In bad news for the conveyancing market, the level of homeownership has fallen to its lowest level since 1987.
The news comes despite some recent improvement recent signs of improvement to the mortgage market, following the introduction of the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme last August as well as a number of lenders dropping their rates.
According to the governments English Housing Survey 2011 to 2012, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government only 65.3% of households are home owners.
Around three-fifths of private renters, equating to 2.2 million households, said that they expected to buy a property at some point in the future, but 45% thought it would be five years or more before they did so.
Private rentals in particular have been on the increase, with 17.4 per cent or 3.84 million households in private rental sector rentals last year, compared with 17.3 per cent or 3.80 million renting from councils or housing associations.
As well as the overall figures the report identified other key trends in UK housing. It found the proportion of households within the private rental sector which are classed as overcrowded has doubled since the mid-1990s.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of charity Shelter, said the figures gave cause for concern: “As saving for a home of their own becomes increasingly out of reach, many have no choice but to live in rented homes for years on end.
“Today’s figures take the growth of ‘generation rent’ to a whole new level. “This should be the wake-up call that the Government needs to make renting fit for purpose.”
