In the 1960’and
1970’s, ‘Renting’ used to be a dirty word. As a tenant you either lived in a ‘Rigsby
Rising Damp’ style bedsit with wood chip on the wall and a coin operated
electric meter, or you lived in a council house.
In the latter part of the 20th Century, the British were
persuaded that rent payments were ‘wasted money’.
However, as we roll the clock forward to today, owning often makes less financial sense than renting and as the rate of homeownership is starting to drop substantially, there is no stigma at all to renting.
In actual fact, of
the 10,432 residents in Oakham, 2,706 of you
rent your house from either the local authority/social provider or rent from private
landlords – meaning 25.93% of Oakham residents
are tenants.
The
idea of homeownership is deeply embedded in the British soul, with 7,432 Oakham residents as ‘owner occupiers’ (or 71.24%).
Housing is at the heart of Government policy, as George Osborne has promised
200,000 new properties a year so first time buyers can buy their first home, whilst
recently changing the tax laws for buy-to-let landlords. To get votes, Thatcher
(and everyone since) ran
election campaigns promising everybody their own home, and as a country, we
seem to equate homeownership to achieving one of life’s goals.
So, as more and more people are
renting nowadays, are we turning to a more European way of living? Well, I
believe as a country, we are. In fact, homeownership could be affecting your
health!
According
to Bloomberg, the UK is only the 21st ‘healthiest’
country in the world. Germany is at No.10 and Switzerland at No.4 and
homeownership is at 52.5% and 44% respectively in those countries (in the UK it
is 64.8%).
In the Rutland County Council area, 76.91%
of homeowners who own their house outright
said they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health whilst, at the other end of the
scale, 4.5% said their health was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.
Looking at renting, the Census splits
tenants into two types – 70.5% of Rutland local authority/social tenants said
they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health and 8.49% were in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’
health. Meanwhile
‘private rented tenants’ in Rutland are considered the healthiest with 88.12% describing
themselves as having either ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health, and only 2.67% were
in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health.
I
am not suggesting that low homeownership rates in Switzerland and Germany are
directly linked to health, nor do I expect Brits to rush off to those countries
to realise how happy people are when they don't need to worry about all the
stresses which accompany homeownership.
The
numbers for Rutland do go some way to back up the argument (and they are the
same across the whole of the UK). Nonetheless, I do think that substantially
all of the upsides to homeownership in recent years has been a function of monumental
rising house prices. Now that's come to an end, it's hard to see why anybody
would want to buy their home.
Renting
is here to stay and it’s growing incrementally each year. Even with the new tax
rules for landlords, buy-to-let is still a viable investment option for most
people in the town. There has never been a better time to purchase an
investment property, but buy wisely.
Gone
are the days that you would make profit on anything with four walls and a roof.
Take advice, take opinion, do your homework. One place to do more homework, to
read more articles on the Oakham Property market like this, is the Oakham
Property Blog: www.rutlandandstamfordpropertyblog.co.uk
Data: Renting numbers and
health numbers taken from the Census. Data excludes ‘rent free properties, tied
properties & caravans’, excludes category for people considered to be in ‘fair
health’.
