News Reports Mourn Shortage of Housing For Renters, But Ignore What’s Driving Soaring Demand

The housing crisis will never be resolved without first tackling soaring the mass migration driving demand, Alp Mehmet told Breitbart in reaction to new reports decrying the property market.

Data commissioned by the BBC from the property website Rightmove has revealed that in the past three years, there has been a threefold increase in the number of requests to view rental properties, soaring from just six in 2019 to an average of 20 per letting today. In some areas, it has climbed even higher, such as in the North West of England where the average currently sits at 30 people per rental.

The broadcaster went on to note that the increased demand has coincided with a drastic spike in prices, with rental costs rising at the fastest annual rate since such records began in 2016 and the average rental in England climbing to £960 per month.

The article from the BBC placed the blame for increased demand in the housing market on the impacts of the Chinese coronavirus, claiming that it was squeezed by students and workers returning to the cities following the lockdowns.

No mention was made, however, of the impact on the demand on available properties by record waves of migration allowed by successive Conservative governments in the wake of Brexit — despite the public being sold on the idea of leaving the European Union mostly on the promise of reducing immigration.

Speaking to Breitbart London, Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch, said: “The housing crisis is seriously impacting people’s lives throughout the country. But why, after years of significant housebuilding, does the situation only get worse? The answer is that little thought is ever given to what drives the insatiable demand. Without significantly slowing down the population growth driven by sky-high net migration, the housing crisis will never be resolved.

“The only solution to the problem is to cut immigration by a lot and build the houses we need. It’s as simple as that.”

Despite pledging in their manifestos to the public in the 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019 elections to reduce migration, the opposite has happened, with a record 1.2 million foreigners legally moving to Britain in 2022, for a record net-migration figure of 606,000 people.

The record-breaking figures came in the wake of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s points-based immigration system instituted in 2020, which not only failed to implement a firm cap on the number of migrants per year but also significantly lowered the salary threshold for the so-called ‘skilled worker’ visa from £35,800 to just £20,960.

Mass migration was also cited as the principal factor for the British population hitting its highest level ever in the 2021 census, with the Office for National Statistics admitting that 57 per cent of population growth over the previous decade came as a result of migration. During that time period, the population grew by 3.5 million from 56 million to 59.6 million.

The legacy media and liberal elites — whose property portfolios often benefit from the rising cost of housing — attempt to downplay the impact of mass migration on the housing market, pretending as if the number of people in the country plays no role upon the supply and demand forces of the market.

Since the country was subjected to mass migration policies under the neo-liberal Tony Blair government, the average cost of housing has more than doubled, rising from £130,499 in 1997 to £269,242 in 2022 when adjusted for inflation. Prior to the waves of mass migration, the cost of housing remained relatively steady, with the average cost rising from £104,242 in 1975 to just £114,368 in 1995.

During the same time period, wages have essentially remained stagnant, only rising by £90 in real terms per week, meaning that while the cost of houses has increased by 106 per cent compared to a 16 per cent wage increase, thus pricing out millions from entering the property ladder.

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