Property ladder

property ladder – sostantivo

housing ladder – sostantivo

 

There’s a housing crisis in the UK with many struggling to get onto the housing ladder.

Millennial couples can get a foot on the property ladder in just five years if they stop playing the Lottery and start making their own sandwiches, an estate agent has claimed.

Today, buyers are likely to have stretched themselves further to get on to the first rung of the ladder.

 

Nel Regno Unito la percentuale di chi possiede la casa in cui vive rispetto a chi vi abita in affitto è sempre stata alta; oggi però, con il prezzo medio di un immobile che supera di otto volte lo stipendio medio, e con un deposito di 94.000 sterline richiesto per l’acquisto della prima casa nella capitale, molti ventenni e trentenni vedono sfumare la possibilità di mettere piede sulla cosiddetta property ladder, la “scala immobiliare”.

Il concetto tutto britannico di property o housing ladder si fonda sul fatto che per decenni nel Regno Unito il prezzo della casa è aumentato più rapidamente del reddito o dell’inflazione, per cui una volta acquistata la prima casa la si rivende qualche anno dopo guadagnandoci, per poi comprarne un’altra più cara. E se questo sistema ha funzionato bene per i baby boomer, i loro figli e nipoti oggi si trovano sempre più lontani dall’agognata scala. La sola idea che per fare economia e riuscire a mettere da parte il deposito per la casa si debba rinunciare a mangiare fuori o ad andare in vacanza ha suscitato grande indignazione.

 

Origini del termine

 

Il termine housing ladder compare su fonti scritte agli inizi del 1900; e se property ladder ha visto la luce negli anni 1940 come alternativa, oggi sembra essere di gran lunga il preferito dei due.

 

Traduzione di Loredana Riu

property ladder – noun

housing ladder – noun

There’s a housing crisis in the UK with many struggling to get onto the housing ladder.

Millennial couples can get a foot on the property ladder in just five years if they stop playing the Lottery and start making their own sandwiches, an estate agent has claimed.

Today, buyers are likely to have stretched themselves further to get on to the first rung of the ladder.

 

Britain has traditionally had high numbers of people buying their own homes rather than renting, but with the average UK house price at eight times the average income and a staggering £94,000 deposit needed to buy a first home in the capital, many in their twenties and thirties are giving up hope of ever getting a foot on the property ladder.

 

The concept of the property or housing ladder, which as far as I know is a peculiarly British one, relies on the fact that for many decades house prices in most areas have tended to rise faster than earnings or inflation, meaning that once you have bought your first home, you can sell it for a profit a few years later and buy a more expensive one. While this system has served many baby boomers very well indeed, their children and grandchildren are finding the first rung of the ladder increasingly out of reach. Suggestions that young people could save for a deposit by simply foregoing extravagances such as buying lunch, upgrading their phones or going on holiday have been met with incredulity and scorn.

 

Origin

 

The term housing ladder was first used in print in the early 1900s. Property ladder started to be used as an alternative in the 1940s but has now become the more popular term by far.

 

WordWatch è l'osservatorio sui neologismi della lingua inglese curato dalla redazione del dizionario Ragazzini.

A cura di Liz Potter