The government published its English Housing Survey 2024-25 recently - the annual report that provides data and insights on housing and households in England. It gives us an up-to-date picture of the condition and costs of both owner-occupied and rented homes and lets us see trends across the country.
So, what are some of the most notable things revealed by the latest survey?
The number of homeowners is rising
The largest tenure remains owner occupation, which represents 65% of households. Although that percentage has been the same since 2019, it’s interesting to note that the actual number of owner-occupied homes has increased quite significantly in just the past five years – up from 15.6m to 16.5m (+5.7%). Over that time, the population of England only increased by around 4.2%, indicating that home ownership is growing at a healthy rate.
At the same time, the proportion of household that own their home outright has increased to 36% - up from 33% a decade ago – while the percentage of households with a mortgage has dropped from 31% to 29%. This shift is, at least in part, down to our ageing population and greater numbers of people paying off their mortgages during, if not before retirement.
The North East has seen the biggest change in outright ownership, up from 30% to 39% of households in the last 10 years, with just a quarter of owner-occupiers having a mortgage. This is likely due to the fact that house prices have continued to be more affordable than in most other parts of the country, while employment opportunities have increased due to regeneration in many towns and cities in the region.
The proportion of households renting privately is unchanged
While the PRS has doubled in size over the last 20 years, the percentage of households is still at 19%, virtually unchanged since 2013. A total of 4.7m households currently rent privately, while 4.1m (16% of households) live in the social rented sector.
London is its own market
In London, which houses just under 3.8m households, there is a 51%/49% split between the owner-occupied and rented sectors. The PRS in the capital represents 28% of households - significantly higher than the 19% average for the country as a whole.
So why does the capital have proportionally fewer owner-occupiers and more private renters? It’s likely to be a combination of reasons, including:
• House prices are significantly higher, meaning buying is less affordable for more people.
• The median age in London is 35, versus 40 in England as a whole, i.e. there is a higher proportion of younger people in the capital.
• The diverse job market in London tends to attract high numbers of transient and temporary workers.
These factors also explain why the proportion of outright owners is much lower in London compared to England: just 23% of households.
The first-time buyer market is strong
There were more first-time buyers in 2024-25 than 10 years ago, and the majority were in the top two income quintiles. The average deposit was £78,131, with 86% of FTBs funding that from their own savings, although it’s important to know that just because this is the average, it’s not the amount of deposit you need to save.
One of the factors that has helped with keeping the monthly cost of repayments down is the length of the mortgage term. Over the past five years, the proportion of FTBs with a mortgage term of 30 years or more has jumped from 47% to 62%.
Mortgage and rent costs have risen
Over the last five years, the average weekly mortgage payment in England has gone up by 21%, from £182 to £220 (£263 to £375 / 42.5% in London).
Meanwhile, the average private rent went up from £201 in 2019-20 to £250 in 2024-25, an increase of just over 24%. (It should be noted that this is skewed by the significantly higher private rents charged in London, where the weekly average is £383, versus £207 in the rest of the country.)
But although significant, these rises should still be affordable. They are slightly below the rate of inflation over the same period (+26.6%), while median weekly earnings increased by 34% between 2020 and 2025 (ONS).
Thirty-two percent of private renters reported difficulty meeting rent payments. Despite this, only 2% were in arrears at the time of the survey and a further 3% had been in arrears in the previous 12 months. This is the same as in 2023-24 and significantly lower than in 2019-20, during the pandemic, when 8% of tenants were in arrears.
Satisfaction with accommodation is down
Despite recent government drives to improve the condition, sustainability and energy efficiency of housing – particularly rented homes - satisfaction has fallen across all tenures since 2019-20. With the gap between tenants and owner-occupiers currently increasing, it will be interesting to see if this starts to reduce as the measures within the Renters’ Rights Act come into force, although the biggest fall in satisfaction is in the social, not the private rented sector.
Additional sources:
Rightmove average prices
Average annual inflation
Median weekly earnings: £479.10 in 2020, £642.46 in 2025
