Report reveals Warwick district in desperate need of affordable homes

The Warwick District is in desperate need of more affordable homes after a new report reveals that people would need an income of more than £75,000 to secure a mortgage.
Housing general image PPP-180116-110736001Housing general image PPP-180116-110736001
Housing general image PPP-180116-110736001

This is the message from the Warwickshire Rural Housing Association after the new ‘Home Truths’ report, which is the National Federation of Housing’s (NFH) annual report on the housing market in England, was recently published.

The report is broken down into nine different regions and in the West Midlands, the Warwick district has been ranked as the second most expensive place to buy a new home, with Stratford topping the list.

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This is the same ranking as last year’s report but in the space of a year, the amount of income needed to secure an 80 per cent mortgage in the district has risen from £70,149 to £75,665.

According to the NFH’s report, the average house price in Warwick District 
is £331,036, which is 
nearly £30,000 more than last year’s figure which was £306,902.

While the average home costs around eight times 
the average salary in the West Midlands, Warwickshire sees an even wider gap between average earnings and the cost of buying a home.

In the district, the average home costs 10.2 times the average salary, which has gone up compared to last year’s figures when it cost 9.7 times more.

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The report also identified that not enough homes are being built to meet the demand as there was a shortfall of 40,600 homes across the West Midlands between 2012 and 2016, with 3,673 being in Warwickshire and 1,655 of those being in the Warwick district.

Despite this the report also revealed that the district has 522 empty homes, which again is an increase from last year’s figures where it was 497.

Although there has been a number of increases since last year’s report, there has been a decrease in the average monthly rent rates in the private rented sector.

In 2015/16, the average price per month was £802 which has now gone down to £798 per month.

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This year’s report also shows that there are 571 second homes in the district.

This is another decrease from last year’s figure, which was 610 second homes.

Craig Felts, company secretary of the Warwickshire Rural Housing Association, said: “We know there is a housing crisis in Warwickshire and the latest Home Truths report shows that it is getting worse.

“We’re currently developing around 50 much-needed affordable homes in five Warwickshire villages with the aim of enabling local people to afford to continue living in their communities.”