Brits who currently rent a property are the most pessimistic in Europe when it comes to believing that they will one day be able to afford to buy a home, a new survey shows.
A Europe-wide survey carried out by Dutch Bank ING found that 56 per cent of British renters feared that they would never be able to afford to buy their own property. This placed Brits, along with Germans, as the most pessimistic nation in Europe when it comes to perceived future home ownership opportunities.
Overall, 48 per cent of people in 13 European countries who do not yet own their own home reckoned they probably never will.
Yet many of those that were surveyed did wish to buy, with a majority deeming home ownership as a status symbol.
Approximately 65 per cent of the non-homeowners surveyed admitted that they considered owning their own place to be a symbol of success.
Poles (72 percent), Turks (70 percent) and Romanians (70 percent) topped the list of those judging homeownership as a sign of success.
“Most people want to buy a house. Yet many now accept that they are unlikely to buy,” said Ian Bright, senior economist and managing director of group research at ING. “If you combine this with our findings that a higher proportion of home owners are happy with their housing situation, compared with renters, then it seems that more people will feel incredibly frustrated with their housing choices in the future.”
Article published 7th November 2017