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Renting has always been considered a young person’s game. Students, young sharers finding their way in the world, couples taking their first steps together. However, times are changing, and the age bracket or the average renter is shifting upwards.
Research by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has revealed that the proportion of older people renting a property has almost doubled in the last decade.
For many, average rents are now significantly less expensive than mortgage payments, and hefty deposit requirements needed to get on the property ladder price families out of the market altogether. In fact, the Department for Work and Pension’s Family Resources Survey showed that nearly 25% of respondents in their late thirties and early forties are tenants, with the same age group with a mortgage falling from 60% to 50% in the ten years from 2007 to 2017.
With such a shift in figures, and a clear lean towards tenants renting from private landlords, the RLA are calling for private landlords to support the growing number of more mature tenants, with longer tenancies and properties suited to family life.
We recognise that older tenants, especially those with children, want security in rented housing. Although official statistics show that tenants have, on average, lived in their existing rented homes for almost four years, we have called on the Government to do more to support the provision of longer tenancies. The growth in the number of older tenants is one factor behind an increase in demand for rented housing at a time when an increasing number of landlords are not investing in more properties or are selling off homes because of Government tax rises on the sector. This is making it more difficult
RLA policy director David Smith
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