Home ownership is more important than marriage or children

People looking to buy a new home in the region think that owning their own property is a more important priority in life than marriage or having children.

When asked to rate the level of importance of home ownership, the vast majority (86 per cent) of homebuyers in the south surveyed rated it as eight or above out of 10. By contrast, only 63 per cent attributed the same level of importance to marriage and just 51 per cent to having children.

Apart from general happiness which came top (92 per cent), the two aspirations that came close to home ownership were the area in which you live (80 per cent) and job security (75 per cent), affording them a similar degree of importance as owning their own home (86 per cent).

These findings come from the latest Barratt Home Buyers study of 2,275 British adults looking to buy a home, an annual survey which tracks changing attitudes of homebuyers in Britain since 2010. ComRes conducted the fieldwork. The study has revealed a significant shift in market perceptions among British homebuyers compared with a year ago with fewer people citing finance issues and selling their home as difficulties.

Ian Wallace, managing director of Barratt Homes, said: “There has clearly been a shift in the market with a growing belief that the availability of mortgage finance is becoming less difficult - that's got to be good news for homebuyers. However, customers are overestimating the size of the deposit that they would need, particularly as government backed 95 per cent mortgages become established in the market.

“The Barratt study also underlines how low the level of activity in the market remains with a scarcity of property to buy. We are now steadily increasing production and this year we are likely to build more homes than at any time in last five years.

“We have recently invested £2 billion in land and our priority is now to bring these new sites into production.”