(Bloomberg) -- Homeownership among millennial Britons has bounced back to its highest since 2010 despite the pandemic surge in property prices, according to a new analysis.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that faster rises in disposable income for young people may have spurred a recovery in ownership rates since 2015, though they remain well below levels seen at the start of the century.

The figures offer some relief for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with housing set to feature prominently during the campaign for the July 4 general election. 

While house prices have eased relative to incomes from a record high in 2021, rocketing mortgage rates may have made the dream of homeownership harder to achieve. The opposition Labour Party, which has a commanding lead over the ruling Conservatives in opinion polls, has pledged to build 1.5 million homes in five years after the current government missed its own targets.

The IFS analysis showed that 39.1% of 25 to 34-year-olds owned property in the UK in 2022, up from the low of 32.8% in 2015 after many young buyers were priced out of the market by high housing costs. In 2000, homeownership among this group was at 58.6%.

The rate of ownership also rose slightly for older millenials, those age 35 to 44, to 58.7%, up from a low of 56.7% in 2018.

The IFS said the recovery has been “concentrated on middle-income people” and cautioned that it was too early to see the impact of higher mortgage rates.

“The reasons for the recovery are not immediately clear, though it is noticeable that disposable incomes of young adults have grown markedly faster since 2015 than those of the population as a whole,” said Jonathan Cribb, associate director of the IFS.

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