Affordability

The house price to earnings ratio measures the cost of house prices in the city compared to local income levels and this indicates how affordable homes are for local people.

There is a serious affordability problem in Plymouth. Housing affordability problems, rigid lending, and requirements for higher deposits are particularly affecting people and families wanting to buy a house for the first time. Housing waiting lists are also increasing and at October 2011 there were 11,790 households on Plymouth’s housing register.

In general, a house price to earnings ratio below 3.5 is best as this is an accepted responsible level of borrowing (3.5 times the person’s or family income). As the ratio increases it gets more risky for mortgage providers to lend so they are likely to require larger deposits. This can create a barrier to first time buyers as an average deposit of over £40,000 is now required. More information is contained in the Planning Obligations and Affordable Housing SPD.

Homelessness

Levels of homelessness, and rough sleeping in the city have been decreasing since 2002. They are now rising as a result of the economic downturn and rising levels of unemployment. The number of households accommodated in temporary accommodation has increased by over 40 per cent in the past eight months.

12,163 households were waiting for social housing in August 2011 and 3,222 (26 per cent) of these were considered to be in priority need. The demand for social housing far exceeds the available supply and this puts greater pressure on the private rented sector. Changes to the housing benefits system will reduce the future level of housing benefit available to pay rent which could place many more people at risk of homelessness.

The Council will continue to work with households to prevent homelessness wherever possible, and are looking at new ways of working with landlords. A new, purpose built 46 bed hostel for the homelessness was opened in July 2011 (to replace the Ship Hostel and The Gates) increasing provision in the city by eight bed spaces.

This page of the annual monitoring report was last updated December 2011.