AFFORDABLE FAMILY HOUSING

5420 WORDS

This dissertation determines how current trends in housing in the South East will impact on the future of affordable housing for families. The dissertation is divided in to five main Chapters. Chapter 1 provides an outline of two main facets of the dissertation: i) defining the methodology to be used in the course of the dissertation, through outlining how the Literature Review, which forms the basis of the dissertation, was conducted and ii) outlining the basic objectives that will be addressed in the course of the dissertation. The basic objectives that will be addressed are i) whether enough housing units are being delivered for families; ii) what the current housing trends are, in terms of what type of housing is being developed (i.e., flats or housing) and iii) what the impact these factors will have for the future of affordable family housing in the South East.

Chapter 2 moves on from the outline of the methodology and the outlining of the basic objectives of the dissertation to provide an overview of the trends in the UK housing market over recent years, with Section 2.1 providing a summary of the findings of the Barker Report, a report that was commissioned by the Government with the explicit purpose of achieving improvements in housing affordability, creating a more stable housing market, locating housing supply to promote economic growth and providing an adequate supply of public (or social) housing for those who need it (Barker, 2004). Section 2.2 looks in detail at what factors have fuelled the recent trends in the UK housing market, looking in detail at such factors as the introduction of buy-to-let mortgages and the impact these have had on house prices and the private rental market. This section also addresses the issue of the purchasing of second homes and how this relates to new housing developments, in terms of many of the new builds in desirable areas being swept up by people purchasing second homes, and not by first time buyers, causing further problems for first-time buyers wanting to enter the housing marke