Life on Tapp: Sorry, but there’s a price to pay for buying that first home

Blaise Tapp writes: According to the very clever people at the Office for National Statistics, this has nothing to do with the fact Census figures were taken when the nation was beginning its slow Covid recovery and some families were clinging on to their bubble. No, this is what they call a ‘continuing trend’.

It stands to reason then that this latest batch of fresh faced idealists would much rather do their best impression of Timothy from Sorry! – I’d suggest anybody under 45 Googles that reference – than stand on their own two feet. Doesn’t it?

That would, of course, be more than a tad harsh as far from being socially awkward mummy’s boys and girls, Generation Z really do have it harder than we did.

I dare you to ask a 20-something when they intend to buy a house rather than continue to pay a small fortune in rent for the draughty one bedroom broom cupboard that they call home.

A long weary sigh will then be followed by a well rehearsed monologue about the size of a deposit needed, which is near impossible to achieve with the cost of rent and that’s before they even think about their student debt mountain.

This is a real problem, not just for younger people, but for the economy in general as the house market requires first time buyers for the whole thing to keep ticking over.

New products such as 40-year mortgages and deals that require a rent history rather than a deposit that resembles the national debt of a small country have been introduced to give younger people a leg up onto the ladder.

The alternative to this is to put off leaving home longer than you would perhaps otherwise want to. If having to put up with a few more years of dad jokes or your mum snooping on the pretext that she’s looking for her missing favourite bone china mug is the price you have to pay to afford your own gaff before you reach your thirties, then surely that’s a price worth paying?