While homes that are occupied by their owners make up the majority of the UK’s property market, the number of people who rent has increased by 2.4 million within the last decade, according to new research.
According to MSN Money, a report from Ascend Properties has revealed that the number of people renting has increased by 3 per cent, from 16.4 per cent in 2009 to 19.4 per cent in 2019.
It may not sound like a vast difference, but an increase of 1.02 million properties with an average of 2.3 people to a home means there are now an estimated 2,360,495 more people renting in the UK, according to the report.
Managing director of Ascend Properties, Ged McPartlin, said this was due to “issues surrounding housing affordability, with property values continuing to climb at a far higher rate than available earnings, which is causing aspirational homeowners to save for longer in order to get a foot on the ladder.”
He also said that there had been a change in attitudes towards renting and the freedom and flexibility it provides. With the growth of the build-to-rent sector, McPartlin predicts that residents will be increasingly opting to remain in the rental sector, and further increase the rental market share in the future.
The reliance on rental homes is higher in London where 21.9 per cent of the population live in rented accommodation. Yorkshire and the Humber (19.7 per cent) and the East Midlands (18.8 per cent) are also home to some of the largest rental markets in England.
However, the South East has seen the smallest increase in the proportion of people renting (0.7 per cent), while the level of homeowners has dropped 0.6 per cent.
The report also stated that “as a nation, we’re obsessed with bricks and mortar and so it’s no surprise that homeowners account for by far the largest proportion of the market.”
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