Rutland’s £21,216,000 “RENTIREMENT” Property Market Time Bomb

Yes, I said ‘Rentirement’, not retirement ... rentirement and it relates to the 136 (and growing) 50-60 year old Rutlanders who don’t own their own home but privately rent it from a buy-to-let landlord.





 For some, the private rental market gives them the opportunity to ‘try the area before they buy’ if they are relocating here to be closer to their families. But for others, the truth is that these residents are likely to retire soon with little more than their state pension of £155.95 per week, perhaps with a small private pension of a couple of hundred pounds a month, meaning the average retiree at 67 years of age can expect to retire on about £200 a week.

 The average rent in Oakham is £650pcm, so a lot of the retirement “income” will be taken up in rent, resulting in the remainder being paid for from their savings. Alternatively, the taxpayer will have to stump up the bill, and with life expectancy currently in the mid to late 80’s, that is quite a big bill. In fact, to be precise, that’s a total of £21,216,000 over the next 20 years to be paid from the tenant’s savings or from the taxpayer’s coffers.

You might say it’s not fair for taxpayers to pick up the bill and that these mature renters should have start saving earlier to be able to afford their rent in retirement. However, in some circumstances the reason these people are privately renting in the first place is that they were never able to find the money for a mortgage deposit on their home, or they didn’t earn enough to qualify for a mortgage …and now as they approach retirement with hope of a nice council bungalow, that hope is diminishing because of the council house sell off in the 1980’s.

For a change, the Rutland 30 - 40 somethings will be better off, as their parents are more likely to be homeowners and cascade their equity down the line when their parents pass away. That is what is happening in Europe, for example, where renting is more common than home ownership. The majority of 20-40yr olds rent, but by the time they hit their 50’s and 60’s (and retirement), they will invest the money they have inherited from their parents passing away and buy their own home much later in life.

The decreasing number of new bungalows being built has more to do with supply than demand. Commercially, there is more money for new homebuilders in constructing townhouses than there is in constructing bungalows. Bungalows are voraciously greedy when it comes to the land they need, because they need a much larger footprint for the same amount of square meterage as a 2-3 storey house.

The impact of this scenario on our housing market is notable, as demand will continue to rise for bungalows, but the supply will remain the same. We all know what happens when demand outstrips supply – purchase prices and rental amounts for bungalows will inevitably go up.


David Crooke
Owner, MD
UPP Property 01572 725 825