An influential housing report published recently shows rental housing to be the only affordable section of the market claims the British Property Federation (BPF).

At the launch for ‘Can’t Buy, Can’t Supply’ report, Hometrack’s director of research, Richard Donnell, said that “the private rented sector is the affordable housing market”.

He added that “rental delivers important flexibility for the housing market” but said that more investment would be needed to meet demand, as in some areas rents had risen by 20 percent already.

The report’s author, Prof Steve Wilcox, said that the cost of renting was between 30 and 40 per cent cheaper than a mortgage.

But he said that government guidance on first-time buyer statistics was “flawed”, because it did not take into account the breakdown of what kinds of people are buying homes.

Donnell said that “first time buyers make up just 12 percent” of the market and added that “press coverage was totally disproportionate to what’s happening on the ground”.

Speaking on how to encourage greater rental development to meet growing demand for rented homes, Wilcox explained that “planning policy must change to re-assess what intermediate housing is; rental is still classed as ‘market’, which is incorrect”.

The report also warns that affordable housing will drop significantly as it is directly linked to private development.
Recent figures show 67 percent of affordable housing is provided through private development levies. But with major house builders not building new stock, the government will need to find new ways to deliver these homes.

Ian Fletcher, director for residential policy at the British Property Federation, said: “Unrealistic demands on housing developments which the public needs achieve nothing. Affordability is determined by a person’s income, not by the type of property. There are many providers of professional rented accommodation who could benefit from the definition of ‘affordable housing’ being widened, and there are thousands looking for rental homes who would benefit as a result.”