Outlook bleak for West Norfolk home-seekers
PROSPECTS are increasingly grim for West Norfolk residents struggling to find a home with waiting lists growing while house prices to buy or rent remain out of reach.
For those hoping to get a foot on the housing ladder, the average salary in Norfolk is 16,000 while the average house price comes in at around 172,000 – more than ten times what many people earn.
The deepening crisis looks set to affect both people desperate to buy and those waiting for a housing association home, whose numbers are rising by hundreds each month.
The issue has been highlighted by the National Housing Federation (NHF), which details similar problems across Norfolk. Increases in holiday homes and buy-to-lets are said to be exacerbating the situation.
In West Norfolk, the number of people on the housing register more than doubled from 2,967 in 2004 to 6,100 at the end of October last year. An average of 270 home-seekers join the waiting list every month.
Freebridge Community Housing, affiliated to the NHF, is the largest social landlord in West Norfolk. It rents out more than 6,800 homes, mostly former council properties.
Freebridge's business and performance manager Gill Rejzl said that in 2006-7, the total combined number of properties becoming available for let through the Homechoice bidding scheme from all social landlords in the area was just 810.
Comparing the number of lettings to the number of people registered demonstrated the magnitude of housing need locally, she said.
"Freebridge's tenancy turnover is about ten per cent a year. Seventy per cent of properties advertised each fortnight by Homechoice are Freebridge properties and each advertised vacancy attracts on average 23 bids," said Mrs Rejzl.
Freebridge works closely with West Norfolk Council to fulfil the council's statutory responsibilities on housing need and homelessness. About 22 per cent of new Freebridge lettings were allocated to homeless families.
Mrs Rejzl added: "We are also working with the council and development partners to increase the number of homes for affordable rent and low-cost shared ownership."
For people hoping to buy a home, the picture is similarly bleak. According to NHF statistics, the average house price in West Norfolk is about 172,000 and the annual wage needed for a 95 per cent mortgage is nearly 47,000. Last October, Data About West Norfolk (DAWN) statistics put the average house price even higher at nearly 180,000.
West Norfolk Council is currently reviewing its affordable housing policy and will shortly be consulting on proposals which would result in an increase in the number being built in the borough.
But a survey carried out last year shows that in order to meet the needs of those who can neither buy nor rent privately, nearly 800 homes would need to be provided each year – nearly four times the number currently projected.
NHF researchers believe that people buying second and multiple homes are contributing to an overvaluation of housing in Norfolk.
Despite a period of lower house price inflation, NHF forecasters view a housing price crash as unlikely.
Spokesman Gina King said: “We face an unhappy prospect of longer waiting lists, more overcrowding and more adult children unable to move away from the parental home.”
High demand from a growing population and under-provision of new housing would maintain pressure on the housing market. “House prices will inevitably keep on rising,” she added.
claire.beal@lynnnews.co.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
