Around four in 10 people living in the capital have used their property to generate income.
One in four (25%) Brits have used, or are using, property to generate income, Just Group’s ‘My Home My Future’ research has found.
Around four in 10 (43%) people living in London and 37% of people in the North East have used their property to generate income.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said: “Broadly we found people in London were most likely to have used property to provide income with it becoming less likely with distance from the capital.
“The North East is the exception because the area had rates of remortgaging, providing lodgings and releasing equity that were more than double the national average.”
The least likely areas for Brits to use their property to make money are Wales (15%) and Northern Ireland (9%).
One in 10 (10%) said they had generated income by renting out an investment property.
Other methods used were to rent a room to a lodger or through a rental site such as Airbnb (5%), to remortgage (5%) or to release equity from the property (5%) or to refurbish and sell (5%).
People in urban areas are about twice as likely (41%) to have generated income from property than those living in suburban (18%) or rural locations (16%).
There is also an age split with 44% of under 55s having made money from property compared to 13% of over 55s.
In addition, men are more likely to have generated income from property than women (29% compared to 20%).
The most common reason people gave for using property to generate income was to supplement their regular income and for home renovations (both 21%).
Among those who said they had not used property to generate an income, 45% said they did not need the income and 25% said they did not want the hassle of managing it.
Some 17% said they did not feel comfortable investing in property, 12% said they did not know how to go about it and 9% were worried about the tax implications.
Lowe added: “For many people, buying a home is a major ambition and their property will be their biggest asset.
“With longer lives and more responsibility on individuals to build up a pension, we would expect the use of property to supplement other income to increase in the coming years.
“How they do it could change significantly as the rewards and incentives change.
“Higher taxes on buying second properties and on rental income could lead to a slowdown in lettings, while more innovative and accessible equity release products could lead to more people in later life tapping into property wealth to meet their retirement aspirations.”
