500,000 More Of Us Are Now Renting – These Are The Areas With The Biggest Increases

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The latest research by nationwide buy-to-let specialist, Sequre Property Investment, has revealed where across the nation has seen the biggest swing towards renting when compared to homeownership in recent years.

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Sequre analysed data on dwellings across each area of England since 2012 and found that currently, 19.5% of the 24.4m dwellings across England sit within the private rental sector. While this has only increased 1% since 2012, this equates to an increase of nearly 500,000 more people living within privately rented properties across the country.

The Largest Lifestyle Swing Towards Renting

At a regional level, London is home to the highest level of private renters, accounting for 28.8% of total dwellings. The capital has also seen the largest lifestyle swing towards renting with a 2.2% increase since 2012.

However, this increase isn’t confined to the capital and the West Midlands has seen the second-largest increase, with the number of those reliant on rental properties increasing by 1.9% since 2012.

The North East has also seen one of the largest increases at 1.5%, as has the South West (1.3%).

At local authority level, both Greenwich and the City of London have seen the largest uplift in private renters, with both areas seeing the percentage of dwellings sitting within the private rental sector increase by 3.4% since 2012.

In fact, London accounts for eight of the top 10 increases with Newham (2.5%), Tower Hamlets (2.2%), Southwark (2%), Hackney (1.9%), Barking and Dagenham (1.5%) and Lewisham (1.5%) also making the top 10.

Outside of the capital, Telford and Wrekin has seen the number of private rental properties increase by 1.6% since 2012, with Salford also home to one of the largest increases at 1.5%.

Private Rental Sector Continues To Grow

Sales Director at Sequre Property Investment, Daniel Jackson, commented:

“The ever-escalating cost of homeownership, coupled with a change in lifestyle choices amongst younger generations, has seen the number of us opting to reside within the private rental sector continue to grow in recent years.

In fact, it’s fair to the role of the private rental sector within the wider landscape of the UK property market has never been as important.

Despite this, the government has consistently looked to deter landlords from the sector in order to boost housing stock in order to address the current housing crisis.

However, it’s clear that with so many remaining reliant on the rental sector in order to live, this lazy approach will only shift the problem from one area of the market to another.”

Location 2012 2019 Private rental change (%)
Private Rent Total Dwellings As % of Total Dwellings Private Rent Total Dwellings As % of Total Dwellings
London 898,000 3,383,000 26.5% 1,034,000 3,593,000 28.8% 2.2%
West Midlands region 365,000 2,387,000 15.3% 433,000 2,513,000 17.2% 1.9%
North East 176,000 1,183,000 14.9% 202,000 1,237,000 16.3% 1.5%
South West 432,000 2,419,000 17.9% 494,000 2,579,000 19.2% 1.3%
East Midlands 353,000 1,983,000 17.8% 393,000 2,103,000 18.7% 0.9%
East of England 435,000 2,550,000 17.1% 481,000 2,705,000 17.8% 0.7%
North West 528,000 3,155,000 16.7% 570,000 3,300,000 17.3% 0.5%
Yorkshire and the Humber 447,000 2,332,000 19.2% 479,000 2,441,000 19.6% 0.5%
South East 651,000 3,719,000 17.5% 676,000 3,944,000 17.1% -0.4%
England 4,286,000 23,111,000 18.5% 4,762,000 24,414,000 19.5% 1.0%

Data sourced: Gov.uk - Live tables on dwellings stock

Location 2012 2019 Private rental change (%)
Private Rent Total Dwellings As % of Total Dwellings Private Rent Total Dwellings As % of Total Dwellings
Greenwich 19,485 104,509 18.6% 25,191 114,398 22.0% 3.4%
City of London 2,088 5,531 37.8% 2,675 6,506 41.1% 3.4%
Newham 34,898 104,121 33.5% 42,124 116,979 36.0% 2.5%
Tower Hamlets 34,933 108,254 32.3% 41,885 121,539 34.5% 2.2%
Southwark 29,457 124,319 23.7% 35,039 136,178 25.7% 2.0%
Hackney 29,656 103,565 28.6% 34,100 111,559 30.6% 1.9%
Telford and Wrekin 10,767 69,434 15.5% 13,142 76,763 17.1% 1.6%