Comment: ‘London housing is completely unaffordable for young people — it doesn’t have to be so’

Despite indications to the contrary, I do not enjoy being a negative Nancy. It’s just that, if I want to write for anyone but the super-rich or those lucky folk who bought London homes in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, then it is getting increasingly difficult to follow my natural Pollyanna-ish inclinations.

Case in point, exclusive data seen by Homes & Property, showing that local homebuyers are now priced out of every single London borough, as house prices have become so untethered from incomes they now exist on another plane entirely.

To make matters tougher, we’ve seen almost a decade of tightly controlled mortgage lending, meaning first-time buyers need hefty deposits, while Help to Buy, the government scheme that boosted their spending power while funding new home building, closed this year.

Rising interest rates and inflation are also making mortgage repayments increasingly unaffordable.

Meanwhile ‘affordable’ housing options such as shared ownership can backfire when people come to sell up and move on.

Frankly, it is hard to see a bright side for the younger generations in a market that most commentators agree has never been tougher.

Perhaps we can at least give thanks for the death of the avocado discourse.

Is all this the end of the world? Not quite, but it could well be the end of London, or at least the end of its tenure as the capital of Europe as the young(ish) seek better quality of life in more welcoming places where they feel able to put down roots.

It needn’t necessarily be so – attitudes, policy and governance could shift. They will need to if London is to remain the vibrant, cosmopolitan, creative centre we know it to be.