy a home. The fundamental solution is actually just about building and delivering more homes
04:06of all tenures across the city. That's the solution that everybody needs. So, it was
04:10right for the council to call for a housing emergency. That was appropriate but what we
04:14need to see is a kind of political response at a national level that invests money in
04:17Edinburgh so that Edinburgh can get the kind of social affordable and all-tenure homes
04:21that it needs.
04:22Next up, we'll be hearing from TV personality Gideon Allen from Preston who points out how
04:27concerning the cost of living can be for young people living on their own but also
04:31for their parents too.
04:33Many people are worried about owning a house one day, which is obviously very understandable
04:39given the current climate that we're in. With obviously rent going up, mortgages going up,
04:44it seems unrealistic for most people, especially young people because it's going to affect
04:49us more. If you're a self-provider like myself, how is this financially going to be possible
04:54unless something changes? People are struggling, especially the young people, because if you
05:00do not have a second source of income, you don't have parents who can necessarily provide
05:05for you, how are you expected to essentially live your life? It almost feels that we don't
05:11have a voice, we don't have someone in our corner defending our argument. And the sad
05:16reality is, we're the people who are going to have to pick up the pieces, we're going
05:21to have to clean up the mess once they've all been and gone. If you ask a person from
05:26the 70s, 80s when they purchased their house, the price back then and the price now are
05:31completely different. It just seems like we've jumped from A to Z and missed out all the
05:39letters in between. It just doesn't seem fair and so action is definitely needed and hopefully
05:46this is a step in the right direction and inspires more people to speak about their
05:50struggles, issues and overall what can we do hopefully to find a solution.
05:57Many young people aspire to live in big cities where there's more jobs and opportunities.
06:00However, the ever increasing cost of rent and a housing market the same as investors
06:05is making it harder for them to take the plunge and move away from home. Let's hear from some
06:09young professionals who are struggling to balance the cost of city life.
06:14It's just sad that I'll probably be forced out of where I grew up and where I lived unless
06:18I have to fork out extortionate amounts for rent or if I just wanted to buy. I'm quite
06:25lucky that I've had the support of my parents and that I've been able to live at home while
06:29I do my degree but I know that's not the case for everyone. I know that other people have
06:33had to rent at extortionate prices that I could never ever afford so I'm quite fortunate
06:39to actually live in the city that I grew up here so it's not that bad. I looked at renting
06:46in London here and I looked at even the halls prices was about £8,000 a year which isn't
06:52covered by a master's loan. Me and my partner have looked to move out and at the moment
06:57it's just we could move out but we'd be on jacket potatoes and tins of beans and it's
07:03not a quality of life, it's not actually living so it's better to just stay at home at the
07:07moment and just, you know, stay at home but how long can you stay at home? I'd love to
07:12buy in London. I think, you know, it's my home, it's where I grew up, my family and
07:17all my friends are here but I've spoken with my friends and my partner and it's like having
07:23to move out of the area, maybe even moving up north and I think it's just quite sad.
07:28I think most young people come to terms with the idea that we'll never ever be as rich
07:33as our parents or never have what they had and I think it's just that reality and that's
07:38what young people are living with nowadays.
07:40You know, as a company we receive about 100 new enquiries a day and before the cost of
07:46living crisis it was about 50% purchases and 50% remortgages and since it's about 90% remortgages,
07:52you know, purchases have really, really suffered because people just can't afford to move unless
07:58they really have to so yeah, we're definitely seeing a difference in the types of enquiries
08:02we're getting.
08:03So, in terms of first time buyers as well, do you have any of them come through?
08:06Hardly any. You know, those that have been saving for a deposit, you know, have a figure
08:12in mind of I need this amount to be saved and then my mortgage payments will be this
08:14amount and overnight almost it changed and they needed a bigger deposit or their monthly
08:20payments are going to be unaffordable so yeah, I'd say they definitely have been affected
08:24the most.
08:25So, we've got a couple of lenders that have just come out with some rates just below 4%
08:29so in the high threes which, you know, two years ago we would have been laughing at those
08:33rates almost but that is now we're cheering when a rate comes out with a three so but
08:39in terms of the highest, you know, there's still if you've only got 5% deposit and certainly
08:44if there's anything else going on in the background, the rates can be 7%, 8% so yeah, really high.
08:49We've got lots and lots of people now coming for two-year fixed rates where they fixed
08:54at say 1% last year and they're coming off now and, you know, they'll be coming off now
08:58and it's going to be 4%, 5% so there's some huge hikes in their mortgage payments monthly.
09:03Shared ownership is an ongoing option for people and this is where you just buy a share
09:08of the property and you rent the remaining from the housing association and that's fab
09:14because you need a much smaller deposit, in some cases £2,500. The downside to that is
09:20you are then paying rent on the remaining share that you don't own plus service charge
09:24and ground rent so it actually works out most of the time more expensive than if you could
09:31buy a whole house but the constraint obviously of buying a whole house is a 5% deposit as
09:37a minimum, you know, on an average property price of £280,000 is an awful lot of money
09:43and we're definitely seeing people, people were waiting for rates to go back down thinking
09:48now we're going to go back down to the 1% and they're definitely not and people have
09:51now thought this is the new normal and we are going to move or, you know, we're going
09:54to relocate so we're definitely seeing more inquiries at the moment from people whether
09:58they can proceed because of, you know, the figures that they're getting. But yeah, so
10:03I do, personally I think house prices are probably going to just trickle upwards again
10:07very slowly, not the, you know, the leaps we saw before but yeah.
10:11And finally we're off to Glasgow to speak with music photographer George McFadden who's
10:15concerned the crippling cost of living is stifling creativity in young people who are
10:19chasing paychecks rather than their passions.
10:23I sometimes feel that like the cost of being a creative in general, like the purchase of
10:29things and everything, has obviously went up with inflation but the payment that creatives
10:33are getting hasn't went up to match it. Every creative I know, more or less, even people
10:38who've got like high jobs in creative industries are still working in bars or still nurses
10:45or something like that so. I'm not from here, I'm from Falkirk and I've got friends who
10:50still stay back in Falkirk and you hear about like their rent in comparison to what I'm
10:54paying to live in Glasgow. Like I don't mind saying what I pay for rent, I pay like £550
11:00a month in rent alone and that's like just fully covered by me and working and stuff
11:08which is mad. Like I live with two other people in a flat who both pay the same and it's a
11:14really nice flat and we're really lucky in that sense. But then you compare it to other
11:18towns but you feel like you have to be here if you want to be a creative or if you want
11:24to have a career of any regard. It's quite disheartening because you like to think that
11:30as time goes on things like develop and get better but it feels like with this it's like
11:34one step forward, ten steps back and then when you're first coming to creative industries
11:39it's like oh you have to do work for exposure, you have to do work for free and you're like
11:42but that makes no sense, why should I be working for free?
11:48The dream home sadly is that in itself, just a dream at this point.