Time is ticking for young lawyers to get on the property ladder

Posted in News on 28 Sep 2017

A recent report published by the Resolution Foundation contains some tough reading for millennials.

Today’s 30-year olds are only half as likely to own their home as their parents at the same age.

Four out of every ten 30-year olds now live in private rented accommodation in contrast to one in ten 50 years ago.  

The report also suggests there may be a window of opportunity to get a foot on the property ladder and that closes when people hit their early 40’s.

We asked 3,000 UK based Solicitors and legal professionals and looked at trends in rental, living with family and home ownership rates in the first 10 years of legal career. The good news is that lawyers are bucking the trend when it comes to ownership, with rates rising sharply as legal experience is acquired.

The percentage of legal professionals owning their own homes passes 50% three and a half years into their legal careers and will have almost doubled to nearly 80% by the time they celebrate 10 years in legal. The increase is driven by lawyers coming out of rented and moving out of their family homes. The number of Solicitors and other legal professionals living in rented will half by the end of year 10 to a point or two under 1 in 5 and just 2% will be living with family.    

Jonathan Nolan, Director of Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment who carried out the research commented “If the window of opportunity highlighted in the Resolution Foundation report is a reality then my advice to Solicitors and Lawyers who have home ownership aspirations, is don’t get left behind.” 

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