For many, a private rented home acts as an entry point to the housing market. Rental properties are helping young people gain their independence without the bigger leap into home ownership.

So concluded ChamberlainWalker Economics director Chris Walker in A Housing Market that Works for Everyone – Rethinking the role of the private rented sector, a report commissioned by the National Residential Landlords Association.

It is wrong to think that renting is an enforced resort, according to the report. Many are attracted to renting because of its flexibility and convenience.

The private rented sector is a mainstay housing option for many younger people whilst at university and for many as they move away from where they grew up to enter the world of work for the first time, said Walker. Renting has ‘attributes that make it the tenure of choice for many private renters’.

The sector has an important economic and social role to play across the country. ‘A high-quality and well-provided PRS is likely to be a good thing both socially and economically’.

The conclusions were backed by a survey of 2,000 private renters in England and Wales by the polling agency Opinium.

It found that fewer than one in ten of private renters wanted to switch to social rented housing. Three quarters said they wanted to buy a home of their own at some point in the future, but fewer than one in five would have done so already if they had been in the position to do so.

For many private renters, job security was the most important factor in determining when they choose to buy a home. According to the survey more than one in three were more likely to buy their first home if they had a stable, secure job.

The survey also found that four in ten private renters rated the affordability of their rents ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, with a further four in ten saying it was ‘fair’.
Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said:

The report ‘makes clear the positive and vital role the rental market has to play in the economic and social life of the country’, said NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle. ‘Contrary to the rhetoric from many, for the vast majority of tenants their experience in rented housing is positive. This is the platform the Government needs build upon to ensure a sector that works for renters and responsible landlords’.