Home ownership among people aged 35-44 has plunged – ONS
Adults in their mid-30s to mid-40s are three times more likely to rent than 20 years ago
Home ownership has collapsed for adults in their prime working age, according to official figures that show those in their mid-30s to mid-40s are three times more likely to rent than 20 years ago.
In a reflection of surging house prices and a lost decade for wage growth since the financial crisis, the Office for National Statistics found that a third of 35- to 44-year-olds in England were renting from a private landlord in 2017, compared with fewer than one in 10 in 1997.
The government statistics agency said home ownership had become increasingly concentrated among people over the age of 65. Almost three-quarters of adults in the generation that includes baby boomers born after the second world war own their own homes outright, up from just over half in 1993.
Against a backdrop of rising generational divisions in modern Britain, the ONS linked Margaret Thatcher’s flagship right-to-buy policy with the boom in home ownership among older Britons, as well as a slump in social housing across the country.
Since the launch of the scheme in 1979, which allowed social housing tenants to buy their homes at reduced prices, the proportion of council properties in Britain has slumped from 33.2% to only 17.6% in 2017.
The findings from the ONS come with potentially damaging implications for living standards for the current generation of adults under the age of 65, who are poised to enter retirement in worse financial health than their parents.
Almost three-quarters of older people own their homes outright, while ownership has decreased for people aged under 65 years