A new government study of the English Housing Survey shows private renting has reached 4 million homes and now exceeds council renting.

The study produced by by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for 2012-13 shows that there are 22.0 million homes in the UK of which 14.3 million were owner occupiers.

The difference of 7.7 million is made up of private renting with 4.0 million homes and social renters were 3.7 million.

This suggests that the buy-to-let investor market has continued to grow to meet the rising demand from a mobile population.

The owner occupier figure of 65% has reduced since reaching a peak in 2003 when it was 71% after two decades of increased home ownership.

Homes less affordable

According to the housing charity Shelter, the downward shift in home ownership indicates reflects the growing trend where young workers and families are being priced out of the market.

With competition and reduced supply of suitability properties for home movers, more remortgage buyers are remaining in their existing home and saving for a bigger deposit.

Even so the  English Housing Survey shows that the number of people that are private renters and expect to buy remains high at 61%. The figure for social renters is lower and 23% of them expect to buy at some stage in the future.

There is greater optimism from social renters with the return of the Right to Buy scheme and of the that expect to buy in the future, 44% expect to buy their current home in 2012-13 compared to only 37% in 2011-12.

Help with the deposit for a new home can come from family members as the equity release buyer can access cash using a lifetime mortgage and give to a first time buyer.

Assistance for buyers

To counter the difficulty for buyers to get on the property ladder, the government introduced the Funding for Lending Scheme and Help to Buy scheme.

This has had the benefit of allowing those once unable to buy to only need a 5% deposit with a government guarantee to the lender of of 15% which is interest free to the buyer and the balance provided by a mortgage.

These schemes have helped to turnaround the depressed property market, increasing the availability of mortgages to home buyers and significantly higher house prices.

The Help to Buy scheme promotes new homeownership for people that are renting and is not available to switching remortgage buyers or buy-to-let investors.

What are your next steps?

Call our LCM mortgage brokers if you are a buy-to-let landlord with a property, remortgaging and want the best mortgage deal, buying your first home or you are planning to move home.

Learn more by using the mortgage cost calculators, property value tracker chart and equity release calculator. Start with a free mortgage quote or call us and we can take your details.

For equity release buyers our London City Mortgage advisers can recommend lifetime mortgages allowing you to receive cash from your home to spend on anything such as consolidate debt, buy a more expensive home or pay university fees for grandchildren.

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