This isn't a feeling. It's what happens when homes become investments.
What a typical home in England costs compared with a typical full-time salary. In 1997 it was 3.5×.
ONS, Housing affordability in England and Wales [verify]
households in England now rent from a private landlord.
English Housing Survey [verify]
whole homes in the UK listed as short-term holiday lets.
[Source to find: Inside Airbnb / council data]
homes in England and Wales owned through overseas companies.
[Source to find: Companies House Register of Overseas Entities]
It means 30-year-olds in their childhood bedrooms. Nurses commuting two hours because they can't afford to live near the hospital. Seaside villages with no lights on in winter.
None of this happened by accident. It was a series of rule changes, each of which made it more profitable to own a home you don't live in.
The rules turned homes into assets. We can change the rules.
Three changes to put homes back in the hands of the people who live in them.
Homes should be bought by people who'll live in them, not by people who already have one.
A home rented to tourists all year is a home a local family can't live in.
If you live here, whatever your passport, you can buy a home. If you don't live here, you can't.
If you own the home you live in, nothing changes. Except your children might be able to afford one too.
Most landlords did what the rules rewarded. We want to change the rules, not blame individuals.
It's about whether you live here. Anyone who lives in the UK can buy a home.
We want house prices that stop running away from wages, with change phased in over years.
We want a conversation, not a lecture. Here are the hardest questions we get. If you think we've got something wrong, say so publicly and tag it #HomesNotAssets.
Homes don't disappear when a landlord sells. They get bought by the tenant, by a first-time buyer, or by a council or housing association. Not everyone wants to buy, and that's fine. Rented homes should come from councils, housing associations and not-for-profit landlords, not from someone outbidding first-time buyers for a two-bed terrace.
Every home a landlord sells is bought by someone who no longer needs to rent. So there are fewer homes to rent, but also fewer people competing for them. That's why the phase-out has to come with more social housing, so that people who rent have secure, affordable options. [Policy detail to agree]
We understand. For years people were told property was the safest pension there is. That's why we're proposing a long phase-out rather than an overnight change. You'd have time to sell at a fair price, ideally to the people already living there.
No. It's about where you live, not where you're from. Anyone who lives in the UK, whatever their nationality, could buy a home. New Zealand, Canada and Denmark already restrict people who don't live there from buying homes. [verify]
We don't want a crash. We want prices to stop running away from wages, and that's why the changes would be phased in over years. If you own your home and live in it, its price only really matters when you sell, and then you'd be buying your next home in the same market.
[Verify each and add to sources]
[Who we are, why we started this, and how we're funded: to write]