Home ownership is now at its lowest level in thirty years, whilst the number of people renting has doubled since 2002, new government statistics show.
According to the latest English Housing Survey, of the estimated 22.8 million households in England, 14.3 million or 63% are owner occupiers.
The survey, produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government, shows that there were 195,000 fewer households owning a home in 2015/16 compared to 2009/10 – the lowest rate of home ownership since 1985.
The private rented sector has more than doubled since 2002 and now accounts for 4.5 million or 20% of households.
The government recently pledged to fix the “broken housing market” as plans to build more affordable housing were unveiled in its new housing white paper.
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, John Healey MP, said: “These new Government figures show yet another fall in the home ownership rate in England to the lowest rate in more than 30 years. There are now almost 200,000 fewer home owning households than in 2010 when Conservative ministers first took charge.
“Meanwhile, the number of people stuck in an insecure and increasingly expensive private rented sector has grown dramatically over the last seven years. Since 2010, the number of households renting privately as ballooned by over a million.”
End of the 25-year mortgage?
The figures suggest that the days of the 25-year mortgage could be numbered as first-time buyers faced with rising house prices and deposits take out longer loans.
Almost all first-time buyers (98%) had a repayment mortgage. Over half (54%) had 20-29 year mortgages while 40% had a mortgage of 30 years or more.
Around two-thirds (64%) of first-time buyers paid a deposit of less than 20% of the purchase price of their property. A small number (37,000 or 6%) bought their first home outright.
Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, said: “Runaway house price inflation and the difficulty of saving a deposit have trapped millions in private rented housing – even more than in the days of slum landlords like Rachman in the early 1960s.
“Private tenants have few protections from landlords who want to raise the rent or evict them without a reason. People can’t enjoy a good quality of life with no certainty over their home – and it is especially difficult for the growing number of families and older people renting from private landlords.
“The government knows that the housing market is broken but it is failing to do enough to fix it. Ministers need to expand their ambitions to build homes, while reforming the law to provide stability for the millions who will be unable to buy in foreseeable future.”
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