As set out in the government’s Housing and Planning Bill, affordable homes worth up to £250,000 will be classed as affordable, while in London the upper limit will be as high as £450,000.
The research from conveyancing provider myhomemove found that just 1% felt £250,000 homes can be seen as affordable.
Doug Crawford, chief executive of myhomemove, said: “In his speech given on 7th October, the Prime Minister promised to build 200,000 starter homes during his tenure; houses which people could afford to buy with a capped price of £450,000 inside London and £250,000 outside the capital.
“While we welcome initiatives designed to increase housing stock numbers, our research shows that these homes are far too expensive for the majority of the population to consider affordable.
“Last month, our own data showed that one in 20 homes are bought using a gifted deposit. So even with an accelerated building programme to ease the shortage issue, unless these properties are capped at a much lower rate, very few families will be able to afford these ‘affordable’ homes.”
Last month Prime Minister David claimed the £450,000 cost of homes in London represented an “upper-limit” of the initiative – and actually the government is aiming to build homes in the capital costing between £150,000 and £200,000.
