Owning a home in your late 20s or early 30s used to be a fairly standard milestone. Today, it is increasingly becoming the exception rather than the rule, as more would-be buyers find themselves renting for far longer than they planned.
According to recent data from Skipton Group, the average age of a first-time buyer in England is now 34. This is five years older than in the mid-1990s – a shift that tells a difficult story about how hard it has become for buyers to get on the property ladder.
For many people in this age bracket, renting is no longer the short stopgap between university and home ownership that it perhaps once was. Instead, it is increasingly becoming the setting for some of life’s major milestones, such as building a career, living with a partner, or even having children.
For investors and landlords, this does not translate into a direct cause for celebration. However, it does underline both a responsibility and an opportunity.
Against this backdrop, the quality of the UK’s rental homes matters more than ever.
With more people spending a larger portion of their adult lives in the private rented sector, tenants are looking for modern, energy-efficient, well-managed homes that offer real stability.
Therefore, investors (and indeed developers) who focus on delivering this kind of rental stock can play a constructive role in an increasingly challenging housing landscape.
In this blog, we’ll explore why quality rental homes matter more when people are renting for longer, and how investors can help supply the kind of properties long-term tenants need.
