You omit another demographic trend witton.
The average household size, in the context of number living together is also falling ever since WWII
With multiple generations living under one roof reducing, and youngsters far more likely to live alone or low numbers. So the increase in number of individual housing units needed , outstrips increasing population by quite some margin.





Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
The problem isn't with landlords generally. It is with Government policy and we do have a housing problem.

We didn't have a big problem with housebuilding for years.

Back in the 60s and 70s we had 300,000 a year being built, enough to cope with the increase in population.

But since we had that 2nd increase in population in the early 00's the house building rate has only averaged around 150,000 a year.

Bear in mind though that this is actual houses built. Some houses come out of service and there is also change of use.

One thing to consider is the huge increase in the student population since the 90s.

If you live in an old Uni town/City you will know that rentals are heavily geared towards the student population, where you can put 5-6 students in a converted large terrace and pick up almost £2000 a month in rent.

Well since the late 90s, that has now come to almost every town in the country. In Blackburn now we have several thousand students coming to town. It used to be just locals going to the old college. That has further increased the pressure on local housing, especially the lower end of the sector.

And our Blackburn Uni doesn't have any dedicated student halls, so it is all taken up by the regular housing stock.