UK enters list of top 10 nations with the highest proportion of rental properties
The number of rental properties across the UK has climbed by over 1.1 million over the last decade, according to the latest research by specialist rental platform Ocasa.
That increase has placed the UK in the top 10 globally when it comes to the balance between homeownership and renting.
Ocasa analysed current dwellings stock to find what proportion of the UK property market is accounted for by the rental sector, comparing this to other nations, as well as looking at how this balance has shifted in the last 10 years.
The analysis showed that a decade ago, there were just shy of 27.5 million total dwellings in the UK property market. With almost 9.4 million rental properties, the UK rental market accounted for 34.2% of all dwellings.
Fast forward a decade and this proportion has shifted, with even more becoming reliant on the rental sector in order to put a roof over their heads.
The latest figures show that there are now over 29.5 million dwellings in the UK market, a 7.5% increase versus 10 years ago.
The number of rental properties now stands at over 10.5 million, meaning that this area of the market has not only seen a larger rate of growth at 12.2%, but it now accounts for 35.7% of total UK dwellings.
While a 1.5% increase in market share may not sound that significant, it means that there are now over 1.1 million more rental properties across the UK than there were a decade ago.
This rental market share places the UK at number 10 in the list when it comes to the nations with the largest reliance on their respective rental markets.
Switzerland sits atop, where the rental sector accounts for 57.7% of the overall property market, with Hong Kong (50.2%) and Germany (49.6%) also ranking high.
Other nations to rank ahead of the UK include Austria, Turkey, South Korea, Denmark, Japan, and France.
“Not only has the high cost of homeownership forced many to remain within the rental sector until far later in life, but we’re starting to see a generational change whereby the freedom and convenience that renting provides is becoming the preferable method of living for many,” Jack Godby, head of sales and marketing at Ocasa, commented.
“We’ve also seen a clear acceptance of this trend from the industry itself, with the emergence of the build-to-rent sector, focusing solely on the delivery of better rental homes for tenants to occupy on a far longer-term basis.’
According to Godby, this is a change that is only going to grow more prominent in the future.
“We expect renting to become the norm for many more people until far later in life than we’ve traditionally seen in the UK,” he added.
