Rise in London house prices leads to increased affairs, says report
Research has suggested that more couples than ever are being forced to continue living together even after they have split up, leading to an increase in affairs.
A survey by the UK's largest and longest running dating site for married people, IllicitEncounters.com, has shown that over 42,000 married couples living in London have been put off divorcing simply because they wouldn't be able to afford to move out if they did.
Some 38 per cent of the 110,000 Londoners questioned identified rising house prices as the main cause of this, saying that they are instead opting to look for “an affair” while continuing to live in a loveless situation.
It is estimated that a single square metre of property in Kensington and Chelsea now costs almost £11,000, which is 12 times the cost of the equivalent area in the least expensive parts of the country. This leads to many broken relationships continuing out of convenience, according to Mike Taylor, spokesperson for IllicitEncounters.com.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of members who have signed up because rising house prices have forced them to stay in relationships they would much rather have gotten out of. In London the cost of living coupled with ever increasing house prices means the option of simply moving on or out, just isn’t that easy anymore,” he says.