The Rise of the Rental Sector- Part 2

The latest English Housing Survey has confirmed what we already suspected by showing that the private rental sector is on the increase.

The private rental sector accounts for 19% of all tenures, 4.4 million of households, making it the second largest tenure in the UK.  This is up from 18% at the last survey whereas in 2003 the rental sector accounted for only 11% of all tenures.

Social rented property now accounts for 17% of households with home ownership covering 63%.

The report also shows that for the first time homeowners without a mortgage are greater in numbers than those with one with 7.4m owning their homes outright whilst 6.9m used a mortgage.

Finally in 2013-14 almost half (48%) of all households aged 25-34 rented privately, up from 45% in 2012-13. The proportion in this age group living in the private rented sector has more than doubled from 21% in 2003-4. Over the same ten years, owner occupation in this age group dropped from 59% to 36%.

The Rise of the Rental Sector- Part 1

Two recently published reports have highlighted the recent rise in rental values whilst supply has dropped.

Sequence reported that new tenancies in the UK increased by 16% year on year.  They also report that demand is up by 11% annually but supply is down by 13% for the same period.  The average monthly rent, excluding London now stands at £702, up by 5% on last year.

In a separate report, Homelet, a referencing company, reported that the average rent on newly signed tenancies were up by 2.5% on those signed in December.

The situation in our area is very much reflected by these figures as we have noticed a definite increase in rental values whilst supply, especially of new properties to the market, has dropped whist there are still good quality tenants looking and frustrated by the lack of stock.