After a decade of steady growth, the number of older renters is poised to increase rapidly over the next 10 years according to research by Hamptons lettings agency.
The agency warns that the slowly rising share of older households renting has been coupled with a much more rapid increase in the number of older households more generally.
Taken together, it means the number of households renting in England aged 65 and above will double by 2030 - that’s less than seven years from now.
Today there are around 400,000 older households (over 65s) renting and this figure is set to pass the 1,000,000 mark in 2033.
At present households aged 65 and above have some of the highest homeownership rates in history. Growing up at a time when homeownership was rising has meant that just 5.7 per cent of households aged over 65 today rent their home privately.
The English Housing Survey suggests that the age group succeeding them are nearly twice as likely to rent privately as those currently over 65, with rented households making up 11.1 per cent of all people those aged 55 to 64 years.
Therefore, even if homeownership rates remain unchanged, demographics mean that within a decade the proportion of over 65s renting will rise to 11.5 per cent as fewer people reaching retirement are likely to own their home.
The growing number of older renters means that in cash terms households aged 65 and above will go from spending £5.1 billion in rent each year to £12.7 billion by 2033. This increase assumes no rental growth and reflects rents at 2023 rates.
To put these numbers into context, Hamptons says renters of all ages collectively hand over around £69.0 billion in rent annually.
Some 78 per cent of households aged 65 and above own their home outright. However, the number of households aged 65 and above who are renting their home overtook the numbers with a mortgage back in 2010.
- lettingagenttoday.co.uk