David Pretty, chair of the New Homes Marketing Board, has intensified calls for government to take urgent steps to address the impact on first time buyers of the affordability crisis. The move follows the results of an NHMBcommissioned YouGov poll, which found that almost 90% of respondents viewed property prices as a major problem for first time buyers in their area. Focusing on the growing consensus that declining first timers represents a serious social problem, the NHMB is recommending that first timers be treated as a “special case”through government policies. <br><br>Measures such as fast-tracking planning applications for first time buyer housing, offering tax relief on parental contributions, scrapping stamp duty on first homes or raising the threshold to £250,000 could help ease their plight. The psychological impact on thousands who are being priced out of the housing market was unlikely to lead to a cultural shift in which renting becomes more acceptable, the YouGov poll results suggest. <br><br>Well over 80% of the people sampled said they would be unhappy about living permanently in rented accommodation, and for those under 35, the figure rose to 90%. Two thirds of respondents said they would be ‘very unhappy.’ “A lifetime condemned to renting …