Owner occupation rates creep up over four years

While owner-occupation rates did not increase between 2018-19 and 2019-20, rates are up slightly from 2016-17.

Of the estimated 23.8 million households in England, 15.4 million or 65% were owner-occupiers in 2019-20, unchanged from 2018-19 but an increase from 63% in 2016-17.

The last time 65% of households were owner-occupiers was 2012-13. Since 2013-14 there have been more outright owners than mortgagors. In 2019-20, 35% of households were outright owners while 30% were buying with a mortgage.

The increase in owner-occupation between 2016-17 and 2019-20 can be explained by an increase in owner-occupation outside of London (65% to 67%) and an increase in mortgagors in London (from 22% to 26%).

The proportion of households in the private rented sector has decreased since 2016-17 but did not change between 2018-19 and 2019-20.

In 2019-20, the private rented sector accounted for 4.4 million or 19% of households in England, unchanged from 2018-19, but lower than in 2016-17 (20%). This is largely explained by a decrease in the proportion of households in the private rented sector outside of London from its peak of 19% in 2016-17 to 17% in 2019-20. Renting is more prevalent in London and 28% of households lived in the private rented sector in 2019-20.

In 2019-20, there were around 827,000 first time buyers in England, 100,000 more compared to last year in 2018-19.

Most first time buyers (85%) funded the purchase of their first home with savings, 28% reported receiving help from family or friends while 6% used an inheritance as a source of deposit. Between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the proportion of first-time buyers using savings to purchase their first home increased (from 76% to 85%), whereas the proportion receiving a gift or loan from family or friends decreased from 39% to 28% over the same period.

Over the last decade, the proportion of homes with HHSRS Category 1 hazards has declined across all tenures. Category 1 means a ’serious and immediate risk to a person’s health and safety’.

In 2019, 10% of the housing stock had a HHSRS Category 1 hazard, down from 21% in 2009. Such hazards are more prevalent in the private rented sector (13%) than the owner-occupied (10%) or social rented sectors (5%).

While the private rented sector had the highest proportion of homes with a Category 1 hazard, there was a notable decrease in the proportion of stock with such hazards, from 28% in 2009 to 13% in 2019.

The energy efficiency of the English housing stock has continued to improve. The energy efficiency of the English housing stock continued to improve. In 2019, the average SAP rating of English dwellings was 65 points, up from 63 points in 2019 [wrong date here, they either mean 2018 or 2009]. This was evident in all tenures apart from local authority dwellings where there was no significant increase.

The social sector remains more energy efficient than the private sector. In the social rented sector, the majority of dwellings (61%) were in EER bands A to C, compared with 38% of private rented sector dwellings and 36% of owner-occupied dwellings.

Andrew Shepherd, managing director at TopHat, said: “The English Housing Survey, released today, reveals that there is an urgent need to improve the quality and energy efficiency of England’s homes.

“As of 2018, England’s housing stock was made up on an estimated 24.2 million homes. This means there are 2.4 million homes classed as posing a serious and immediate risk to the health and safety of the people who live in them. To put bluntly: this simply is not good enough. There needs to be a step change in UK housebuilding. This means building better, and helping all areas of the industry, from private house builders to local authorities, to deliver more homes.

“The Government has already shown real foresight and leadership in backing offsite manufacturing, where homes are manufactured along production lines in a factory, but more has to be done. At TopHat, our technology-led approach allows us to create precision engineered homes that are highly energy efficient, with low embodied carbon, and free from defects. Integrated software platforms mean we can gather comprehensive data sets on each home that enable us to model their energy performance – helping us to reach zero-carbon standards and driving down heating bills for consumers.

Source: Show House News