More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
In January 1996, the average price of buying a terraced home in Kent was a little over £51,250.
That would have been the equivalent of repaying a mortgage of around £350 a month.
Almost certainly, you would have been able to get a lender to give you the full 100% of the asking price. It wasn't unheard of to be lent even more.
For anyone looking to buy a house today, such figures and relaxed lending seem hard to believe.
Fast forward to July of this year, and that same, average property would cost you £262,400 - and set you back close to £1,100 in monthly mortgage payments. And, in many cases, require a £26,000 deposit.
Even when factoring in the value of money has almost doubled over that 25-year period, it brings sharply into focus just why so many people - particularly the young - are being priced out of the property market.
According to Finder.com, the average housebuyer today is now 34 - six years older than the average in 2007. While the percentage of 25-34-year-olds renting is now 55% compared to 35% in 1998.
In short, like it or not, renting is not just an option for an increasing number of people, but a necessity.
"People want that family home and the garden," says Thanet midwife Jessica Mills, 26. Despite earning £33,000 she could only afford a property through the shared ownership scheme - leaving her paying both a mortgage and rent for her property, despite being able to pay more.
"I just think it's absolutely been ripped away from people who have worked really hard," she adds. "It should be, if you work hard and you've got a decent wage, you should be able to buy a house."
So do we need to reset our view of buying? Do we, perhaps, need a societal shift to accepting renting as a long-term ambition rather than our more traditional clamour and desire to be on the property ladder?
"I've been saying for some time now that we are heading towards a more European model where renting is a much more common choice," explains Spencer Fortag, director of Dockside Property Services in Medway, "and people, once their parents pass away, inherit the family home at which point they sell it or move into it.
"I think our mindset as a nation has changed from being hung up with ownership and having renting as a much more acceptable option."
Europe - and Germany in particular - has long embraced renting. But the German example isn't simply an exercise in its stereotypical ruthless efficiencies. More that, after the Second World War, the nation was forced to rebuild much of its bomb-damaged housing stock; opting to build good quality, affordable, homes for people to specifically rent. This they coupled with strong regulations to protect tenants.
By way of contrast, the UK has, previously at least, always rather looked down its nose at those having to rent. Even to the extent of the selling off of discounted social housing to tenants - the 'right to buy scheme' during Margaret Thatcher's years in office in Downing Street in the 1980s. A decision welcomed by those able to finally own the council house in which they lived, but which dealt a devastating blow to the properties at the disposal of local authorities; the impact of which continues to be felt today.
After the financial collapse of the mid 2000s, lending was tightened and the housing surplus which existed in the 1980s in the UK is now a shortage, with an ever-growing demand from an ever-increasing population.
So how does renting lose its image of dodgy landlords and embrace this fast-emerging trend?
Certainly changes in recent legislation have helped tenants.
"Landlords have to do certain things," explains Spencer Fortag. "They have to register deposits, have to maintain properties to a standard, and there's much more noise now that wheedles out the poor landlords who refuse to fix boilers and have hot water.
"I think the issue about renting's image is a generational thing. I often use the example of cars as a parallel to the property market in lots of ways. And one thing which has come an awful lot more prevalent over the last three to five years is car leasing.
"My father would never have dreamt of leasing a car. You buy a car, you suffer the depreciation part of the cost to run it and own it.
"But it's become cheaper to lease a car for a similar reason to why people rent property.
"They don't want to commit to buying, the job market offers less security and people tend to move around more; the workforce is a lot more transient. Plus, of course, you don't have to worry if the boiler goes pop as the landlord will deal with it.
"There was a stigma attached to rentals, but I think certainly over the last 10 years, people's mindset has changed dramatically, and rental is no longer looked down upon by people, because lots of people are actually choosing to rent - and that's the difference.”
Quite how you determine a choice if the other option prices you out of the market is perhaps open to debate.
Certainly, the rental sector is in rude health right now. According to a report into the lettings market by Hamptons, the average rent on a new home rose by 14.7% in August in the South East as demand intensified. That makes the average rental for the South East £1,252 - a rise of £161 a month on the previous year.
Data from the Office for National Statistics reveals the median monthly rent for England between April 2020 and March of this year, was £730 - the highest ever recorded. As demand grows, so do the prices.
And, as ever, the prices in Kent fluctuate depending on the area. For a two-bedroom house in Sevenoaks, for example, you can expect to pay a median monthly rent of £1,175. Folkestone, on the other hand is £650.
It is also the case that while interest rates remain historically low, your monthly payment as a house owner is likely to dwarf that of renters. But with interest rates predicted to rise again soon, that is unlikely to last for long.
And while buy-to-let remains a popular investment for investors, there are also a growing number of rental-specific properties coming to market.
Often owned by developers or investors, the new build-to-rent sites aim to offer a full package for the tenant and are proving popular in London and are now spreading to Kent - and frequently offer long-term leases to help develop a sense of community.
The Kell, near Chatham Waters, is just one.
The modern flats even come with a cleaning and maintenance team on-site.
Adds Spencer Fortag: "That's a multi-million pound development, built specifically to rent out.
"It's around 100 apartments and generally, where we've seen this happen before, it's a good thing for local renters, because although there's a premium to pay for that product, what we've found is it tends to raise the game for the rental market in the area these schemes are happening because other landlords have to compete.
"They can't compete with something new, but they make their properties as nice as possible and as affordable as possible.
"It's good news for renters, and good news for the area.”
The truth is that our desire to buy – to own and ultimately pass on to our children – a property is one which is going to always exist.
But renting – while making the issue of saving for a deposit a far greater challenge – is, at least, emerging from the shadows.
And for all those – particularly young people – facing the reality of prices out of their reach, a shift in our attitude to renting is probably long overdue.
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