According to Santander’s Fixing the Broken Chain report, there are around 530,000 failed housing transactions each year in England and Wales. This costs the economy £1.5bn every year.
However, younger generations are “disproportionately impacted”, with 36% of those aged 25-34 having had a failed property transaction, compared to 23% of the overall UK population.
The report added that younger buyers are also more likely to “feel the deep emotional strain” when going through the home buying process, with around 61% of 18-24-year-olds feeling constantly or frequently stressed compared to just 54% of the wider population.
Santander said the increased likelihood of failed property transactions and heightened stress were dissuading buyer activity in this age segment.
Only 42% of 18-24-year-olds and 38% of 25-34-year-olds have considered delaying or giving up on buying a home.
One Year On: Helping You Add Value with Halifax’s Green Living Reward
Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries
Santander said there was an “appetite for change” across all buyer types, with over three-quarters of under-35s saying a streamlined process would encourage them to move, compared to just over half of all consumers.
Nearly half of 55-74-year-olds said a change in the system would make them more likely to move.
Process puts ‘huge pressure’ on buyers
David Morris, head of homes at Santander UK, said: “Buying a first home or moving to accommodate a growing family should be a moment of joy, but for too many young people, it’s become an exhausting and uncertain ordeal that puts huge pressure on their finances and family life, let alone their mental health. This absolutely should not be the case for a transaction that constitutes one of their biggest financial commitments.
“We need to act to make it easier for people of all ages to buy and sell so we can get the market moving. That’s why we’re calling for a number of simple yet powerful reforms, which would give buyers and sellers more confidence, ease the financial and emotional strain and create a housing system fit for the next generation.”
The lender is calling for “powerful reforms” to “streamline the process and give buyers and sellers more confidence”.
This includes:
- Mandate digitisation across all stakeholders
- Disincentivise illegitimate gazumping and gazundering
- Mandate better upfront information disclosure from all parties
- Create a government-owned, centralised property data system
- Improve data sharing through Open Property
- Incentivise the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
- Take a long-term approach to support market activity
The government opened a consultation on home buying and selling reform earlier this week, adding that it could be the “biggest shake-up to the home buying system in this country’s history”.
