Outright owners of homes outstrip mortgage holders

Of the 22.6 million households in England, 7.4 million owned their property outright, and 6.9 million had a mortgage, the English Housing Survey revealed. The rest rented their homes. This marked a shift from an equal level among owners a year earlier. The proportion of owner-occupier households increased steadily from the 1980s to 2003 when it reached a peak of 71 per cent, but since then it has dropped annually. The data shows that the younger generation in particular are struggling to own property. In 2013-14, some 48 per cent of households made up of 25 to 34-year-olds rented their home from a private landlord, up from 45 per cent a year earlier, and from 21 per cent in 2003-04. Over the same 10 years, owner occupation in this age group dropped from 59 per cent to 36 per cent, with many people in this age group having little alternative but to remain living at home with their parents or turn to private rental accommodation, with greater demand fuelling the expanding private rented sector (PRS). Official data shows that in 2013-14, 19 per cent of households were renting privately, up from 18 per cent in 2012-13. In fact, the PRS…

Read More »