Is Mass Immigration Fuelling the Housing Crisis?

The UK Has recorded recorded levels of net migration - how much is this causing a housing crisis? Can we build enough new houses to meet growing demand?

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[ZenKaizen]

There is skilled labour in uk. Just not at the cost companies would like to have them at. They want to pay minimum wage for all jobs. So they bring cheap labour from abroad.

[Hudson]

It's the elephant in the room in regards the housing crisis, but no politician will ever speak its name. What a mess.

[animeandasiafacts]

Cheap labour, I work in a factory where half the workforce are foreigners. Also the migrants share flats and live with 5 other people let's face it inroder to save up money to send it back.

[BedtimeBen]

In the US we have 60 million illegal immigrants, nevermind those who come legally, the idea that they have no effect on housing is insane. It's purely supply and demand. There is a greater demand for housing, and a greater supply of labor. Wages are down, and the cost of living is up.

[bradsmith]

600k net imigration per year. Then, seven million former EU residents staying in the UK, the largest group being from Romania. Yes, that's a massive strain on housing and infrastructure including the health service.

[searchingfortruth]

The UK is addicted to immigration.

The extra NHS staff you mention being required, that come from overseas, would not be needed, if the immigration rate had been slower.

Additionally, British people are having children at a slower rate than immigrant families. So in fact, more skilled workers are required to build houses, schools and hospitals, to provide services for the new arrivals themselves.

[jontalbot]

International student immigration is not likely to fall. If anything it will accelerate. The reason is simple. Fees from UK students have been frozen for a decade and the numbers relatively stable. International students on average pay double the fees of UK students and there is very strong demand. The net 600, 000 net gain in immigration is slightly smaller than the annual number of international students. If we prevented them coming there would be more people leaving the UK than entering. But many of our universities would be bankrupted and we would lose £42 bn annually. That is an average of £58m per constituency

[sweetvuvuzela]

When you have beds in sheds in London that answers your question

[daliaa]

The British government and society love immigration. UK employers would rather employ someone with foreign experience than to give British graduates a chance as they have no experience

[alanevans]

Labour will probably be in government next year, so expect net migration to increase.

[Thorsted]

More than 20% of the donations to the tory parti comes from constructions tycoons.

[kevinu.k.]

Difficult subject to tackle in a video. This was good. Thanks

[boandonoff]

In my opinion, the impacting factors are in order:
- Low building supply - especially for multi-family blocks of flats.-
- Low interest rates and relaxed mortgage approvals since 2012;
- Net migration increase.

I migrated from the EU back in 2017, I'd say about 15-20% of migrants rent or mortgage a home, mostly due to the high costs relating to deposits (both in rentals and mortgages) - I know very few individuals that can produce £10, 000 - let alone more for a mortgage downpayment. Especially true in areas with high housing costs, such as Kent where I live. Most migrants live in shared acommodation, where any room possible (basements, attics, living rooms) is converted to an extra bedroom. A large part of Eastern European migrants also live in caravan camps in farms (which I don't believe are even included in housing data).

There seem to hardly be any issues in destitute areas, only major cities where prices tend to be higher across the globe due to the higher economic activity. We are seeing the same issue in major Bulgarian cities where the price of a 2 bed flat is about the same as a 5 bedroom massive house in a rural area, without migration levels being as crazy as they are in the UK.

[alangreenley]

there are only 70, 000 skilled bricklayers in the whole of england and me being one of them, at this present time the private house building sector, is slowly coming to a halt, because of the high interest rates, and big firms want there profits hence the slow down, social and council house building is not really happening, due to lack of funding, and this is all over the country so yes there is a housing crisis, has been for the last ten years, so all the people who cant get a mortgage are still waiting on housing lists for them to be built,

[DrJams]

You guys in the UK are full. Almost 65% of UK land is used for farming, the land where food is grown. And it's not enough because the UK has to import more food than it exports. Expect less food security and higher food prices.

[plweis]

We just need to shut the door. Simple.

[johnoriordan]

Question.Because we are a service economy, Do our rulers want more and more drones for
economy. I just see imported poverty and drains on system. They say skilled labour we get deliveroo drivers and cleaners.

[jamessmith]

Interesting that a skilled building worker can easily make double the wages of a worker in an unskilled job. Yet there is a shortage of skilled building workers.

[rogermanvell]

the political point is that there has never been a democratic choice about levels of immigration or the extent of house building rather both have been decided outside of the arena of democratic choice.

[africanqueenmo]

What an accurate and balanced analysis thank you