Sheffield housing: "I have to rent a stranger's spare room, or move back to my parents' house and lose my job"

For every story about young people struggling to get on the property ladder, tens of responses follow to tell them how lazy they are, how they are not working hard enough, or how this generation just cannot seem to do anything without a parent's credit card. 

“Young people don’t work as hard anymore” and “they expect everything to be handed to them” are opinions everyone has heard - but is there any truth to it? And does it explain why the average first-time buyer is now nearing 40 years old?

Kirsty Hamilton rents a house in Crookes, Sheffield with two friends, having secured a now unthinkable rent of £310 each per month when they moved in at the beginning 2022 - compared to the current UK average of £806 for a room (SpareRoom).

With the end of their lease sadly on the horizon, Kirsty will be forced to reckon with a housing or rental market in crisis, or to head home, 160 miles away, to live with her parents - and lose her job in the process.

She said: “At the minute, I am choosing between renting a studio flat and not being able to save anything, or renting a room in someone else’s house with random people and potentially giving up a lot of my happiness. 

“I am 25 now, and I am over the student-style living, where you have a cupboard in the kitchen and a bedroom, and that’s it. I would like to furnish a home that I can grow into, and not have to worry about a landlord keeping my deposit.”

She began working as a journalist in Worksop in 2021, on a salary of £18,500 - just above minimum wage for her age at the time. She now works in Sheffield and, as of this year, is on a salary of £23,400.

Kirsty said: “Last year, I did have to borrow from my parents because some payments were due and I just didn’t have the money in my account. I didn’t have any savings then, because I was not on the same pay I am now.

“I have paid them back now, and I can save about £500 per month, which is good.”

“Right now I am lucky to be in a safe area, in a commutable distance to work. My goal is to buy a house, but I cannot find anywhere like that to move to next, which I could afford.”

Today National World's 17 city world division news titles are collaborating to launch Project Peter Pan: championing the lost generation

Project Peter Pan - launched as the UK heads toward a general election in 2024 - aims to use our collective media power to give a voice to those in their 20s and 30s who have negotiated a pandemic, work hard and are ambitious, yet are lost.

So how long would it take someone, living alone, on an average UK salary, to put down a deposit on a house? 

The average (median) full-time UK salary is £29,000, which is £2,006 per month after tax.

For someone in Yorkshire, they would then sink almost a quarter of that into their landlord’s account (in other regions, it would be closer to a third), and have £1,544 remaining. 

Take off council tax (£120 at the cheapest, in Sheffield), bills (electricity and gas come in at £120 too, for a one-bed flat), food (£194), and they are left with £1,110.

Perhaps there is some room for flexibility here - they could go out sometimes, buy clothes, give birthday presents, give to charity, have a gym membership, and a reasonable phone plan. 

Perhaps they need to pay car insurance, or spend on other public transport to get to work and back. Or pay for the dentist, childcare, everything else for your children and dependents, and a bit of your student loan (while the interest on it keeps growing). 

Maybe their private landlord has just put the rent up, or it’s time for council tax to go up by the maximum amount of 4.99%, as it will next month in Sheffield.

After all is said and done, and all these things have finished chipping away at that magic thousand pounds, people in the UK are now saving a median of £180 per month (ONS, Wealth and Assets Survey).

If one of those people wanted to save for a 10 per cent deposit on a house in Sheffield, at the average 2023 price, it would take 11 years.

Is the deposit the main hurdle?

In Sheffield and across the UK, finding that deposit is only half the battle - especially when you are scraping that minimum threshold (usually 10 per cent of the price for first-time buyers), and applying for a bigger mortgage as a result.

Kirsty has been told by a mortgage broker that she could get a mortgage of £105,000 approved, but when the average house price in Sheffield is just short of £240,000, this still means she “can’t afford to do much”.

She added: “The budget I do have is enough for some of the deposit. I got that from inheritance, which is a really privileged position to be in. 

“It doesn’t mean I can get a higher mortgage, though. The downfall is my salary, I think.”

For a terraced property, averaging £183,000 in Sheffield in December, the typical monthly payment has increased by 29% in four years.

After putting down a £20,000 deposit, a typical payment for a 25-year mortgage in Sheffield is £957 per month - more than three times Kirsty’s rent payments at the minute, and almost 60% of her income after tax.

“So, I have been looking at other areas where I would be able to afford a house [freehold], outside of the city,” Kirsty added, “but I would have to spend a fortune on parking and commuting. 

“Plus, I worry about being lonely or isolated in moving to a smaller place which I don’t know.”

Kirsty also works a second job at a book publisher, in order to get new skills and hopefully get “a better paying job one day”.

What does this "lost generation" want to see change?

Kirsty has been to viewing after viewing, twice getting close to being approved for a mortgage, but has come across one particularly tough obstacle in the process - the service charge.

Leasehold property owners, while owning the property at least for a set period, do not own the land it is built on. As such, the majority of flats are leasehold, and owners have to pay uncapped service charges to the landlord as a result.

She said: “I have come to the conclusion that I just cannot afford the service charges in Sheffield. Not on any flat or leasehold.

“I very much back the idea of scrapping the service charge. There are so many flats in Sheffield that people cannot move into because of the ridiculous service charges. I saw one which had a charge of £5,000 a year.”

Freehold property owners own the property and the land it is built on indefinitely, but tend to be more expensive upfront as a result.

“I think people with a lot of money who just want to be landlords… there should be more restrictions on them,” Kirsty said.

Along with the service charge, HMOs, or houses of multiple occupancy, are another area in dire need of regulation across the country.

Most HMOs are houses initially designed for one family, then subdivided so three or more households can privately rent them.

Kirsty said: “One of the houses that I bid on got snapped up by a developer, and they are going to refurbish it and rent it out to multiple people. 

“There are so many houses and flats that no one other than them can buy. They just stand there empty.”

It was confirmed in a full council meeting last month (February 2024) that almost 7,000 homes are standing empty in Sheffield.

Leader of the council, Coun Tom Hunt, said the finance committee will consider charging the long-term empty premium (LTEP) after one year of the property being empty, rather than two years, “in order to put further pressure on landlords and property owners”.

Of the 6,922 empty properties, 580 have been empty for two to five years, 177 have been empty for five to ten years, and 207 have been empty for over a decade.

Kirsty added: “I wish there was something that would be done to stop affordable houses being scooped up and kept by landlords. It is taking it away from people who just want to get on the ladder.

“There are no jobs [at home] in Norfolk, but I am thinking about it. You have to drive for hours to get out, and I would lose my job, my friends, and my independence. 

“I don’t want to give up the life I have created here.”