“60% of those surveyed stated their intention to eventually buy property!”

The latest English Housing Survey, published by the Government, shows that 60% of those surveyed indicated that it is their intention to eventually buy a property. The majority was made up of 16-24 year olds, who made up 81%.

In 2016-17, 68% of 266,000 moves out of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) were to owner-occupation.

The PRS has doubled in size since 1996/97, with the Survey noting 4.7 million households now live in privately rented homes. The mean figure for people to stay in their privately rented home is 3.9 years.

People over the age of 75 have an average of 17 years in their private rented property, whereas 16-24 year olds have an average stay of less than a year. Generally, the number of private renters across all age groups is rising with 46% of 25-34 year olds also now living in private rentals (a statistic up by 19% in ten years).

With current calls for longer tenancies, it must be noted that it ignores the need for short-term tenancies which younger age groups and students prefer. The recently launched longer-term tenancy consultation will discover a mixed reaction to the proposal, because in such a fluid market, one size does necessarily fit all!