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Home ownership in the UK

16 January 2019

The national picture

Housing tenure in the UK has changed dramatically over time. In the decades following WW2, large numbers of homes were built, and many were rented out by local authorities. With higher incomes and easier access to mortgages, home ownership rose. This continued with Right to Buy – the large scale sell-off of social rented properties to their occupants. The private rented sector shrank to historic lows by 1989 due to these trends and tight regulation. Due to low levels of housebuilding, rising house prices, a resurgence of the private rented sector and a lack of social housing, home ownership peaked in the early 2000s. The financial crisis led to a further decline in mortgage availability, but overall ownership levels have been rising in recent years.

All these trends and more are shown in this chart, which is the timeliest source of UK housing tenure data. The figures give the proportion of families in each kind of housing situation, where a ‘family’ may be a single person or a couple, along with any dependent children.

Download the data.

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by region

Different parts of the UK have quite different tenure make-ups. But many trends are shared nationwide, with home ownership having fallen in all regions. Check out your part of the UK by clicking on the map or the dropdown menus.

Download the data.

Notes: Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire are included in the Eastern region after 1984 but the South East before then.

Cumbria is included in the North West region after 1984 but the ‘North East’ (previously ‘Northern’) before then.

There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by age

Focusing on the proportion of families that own their own home, you can see how home ownership rates vary by age as well as over time and by region. For the 25-34 age group nationwide, home ownership rates have been increasing over the past two years but they are still a very long way shy of their 1980s peak. Whether this trend will continue or tail off remains to be seen, but we do know that the fundamentals of the housing market are still unfavourable for younger potential buyers – unless that changes we wouldn’t expect a home ownership surge anytime soon. We’ll be following the trends in the months and years ahead closely.

Download the data.

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

“All” includes families under 25

Technical notes

For our analysis of the period from 1984 onwards we use the Labour Force Survey (LFS), conducted by the Office for National Statistics. As we are looking at families, we use the ‘household’ rather than ‘adult’ datasets and weights.

Prior to 1984, we use the Family Expenditure Survey (FES), as standardised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (A Goodman & S Webb, Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset 1961-1991, 1995). The sample size available is considerably smaller than in the LFS, and especially so pre-1968, leading to noisier results. Not all changes should be viewed as significant – especially for smaller regions.

Due to the change in sources, there is a discontinuity in our data between 1983 and 1984. However, there is a strong degree of overlap of results between the two sources (see Annex 1 of Home affront). We are not able to identify full-time students prior to 1984 and so single adults in parents’ homes are not divided into students and non-students prior to then.

It should be noted that prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector. In addition, large numbers of housing association tenants are believed to wrongly report that they are still local authority tenants and so our numbers may overstate the size of the council housing sector and understate the number of housing association tenants.

We (and the underlying data in most cases) do not capture those living in institutional residences such as care homes, prisons, student halls and army barracks. Nor do we include those who are squatting or entirely homeless.

We divide families into the 9 tenure categories included in the charts. In detail, they are:

Owner occupiers who own outright;
Owner occupiers who are buying with a mortgage (including those with part-rent arrangements);
Social renters renting from the local authority (including new town development corporations in the 1980s);
Social renters renting from a housing association;
Private renters (including those living rent-free) who have a household to themselves;
Private renters who share a household with other private renters (which can include relatives);
Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+, and therefore unlikely to still be in compulsory education or have only recent finished) and not studying full-time;
Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+) but studying full-time (excluding those in student halls); and
Other family units in someone else’s owned or social rented home. This includes non-single, or non-childless adults living in their parents’ home with their partner/children; elderly people living in their children’s home; other relatives; and unrelated lodgers (whether they pay rent or not).

There is an important discontinuity in the regional data. Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire are included in the Eastern region after 1984 but the South East before then. Cumbria is included in the North West region after 1984 but the ‘North East’ (previously ‘Northern’) before then. Finally, trends in the Northern Ireland data prior to 1984 may be affected by shifting response rates.

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Home ownership in the UK

The national picture

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by region

Notes: Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire are included in the Eastern region after 1984 but the South East before then.

Cumbria is included in the North West region after 1984 but the ‘North East’ (previously ‘Northern’) before then.

There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by age

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

“All” includes families under 25

Technical notes

For our analysis of the period from 1984 onwards we use the Labour Force Survey (LFS), conducted by the Office for National Statistics. As we are looking at families, we use the ‘household’ rather than ‘adult’ datasets and weights.

We (and the underlying data in most cases) do not capture those living in institutional residences such as care homes, prisons, student halls and army barracks. Nor do we include those who are squatting or entirely homeless.

We divide families into the 9 tenure categories included in the charts. In detail, they are:

Owner occupiers who own outright;

Owner occupiers who are buying with a mortgage (including those with part-rent arrangements);

Social renters renting from the local authority (including new town development corporations in the 1980s);

Social renters renting from a housing association;

Private renters (including those living rent-free) who have a household to themselves;

Private renters who share a household with other private renters (which can include relatives);

Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+, and therefore unlikely to still be in compulsory education or have only recent finished) and not studying full-time;

Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+) but studying full-time (excluding those in student halls); and

Other family units in someone else’s owned or social rented home. This includes non-single, or non-childless adults living in their parents’ home with their partner/children; elderly people living in their children’s home; other relatives; and unrelated lodgers (whether they pay rent or not).

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The national picture

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by region

Notes: Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire are included in the Eastern region after 1984 but the South East before then.

Cumbria is included in the North West region after 1984 but the ‘North East’ (previously ‘Northern’) before then.

There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

Housing tenure by age

Notes: There is a change of data source in 1984, resulting in small inconsistencies.

Prior to 1980, housing association renters are included in the private rented sector.

Prior to 1984, full-time students in parents’ homes are included as single adults in parents’ homes.

“All” includes families under 25

Technical notes

For our analysis of the period from 1984 onwards we use the Labour Force Survey (LFS), conducted by the Office for National Statistics. As we are looking at families, we use the ‘household’ rather than ‘adult’ datasets and weights.

We (and the underlying data in most cases) do not capture those living in institutional residences such as care homes, prisons, student halls and army barracks. Nor do we include those who are squatting or entirely homeless.

We divide families into the 9 tenure categories included in the charts. In detail, they are:

Owner occupiers who own outright;

Owner occupiers who are buying with a mortgage (including those with part-rent arrangements);

Social renters renting from the local authority (including new town development corporations in the 1980s);

Social renters renting from a housing association;

Private renters (including those living rent-free) who have a household to themselves;

Private renters who share a household with other private renters (which can include relatives);

Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+, and therefore unlikely to still be in compulsory education or have only recent finished) and not studying full-time;

Single childless adults living in their parents’ home (age 19+) but studying full-time (excluding those in student halls); and

Other family units in someone else’s owned or social rented home. This includes non-single, or non-childless adults living in their parents’ home with their partner/children; elderly people living in their children’s home; other relatives; and unrelated lodgers (whether they pay rent or not).

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