With a penthouse in Santa Monica, a rambling Georgian manor in North Yorkshire and a five-bedroom mews house in Kensington, Rishi Sunak knows a thing or two about the joys of home ownership. “I want everyone to feel what I felt when I got the keys to my first flat,” Sunak said in his recent televised debate with Keir Starmer, recalling the moment he stepped into his South Ken pied-à-terre for the first time.
Launching his election manifesto, Sunak reiterated the Tory party’s eternal commitment to estate agents, house builders and the transformational power of bricks and mortar. “From Macmillan to Thatcher to today,” he declared, “it is we Conservatives who are the party of the property-owning democracy in this country.”
It is a familiar tune. But after 14 years of Tory rule, the prospect of home ownership has never been more distant for so many people, as house-price inflation continues to rocket far beyond wages. Two decades ago, a household with the median income could afford to buy an average-priced house in England. Now, they can afford only the cheapest 10% of properties.
