Britain's first time buyers face 'toughest' market for 70 years

First time buyers in the United Kingdom are facing the toughest market for generations, that's according to the latest industry research.

The UK's Building Societies Association (BSA) has, in report, highlighted the unprecedented challenges facing first-time buyers in today's housing market, with conditions described as the worst in 70 years.

Affordability is the biggest problem, given rising property prices which according to the BSA demand an increased reliance on parental financial help for deposits and a need for two high incomes in order to borrow enough to get on the property ladder.

The BSA advocates for significant governmental and regulatory reforms to boost access to homeownership.

Proposals discussed by the BSA include enhancing the availability of 95% loan-to-value mortgages and an easing of the current cap on high loan-to-income loans.

These measures can address the fundamental affordability issues at the heart of the crisis, the BSA claim.

Media reports mostly pull their information from the Building Societies Association report, which is transparently an industry body - and effectively a mouthpiece for the housing industry. It therefore embeds some commercial bias, favouring the core commercial interests of building societies. In other words, the BSA report promotes further deregulation of lending rules with a view to making it easier for people to borrow more money, in order to buy increasingly expensive property.

Alternative methods of addressing imbalance in the housing market, focussing on initiatives to make more affordable homes available, are not represented by the BSA.