Potential crisis of housing shortage in Cardiff

What ’s the future of potential housing shortage in Wales and Cardiff?

This scene might be interesting when people are walking in the street to view the shipping containers along the road.

The Cardiff Council recently approved the project which is using shipping containers to build the affordable house. There will create 14 homes in shipping containers on the Bute street. This plan aims to help with the shortage of housing. However, this seems like the tiny part of potential Cardiff housing shortage problems.

Cardiff community housing association agree to build the house in shipping containers.

“My son, never seen a one bedroom flat in Cathays,” Councilor Mary McGarry, the member of Plasnewydd Labour Party. “The rent of private set is too high and he is paying four hundred and ninety pounds per month.” This could be the similar situation among the young generation in Cardiff. They might have encountered the housing problems.  

To some certain extent, house price and rents might reflect the housing shortage. Mostly, the price might rise when demand for housing exceeds the supply.

Also, the high house price might motivate people to rent a place to live instead of buying property. However, this issue of demand and supply basically has the housing problems in Cardiff.

In July 2017, Hometrack revealed that the growth of house price in Cardiff was located in the No.10 across the UK. It raised about 5.6% compared to July 2016. Also, in 2018, there are some latest figures which indicate the Welsh house price has increased by 3.3% in 2017. It is higher than the overall level across the UK. However, the growth of Cardiff has raised by 6.5%.

Tom Denman, the chief financial officer at Principality Building Society. He believes that the increase of house price in Wales due to more and more transactions which happened in the place like Cardiff and Newport where generates higher demand for housing resources. “New builds in areas such as Newport, have resulted in a price premium that has helped to push up average prices in those regions,” he said in a report. “A shortage in housing supply, high employment, and low-interest rates have all contributed to growth.”

The house in Cathays along the road.

Therefore, housing shortages have taken place in the Wales and Cardiff. The Wales government is trying to figure out the housing shortage in different areas.

Recently, the latest figure shows that there are around 10,000 houses which waiting to build in Wales and these houses might need four years to finish. Due to there is a large number of houses hasn’t established. This awaiting house might cause the shortage of house and the high price which the first-time buyer cannot afford.

Also, Wales government tries to increase the tax on ‘vacant land’. This tax aims to motivate the developers and improve the speed of building the house. However, some people believed this tax might be negative because it might decrease the positivity of developers.

On the other hand, the empty house has become a problem in Cardiff.Cardiff council also revealed that there are about 1000 house had been empty for at least two years. These idle resources cannot use effectively, which let the housing shortage looks more severe.

Furthermore, there is an idea which indicates that the Cardiff should guide students to rent the students’ apartment in the student accommodation. Some people believe it will be helpful to offer more houses for the small family in some patch. In the Cardiff, there are three universities which have a large number of students. Most of them choose to rent the house in the different patch.

Students have rented most of house nearby Cardiff University teaching building.

According to Chris Wood, in the Cathays, there are about 70% of residents are students. While students from universities in Cardiff are looking for the higher standard place to live.

Also, it can be seen that there is more and more student accommodation in Cardiff. It means the Cathays could release more available house for residents. However, the price of student accommodation is much higher than the house. Students might not want to pay the higher price for the student accommodation.

Through these 3 conditions, solving housing shortage in Wales even in Cardiff has become a significant problem.The housing shortage is a long-term problem in Cardiff which needs to solve it step by step.

In the future, Cardiff Council plans to build 2,000 affordable houses to meet the higher demand. “We understand the importance of having a good-quality, affordable home and, with a very long housing waiting list in the city. We need to ensure we are doing everything we can to address the increasing pressure to provide decent homes for the people who need them,” says Lynda Thorne, cabinet member for housing and communities said in a report.