People renting homes in the nine market renewal pathfinders are to be questioned about what financial products would encourage them to buy homes.
The survey, to be carried out by MORI, will inform a study being done by Nicholas Passman, housing policy manager at lender Halifax, with Birmingham University professors Alan Murie and Philip Leather.

It will look at the mortgage needs of people in the nine low-demand areas and recommend lending models to help them.

Passman said his research would include low-cost homeownership schemes and general mortgage products. "We could look at ways of agreeing on a few standard shared homeownership schemes. We could also look at lender issues with shared ownership," he said.

"If you can reduce the risk to lenders, can you reduce the price and extend the product to a wider customer base?"

Passman said long-term fixed rate mortgages, currently being explored by Professor David Miles at Imperial College, London, were of more relevance to high-value areas than the pathfinders.

The MORI data will be delivered in June and the study will be published in October.

Brendan Nevin, director of housing market renewal for the North Staffordshire pathfinder, welcomed the research. He said it would help show the scale of the problem and the main groups of homeowners affected, and possible solutions.

Source

Housing Today