Home ownership among 25-34 year olds has declined further in 2014, the latest English Housing Survey of the Department of Communities and Local Government shows.
Over the past decade, young households have been gradually moving away from owner occupation towards the private rented sector. The proportion of homeowners aged 25 to 34 ten years ago was 59 per cent as opposed to just 36 per cent now.
The number of young people renting privately grew to 48 per cent in 2013/14 from 45 per cent in 2012/13.
Looking at overall figures, however, the owner occupied tenure remained the largest one in 2014 with 63 per cent of the households in England living on their own property. This corresponds to 14.3 million people out of the whole number of 22.6 million.
For the first time ever though, the people who owned their homes outright (7.4 million) were more than those owning through a mortgage (6.9 million).
Owner occupation has been rising gradually between the 1980s and 2003, when it peaked with 71 per cent of English households living in homes they owned. Since then that proportion has been falling to the current figure of 63 per cent.
The private rented sector, which in 2014 held a 19 per cent share in the tenure mix, stagnated in the 1980s to 1990s remaining at around 10 per cent. When rent controls were lifted in the 1990s more people chose to rent as the shorter-term tenancies allowed more flexibility. Since then the private rented tenure has doubled in size.
The social rented sector remained below the private rented last year with 17 per cent of households living in social housing. This sector has been on the decline since the 1980s when the state launched the Right to Buy scheme, enabling many social tenants to buy their homes. Between 1980 and 2000 the proportion of social rented housing has dropped to 19 per cent from 31 per cent.
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