Buying a house in the UK has never been more difficult; for the two decade property prices have steadily continued to rise. In 1981 the UK population was 56.2 million, by 2007 the population had increased to 60.7 million inhabitants; each year over 170,000 people immigrate to the UK accounting for around 63% of the annual population growth. As the population numbers increase so does the demand for house; unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of inhabitant the property market has boomed with demand for housing causing prices to soar. Good news for sellers, not so good for first time buyers and mortgage lenders.
However, before there is a complete property meltdown companies such as Intelligent Land Investment are taking action. Land Investment have launched a campaign to develop affordable and
eco-friendly housing, selling development land in areas where there is a shortage of homes to large developers on the understanding that it is to be used for affordable and eco-friendly housing. With it being reported that the UK will require another 1.7 million houses to be built in the next 17 years to accommodate our increasing numbers and with the number of affordable homes being built per year having only increased 1,300 since 1998, this campaign could not have came at a better time.
To enable this scheme to work Land Investment have to sell the proposed development land for a lower market value price; allowing them to make money but simply on a lesser scale. For this small sacrifice the benefits to first time buyers will hopefully be huge.