Here’s how much longer tenants are renting
40% of renters tell online letting agent Upad that they have been renting for more than four years.
Forty percent of tenants have been renting for four years or more, it has been revealed, highlighting the long-term ‘generation rent’ nature of the lettings market.
The research, carried out by online agent Upad, also reveals that 13% of tenants are divorcees who have moved out of the marital home – a demographic described brutally recently in the Agents’s Diary blog – and that 90% of tenants are not currently looking to buy a home.
Also, one in five tenants are previous home owners although there is one unusual group of tenants identified in the data – those who are renting in order to understand a neighbourhood better before they buy – and a quarter of tenants also say they prefer to rent because it offers flexibility as they move around with work.
Renting
The UK’s high house prices are bearing down on generation rent, the research shows; a quarter of tenants say they couldn’t afford a mortgage even if they wanted to buy a home.
“The number of long-term tenants alongside those who have no desire to ever own a home further highlights the importance of landlords in the housing sector, and how they will remain so for many years to come,” says Upad’s founder and CEO James Davis.
“Given the proposed letting fees ban has progressed to the debate stage in Westminster it will be intriguing to see if the Government ever wakes up to the obvious importance of landlords in the marketplace.”
