You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Official figures show first rise in home ownership for 13 years
Government figures have shown the first increase in owner occupation in 13 years, since the tenure was hit by the difficulty of accessing mortgages in the financial crash.
The dwelling stock estimates for England identified 23.9m homes of all kinds in March 2017, an increase of 217,000 on the position a year earlier.
It found there were 15.1m owner occupied homes, against 14.8m in 2016, which Dominic Raab, housing minister, hailed as “welcome that owner occupation has increased, albeit modestly, for the first time in 13 years”.
The dwelling stock estimates show owner occupation gradually declining from 2002 to level out at 62.4% in 2015 and 2016. The slight increase to 62.9% in 2017 marks the first percentage rise in more than a decade.
The English Housing Survey, which is separate dataset, shows home ownership rates plateauing in recent years.
He added: “We are restless to do more and build the homes young families, key workers and those on lower or middle incomes can afford. This government is determined to restore the dream of home-ownership for the next generation.”
Of the 23.9m homes, 15.1m were owner occupied, 4.8m privately rented and 4 million social and affordable rented homes owned by either registered providers or local authorities.
There were 3,000 more social and affordable rented in England in March 2017 than the position a year earlier.
The exercise also found there were 605,891 vacant dwellings in England on 2 October 2017, an increase of 16,125 from the 589,766 recorded a year earlier and accounting for 2.5% of the total stock.
Long-term vacant dwellings totalled 205,293 in October 2017, an increase of 2.6% from the previous year and comprising 0.9% of the total stock.
Update at 11.30am on 29.5.2018
This story was updated to make it clear that the percentage increase is the first rise in 13 years, not the overall figure and that the English Housing Survey, a different set of data, shows a plateau
