The data from the English Housing Survey 2012/2013 shows that there were an estimated 22 million households in England of which 65% or 14.3 million were owner occupied, 18% or four million were privately rented and 17% or 3.7 million were socially rented.
The report also shows that there has been a decline in the proportion of younger people aged under 35 taking out mortgages, down from 21% in 2008/2009 to 18% in 2012/2013.
In comparison the percentage of private renters aged 25 to 34 increased from 31% in 2008/2009 to 45% in 2012/2013.
An analysis of the figures shows that renters, private and social, tend to spend proportionally more of their income, on average, on housing costs than those with mortgages.
On average, owner occupiers buying with a mortgage spent 20% of their income on their mortgage. In comparison, private renters spent 40% and social renters 30% of their income on rent, although both private renters and social renters tended to earn less. Just under a third, 30%, of all private renters had a household income that exceeded £700 a week compared with 47% of owner occupiers.
In 2012/2013 those who had taken out their mortgage within the last five years paid an average of £187 per week on their mortgage. This compared with £133 among those whose mortgage had been running for five years or more.
The majority of all householders were satisfied with their accommodation, but owner occupiers were generally more than other tenures. Private renters were more likely than social renters to expect to own their own property in the future.
Overall, 95% of owner occupiers said that they were satisfied with their accommodation. In comparison, 81% of social renters were satisfied, and 84% of private renters. Around half, 52%, of private renters agreed that their current tenure was a good way of occupying a home. This was much lower than among social renters at 82% and owner occupiers at 93%.
Some 61% of private renters reported that they anticipated owning their own property in the longer term with 27% reporting that they expected to still be renting from a private landlord in the longer term.
The majority, 80%, of social renters anticipated that they would remain renting in the social sector in the longer term, with just 16% reporting that they wanted to own their own home in the longer term.
Among social renters who expected to buy, the proportion who expected to buy their current home increased from 37% in 2011/2012 to 44% in 2012/2013. The report says this may, in part, be explained by the reinvigoration of the Right to Buy scheme which allows local authority tenants to buy their home at a discount. Average housing benefits receipts were higher for private renters and the amount of rent paid after housing benefit was also higher for private renters.
As in previous years, overcrowding was more prevalent in the rented sectors than in owner occupation. Some 1% of owner occupied households and 6% each of social and privately rented households were overcrowded.
Under occupation remained much more common in the owner occupied sector with 49% of owner occupiers were under occupying their homes in 2012/2013, compared with 15% of private renters and 10% of social renters.
In 2012/2013, a total of 2.3 million households, 10% of all households, had moved home in the previous 12 months, but within the private rented sector, 34% of households had moved within the past year compared with 10% of social renters and 4% of owner occupiers.
Some 64% of all new households, that is households that didn’t exist one year previously, moved into the private rented sector during 2012/2013 and 34% of owner occupiers buying with a mortgage had moved from private renting in the previous year.
