The English Housing Survey- Headline Report 2013-14 has just been released and it shows the continued rise of private renting.

In the 10 years from 2003 to 2013-14 the private rented sector for the age group 25-34 has more than doubled from 21% to 48%.

In 2013-14 the private rented sector was the second largest tenure in England with 4.4 million households or 19%. In 2012-13 it was 18%.

If we go back 10 years to 2003 the private sector accounted for just 11%. The graph shows how the changes have come about with the decline in social housing since 1980 and the rise of the private rented sector since the late 1990’s.

The survey also shows that 48% of all households aged 25-34 rented privately in 2013-14 up from 45% in 2012-13. In the 10 years from 2003 to 2013-14 owner occupation of this age group dropped from 59% to 36%

The National Housing Federation recently reported that 63% of private renters aged 25-44 years old thought they would have bought their own house by now, but with high house prices, stagnant wages and difficulty in raising the deposit money required the only option left open to them is to rent from a Private Landlord.

For many this is a lifestyle choice allowing them flexibility to move with their jobs and a choice of which property to live in whilst knowing all their repair bills are taking care of by their landlord.