Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, commented: “There was a marginal increase in the number of people owning their home with a mortgage, but most of the rise in the homeownership rate was driven by those owning outright, which is largely due to demographic trends.
“The number of privately rented households increased a little to 4.6 million, though there was a slight decline in the proportion of households that rent privately (to 19.3%, one percentage point lower than the 2017 peak).
“Encouragingly, there was a rise in homeownership amongst those aged 25-34, helping to reverse some of the decline seen over the past 15 years. Supportive labour market conditions and government schemes, such as Help to Buy equity loan, have helped to boost first time buyer activity. Nonetheless, at 41%, the home ownership rate amongst this age group is still well below its 2004 peak of 59%.
“The number of households owning their homes outright reached a record high of 8.1 million (up from 7.9 million a year ago. Continuing the trend seen in recent years, the increase was driven by those aged 65 or above and reflects a rise in the overall proportion of older households (from 25% in 2009 to 29% of total households in England in 2019).”
Ben Johnston, director of Houso, the off-market property app, said: “Home ownership by every age group apart from those over the age of 65 has been declining steadily over the past 15 years, with some occasional marginal gains.
“The issues that need to be sorted in order to get Britain moving are Help to Buy and stamp duty. Help to Buy is underpinning the first-time buyer market but as it is only applicable on new homes, it is funneling the money away from second-hand homes, and arguably costing buyers more in the long run.
“Stamp duty is the key to getting some fluidity in the market. A temporary reduction to tempt those waiting to move would help, particularly with the downsizing market who are typically aged 55-plus. But there also needs to be more focus on building homes that are suitable for this market.”
