(Bloomberg) -- Decades of high house-price inflation have put ownership beyond reach for many in the U.K., according to Bloomberg Economics. Home-ownership rates have plunged by 9.9 percentage points since 2007, falling to 63.4 percent in 2016, a level last seen in the mid-1980s when Margaret Thatcher espoused the merits of a property-owning democracy. That puts Britain behind France, which, at 64.9 percent, has seen a steady increase over the past decade.