Is home ownership increasing?

Following a period of steady growth since the sixties the proportion of owner occupiers compared with renters had been steadily reducing since around 2003. (Ministry for Communities and Local Government, 2017). However, updated data suggests that the proportion of owner occupiers is now increasing again.

Between 2016 and 2017 there was an increase in the proportion of owner occupiers of 0.5%. Over the same period the proportion of Privately Rented households reduced by 0.4% and the proportion of Rented from Local Authority households reduced by 0.1%.

The Ministry for Communities and Local Government data covers England and Wales and details the number of households that are owned by the occupier. An increase in the number of second homes would therefore increase the number of homes that are owned by the occupier. Shared ownership housing schemes are included in the figures for owner-occupied households

Other data sources such as the Labour Force Survey (LFS) also suggest increases in home ownership between 2016 and 2017. Their survey for the final quarter of 2017 suggested an increase of 1% compared with 2016.

It should be noted that the levels of change reported are small and observers should perhaps question the statistical relevance of such small changes over short periods of time.

The overall trend since the sixties is that owner occupier households are increasing, privately rented households are decreasing and households that rent from local authorities are decreasing.

See also post "How housing in England has changed since the 1960s" which also takes a look at tenure trends since the sixties.

Sources

Department (Now Ministry) for Communities and Local Government, 2017. English Housing Survey (EHS), [Online]. Available at: gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

Labour Force Survey (LFS). [Online] Available at: discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=2000026