As reported by Property Wire home ownership has continued to drop to be at it’s lowest for a while.
Home ownership in England has dropped to its lowest level since the 1980’s with young people in particular finding it hard to get on the housing ladders, a new survey shows.
It means that the rental sector has increased and the UK is moving towards a more European style of property market with renting no longer regarded as second best. According to the latest government English Housing Survey some 71% of house holders owned their own home in 2003, the peak of home ownership. That has now dropped to 65.3% amid predictions it will drop even further.
Of the 14.4 million home owners in England, the largest number are people aged 65 and over, a record 30% at 4.3 million which is more than a million higher than the total number for any other age group.
By comparison, there are just 2.6million owner occupiers in the 35 to 44 age group, and 1.4 million in the 25 to 34 age group. The private rented sector is now at its highest level since the early 1990s, equalling that of the social rented sector at 3.8 million households.
In 2011.2012 some 65% of households were owner occupiers. The survey also shows that average weekly rents in the private rented sector continued to be well above those in the social rented sector at £164 per week compared with £83. While mean rents have increased in both sectors since 2008/2009, private rented sector rents showed no significant change from 2010/2011.
