Buying not be all and end all, says CIH

The Charted Institute of Housing (CIH) has urged people to "move away from the mind-set that it is right to buy and wrong to rent" and focus on "affordability".

According to Jill Dwyer, a spokesperson for CIH, housing options must meet the "needs of people at different stages of their lives", be this a mixture of properties for sale, shared-ownership or housing for rent at subsidised and unsubsidised levels.

She added that Ken Livingstone's suggestion there might be changes to the planning system in London to further encourage this investment in the rental sector "would be welcome" if it encouraged housing supply, particularly of three and four bedroom family homes.

"London has a particular shortage of family homes and Communities and Local Government figures show that the proportion of new houses built in London in 2005/6 with three or more bedrooms was just 15 per cent, less than half of what it was in 1997/8," she said.

In February, the British Property Federation and the Greater London Council called for the creation of a brand-driven home rental market, similar to the US and Germany.

News posted on 25th April, 2008