The renting makeover

‘Policy without principle is like a house without foundations’, David Cameron said in his ‘Bring me sunshine’ conference speech in Bournemouth.

Well, he should know. The young Tory leader’s own recently acquired £1.1 million home in Kensington is literally being undermined so that a basement room can be added to the already substantial house. The reason for this expensive and disruptive exercise is simple: London prices are so high that it is more cost-effective to extend, even downwards, than try to move up the property ladder.

Central London is now virtually a no-go area for anyone other than Russian oligarchs, multinational executives or City whizzkids. In fact, at today’s prices, monthly mortgage repayments even in London’s outer suburbs constitute more than 70 per cent of average take-home pay, with house prices on average more than nine times salaries.

Worse still — in Britain as a whole, according to research by management consultants Hay Group, average house prices are now six times annual income and mortgage repayments swallow more than half of take-home pay.