NHF warns of NE housing "time-bomb"

Posted: 08 Nov 2006 10:29:51 GMT

Runaway house-price growth in the north-east of England is a "time-bomb" waiting to go off, the National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned.

Runaway house-price growth in the north-east of England is a "time-bomb" waiting to go off, the National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned.

Affordability is already stretched in the region as property inflation outstrips wage rises and the situation will get much worse, with price rises of 67 per cent predicted by 2011.

The north-east had already registered the greatest house-price growth in England between 2000 and 2005.

"Good news for home owners but it is a gloomy outlook for those not yet on the property ladder," said the NHF.

"In the past five years, homelessness has increased by 60 per cent, the fastest rise of any region in the country. Housing waiting lists have increased by 44 per cent, and now 90,000 households are on the waiting list for an affordable home in the north-east.

"Yet whilst 7,000 new homes were built in the region last year fewer than ten per cent of these were affordable homes."

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