The UK housing crisis is now so bad that millennials are having to turn to the Bank of Mum and Dad to fund rental payments.
According to research from Shelter, around 450,000 adult renters have received financial help from their parents to pay the rent this year.
The survey found that this was highest among young renters, with 11% of those aged between 18-24 seeking help. For those aged between 25-34 this figure was 8%.
Shelter estimates that parents are spending roughly £1 billion a year to help their children.
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “With housing costs sky high it’s not surprising that the Bank of Mum and Dad is no longer just relied on for help with buying a home, but renting costs too.
“We know that the majority of private renters are forking out huge proportions of their income to cover the rent each month, and that’s not even taking into account the extortionate deposits and fees that need to be paid to even secure a rented home.
“For those who aren’t lucky enough to receive help from parents, expensive and unstable private renting leaves many struggling to make ends meet each month. Sadly at Shelter we hear from people every day who simply can’t keep up with rising rents, but have no other choice on where to live.
“The new prime minister needs to give back hope to the millions of renters being left behind by our housing shortage, by quickly putting in place measures that will build homes people on ordinary incomes can actually afford.”
There are fears that first-time buyers are being squeezed out of the market due to the dwindling supply of suitable homes and ballooning property prices.
Tougher affordability checks from lenders and rising house prices have also made it increasingly difficult for first-time buyers with smaller deposits to get on the property ladder.
Low interest rates combined with the economic recovery have done little to reduce the need for rented housing, while house price inflation ahead of wage growth has pushed property prices out of reach for many.
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee said last week that the government needs to increase its house building target by at least 50% in order to tackle the housing crisis.
Recent research by Yorkshire Building Society found that the UK has missed its house building targets by a whopping 1.2 million since 2004.
In 2015, the government set the UK house building target by pledging to build one million homes over its five-year term. However, only 142,890 homes were built in 2015, 29% less than the 200,000 homes needed to reach the one million target by 2020.
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