61% of tenants can only dream of buying a house

Published: 20/03/2013

Three million social tenants and 1.5 million private tenants believe they will never get on the property ladder, according to latest research.

Castle Trust found that for many tenants the idea of owning property does not extend beyond a pipedream. Of the remaining 39 percent of tenants who believe owning property is still a possibility, 1.5 million of those tenants will not even start looking to buy a property for another five years.

Analysing figures from the latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) English Housing Survey, the housing investment and shared ownership mortgage provider revealed owner occupation had decreased by 200,000 between 2008 and 2012 while the number of private tenants had risen 23 per cent to 3.8million for the same period.

Rob Denman is one of the solicitors behind GW LET, the dedicated landlord service from Goldsmith Williams:

“While there are some obvious concerns surrounding these latest figures from the property market as a whole, there is no disguising the news is particularly good for landlords.

“The buy to let and private rental markets have remained resilient despite the overall downturn in property transactions in recent years and these figures suggest this resilience will continue to be strengthened by the reliance on private rental properties.

“The declining numbers of owner occupation demonstrates landlords are already using the situation to their advantage. Yet with private renters increasing by 700,000 over the past four years, the market continues to offer opportunities for landlords.”

As buy to let and landlord law specialists and an accredited member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme, Goldsmith Williams is the ideal firm to trust with your buy to let property needs.

Content correct at time of publication