High house prices, inadequate savings and longer life expectancies mean a number of people will never be able to get a foot on the housing ladder and secure their financial future, leaving them with little alternative but to carry on renting in retirement.
With ‘generation rent’ seemingly expanding, many people under the age of 40 could still be living in privately rented accommodation in 20 years, according to a new report by Generation Rent.
The campaign group estimates that there are 370,000 pensioner households currently living in the private rented sector, but forecast that this figure will almost treble to 995,000 by 2035-36 if housebuilding remains at existing levels.
Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, said: “With most debates on housing focused on young adults, politicians risk neglecting the vast numbers of people who are already too old to get a mortgage and face a lifetime of renting.
“As they start retiring in greater numbers, the state will have to pick up the tab unless it makes some fundamental changes to the housing market.
“The answer is not further cuts to housing benefit, because that will only further immiserate people who have nowhere else to turn.
“Instead, we need years of investment in new homes to bring down rents and a transformation of the private rental market into a professional provider of long term homes.
“This means giving tenants protection from unfair evictions and putting a limit on rent rises.”
We're excited to announce that we're working on building a shiny new website for readers of Landlord Today! As part of this process, commenting on articles will be temporarily disabled. We look forward to sharing our new and improved Landlord Today website with you shortly!
.png)
(1).png)
