Rise And Rise Of The Private Rented Sector

275,000 new tenants flooded the UK Private Rental Sector in 2011 – a 24% increase on the previous year.

Latest Government figures confirm the steady decline of UK Home ownership and the social rented sector, (Council Houses), together with the indisputable rise of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) following the credit crunch.

The figures confirm what property investors who have been expanding their rental property portfolios already know, Buy-To-Let in the UK is BOOMING!

The new 2010-2011 English Housing Survey shows that in that period;

• 66% of households (14.5 Million) were owner occupiers,
  down 1% from the previous year, continuing the downward trend observed since 2007.
• The social rented sector last year accounted for 17.5% (3.8 Million households)
• The private rented sector accounted for 16.5% (3.6 Million households).

Thirty years ago, there were over 3 Million more tenants in the social housing sector than in the private rented sector.

Now the gap is just 200,000.

Last year, a total of 394,000 new households were formed in England

• 68% were private tenants forming 268,000 of the new households
• 14% were owner occupiers (55,000 households)
• 18% were social renters (71,000 households).

One key difference is that couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2010-11 with 35% in the owner occupied and 43% in the private rental sector.

However, the most common type of household in the social rented sector was a single person aged 60 or over (24%).

17% of tenants in the social sector, were lone parents with dependent children, compared to 12% of tenants in the private rented sector with the same status. The figures compared to just 3% of owner occupiers.

In 2011, private sector rent was around twice that of social rents (an average weekly £160 compared to £79).
In the same period, 63% of social renters and 25% or private tenants received Local Housing Allowance (LHA) or Housing Benefit.

Another key difference is in length of tenure: 54% of private tenants had been in their home for under two years, whilst 59% of owner occupiers and 43% of social tenants had been in their home for ten years or longer.

Chief Executive of Countrywide, Grenville Turner, said of the survey: “Successive governments have widely encouraged home ownership but the impact of the recession has led to a structural change in the property market. The impact of this has caused an additional 275,000 new tenants to flood the private rental sector in 2011 – a 24% increase on the previous year. Current demand levels indicate that there will soon be more people in the private rental sector than social housing, which will only add to the already saturated demand and supply imbalance in the market.”

BTL landlords can cash in on the current rental property boom by utilising the wide range of landlord and letting agent services offered by Legal4Landlords.com to ensure thorough tenant vetting and cashflow, including Tenant Referencing, Landlord Insurance, Rent Guarantee Insurance as well as Debt / Rent Recovery and Eviction services.

The full report contains information about overcrowding, occupancy patterns, energy use and decent homes and can be found at the link below.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/ehs201011headlinereport