The hope of all the 25 to 34 year olds of owning a property in Abington

Many people think the British obsession with owning your home started with Thatcher in the early 1980’s, when she allowed council tenants to but their council houses, under the right to buy scheme. However, the growth actually started just after the Second World War. 

Looking at the country as a whole, in 1951, 30% of residential property was owner occupied, then every ten years that rose incrementally to 39% by 1961, 51% by 1971, 58% by 1981, 68.07% by 2001 but after that, it dropped to 63.4% by 2011 and continues to drop today.

In the Abington area as a whole, there are 1,438 households that are privately rented via a landlord or letting agency verses 1,489 households that are owned with a mortgage. 

However, when we look deeper (as the devil is always in the detail), 840 of those 1,489 households (with a mortgage) are 35 to 49 year old’s and 344 are households of 50 to 64 year olds. I would expect most the 50+ years to be paying their mortgage off as they enter retirement as I would with some of the people in their mid/late 40’s… people are taking longer to pay their mortgages off nowadays.

Meanwhile, at the other end, in the 25 to 34 age range (the age most people bought their first home in the 1970’s/80’s/90’s) only 377 of the 1,030 households occupied by those 25 and 34 year olds are owner occupiers with mortgages, because 571 households are privately rented by that age group (the rest being made up of rent free accommodation, living with family, local authority and housing association).

This means only 36.6% of 25 to 34 years, living in Abington, have bought their house (with a mortgage). Twenty years ago, that would have a much higher percentage of homeowners (between 75% to 85%).

It can be seen that as the older generation pay their mortgages off as they start to get to retirement and the younger generation aren’t jumping on the property ladder like they were 20 or 30 years ago, the private rental sector will take up the slack, as more and more people will want a roof over their head, but won’t buy one but rent one. With Local Authorities and Housing Associations not building houses anywhere near like they the number of houses that they were in the 1950’s, 60’ and 70’s, the private landlord appears to have good demand for their rental properties for many decades to come.

This will create a polarisation in the housing market between those, mostly older, households who own outright and those, mostly younger, households who rent. Our housing market is very much turning into European model. However, all is not lost, the younger generation will inherit their parent’s properties, which in turn will enable them to buy, albeit later in life.

If you are a landlord or homeowner, and would like to know more about the Abington Property Market, then please give us a call at Northwood Northampton on 01604607080.