How can governments make housing more affordable?

Housing in the UK is, by international standards, old, cramped and expensive. With house prices in England on average nearly eight times median earnings, homeownership remains unaffordable for many.

At this policy conference, researchers from IFS, UCL, Warwick, LSE and other universities presented new evidence on the causes, consequences and potential policy responses to the problem of low housing affordability. Topics covered included the possible impact of a new help-to-buy or mortgage guarantee scheme and other affordable financing schemes, meeting the challenge of building 1.5 million homes, and comparisons of the UK planning system with other countries.

The event featured presentations of new IFS research funded by Homes England in to the Help-to-Buy scheme and the impact of house prices on social mobility. Following a keynote speech, by Professor Christian Hilber, a panel of experts discussed what policy levers are likely to be effective (and desirable) for improving housing affordability.

Speakers included:

• Bee Boileau, Research Economist at the IFS
• Nikhil Datta, Assistant Professor of Economics at Warwick University
• Ken Gibb, Professor in Housing Economics at the University of Glasgow and Director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence
• Christian Hilber, Professor of Economic Geography at LSE
• Peter Levell, Deputy Research Director at the IFS
• Stanimira Milcheva,  Professor in Real Estate Finance at UCL and Director of the Affordable Housing Centre at UCL